Guild Wars 2

sportman.7329:

but in high level fractals you need good defense to survive;O top dmg in gw2 is pointless since bosses dont have enrage timers at all.

Nothing about my post said “top dmg,” and even if it had, I’m a little offended by the word “pointless.” You asked for an opinion, and someone gave you one who clearly knows far more than you do about the class. The builds listed here are simple, cookie cutter beginner builds that are great at teaching you how to be an ele, and I’m appreciative for the guys to put the time into doing it, but I’ve been running the “DaPheonix build” since before it was ever posted on these forums because it was the first thing us ele’s figured out when we learned how to have our traits compliment each other a month or two after launch last year. I don’t know any ele that has been playing a long time that run any of the builds you mentioned above, but they’re all based on one simple principle… 25 or more in water, 30 in arcane… the other 15 go where YOU want them to go depending on what you want to do.

When I was a beginner I ran cantrips, I even put 10 in earth for the protection on cantrips… unnecessary when your skill at survival outweighs your need for the extra defense. Unless you just stand there and take a beating, then as you progress with your skill you wont need to spec heavily into toughness, vitality or healing power… but you will always keep some there. I said I wore P/V/T gear, can’t get much tankier than that. I run zerker jewelry and zerker weps because I’m skilled enough with the class to afford the extra dmg output.

If you’d rather someone just pick one from your list, then run DaPheonix’s build. If you’d like to be taught something, respond in a more polite manner than misunderstanding my post and basically calling it pointless.

OK, well that’s good to know, while it’s a waste on Ring of Fire or Pheonix, I still think it’s worth it for CE. If I’m stacked to 25 might and hit CE, at least 5 enemies will take 8k or so dmg, that hits harder than using it for something else imo…

Slasher,
not asmodal, but I use it, so I’ll tell ya how. I run s/d, drop dragon’s tooth, ring of fire, phoenix, swap to earth and hit Arcane Power – Dodge Roll Back for CE (1), Earthquake (2), CE (3), Arcane Wave (4), swap to air, and lightning bolt (5). That’s 5 guaranteed crits in the middle of my might stacking chain for 18 aoe might.

The one on Arcane Wave is wasted because it crits anyway. My other option would be to try and drop it after ring of fire but before phoenix, so it crits on phoenix. I’m going to start working on that timing

If I were running d/d, I’d use it before Burning Speed (1), Ring of Fire (2), swap to earth, dodge roll back for CE (3), Earthquake (4) and CE (5). 12 Stacks of AoE might and 5 guaranteed crits on each.

Yeah, hadn’t thought about food either. Again, I wasn’t trying to troll by any means, I’m always looking for new and fun ways to play this class.

Would be a great additional burst on dungeon bosses, especially if you drop it right when, say a mesmer puts down Timewarp, which lasts 10 sec’s I believe, drop on 25 stacks of vulnerability in 3 or 4 seconds and the last half of Timewarp will have that extra 25% dmg… sounds enticing.

As said above, I hate cantrips as well, just a waste and really on necessary in VERY specific situations. I usually run Lightning Flash, Arcane Power, Arcane Wave with my s/d build, so I’m used to having the arcanes anyway, perhaps I’ll play around with the build some time too, see how it goes.

More than anything, thanks for posting something different. I’ve probably said this too much now, but not trying to be argumentative, just want to get the most out of it as I can.

Kaleden.9386:

SlimGenre.6417:

Asmodal.6489:

water
you can put 25 stacks of vurnability on your target in like 2 seconds while chilling them for 10+. if the target is low on health you get a 40% damage boost on arcane wave, blast and 5 base attacks.

How do you get the 25 stacks? Shards of ice gives 3 stacks on the build you’re using for both Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave, so that makes 6… and then 1 stack for your first 4 attacks after using Arcane Power… that adds up to 10 stacks, not 25… what am I missing?

I was wondering that, too. My guess is Vapor Blade with Arcane Power activated and hitting a target with both the outgoing and returning attack of Vapor Blade.

I’m not harping on this to troll or be the guy that says, “every ele is wrong except those that run MY build.” No my goal at all. But I do want to know if either I’m completely missing something or not. I have a boat load of hours on ele and know a ton more than most people I see post, but I don’t know everything… so teach me if I’m wrong here, however…

It can’t be vapor blade, he said 25 stacks in 2 seconds… OK, so maybe it is and he’s exaggerating a little bit, you could easily get to 22 stacks in about 5 seconds, but it doesn’t last very long. Vapor blade attacks once per 1.0 seconds, according to GW2 Wiki, so 4 attacks on vapor blade with Arcane Power and vulnerability on those 4 attacks, plus the vulnerability from vapor blade itself, assuming it hits in and out on all 4 throws, that would be 16 stacks, plus the 6 from the initial Arcane Wave and Blast takes you to 22 stacks, but only for 2 seconds, since the initial 6 stacks only last for 6 seconds each and it took a minimum of 4 seconds to get the other 16 stacks… One player does not have the ability to either achieve or maintain 25 stacks.

But let’s play fantasy land quick… assuming you “could” maintain 25 stacks of vulnerability which gives everyone 25% extra damage to the single target… sounds great for dungeon bosses.

Compare that to my s/d might stacking build, which I can easily maintain 25 stacks of might myself, adding 875 power to myself and all party members.

Simple math. 25% damage increase vs. 875 additional power… Anyone with base power less than 3500 will benefit more from the might stacks than the vulnerability. Anyone over base power of 3500 would benefit more from vulnerability than the extra 875 power. I don’t know many people that have power higher than 3500 before any boons are applied. Might stacking wins. Also, might duration is more than 3 times that of vulnerability.

Again, please know that I’m not trying to poop on anyone, but I do desire to be of the greatest benefit to my party when I’m in dungeons. I was very intrigued by this post in hopes to figure out another benefit I could bring to the table. If I could drop in and in two seconds dump 25 stacks of vulnerability and it lasted longer than 6 seconds, that sounds awesome, but compared to what else an ele can do, I just don’t see how these benefits trump others that we can bring to the table.

Ok, so maybe 2 ele’s, one stacking might and one stacking vulnerability would be nice, but assuming vulnerability lasts longer than it does

I’ll say it again, if I’m missing something here and there’s something besides just chucking vapor blade over and over again to get the majority of that vulnerability for the few seconds that Arcane Power will let you maintain it, but the math screams might stacking is substantially more beneficial than vulnerability.

I have 3 armor sets for my ele, the set I use mostly is just standard AC P/V/T gear, with CoF zerker weps and zerker jewelry. I also have a cheap MF set when I’m farming karma for better drops (non exotic, but it’s PvE, ya don’t really need it) and I have a full exotic set for my staff build for when I have to run staff in WvW (but I’m in a very organized WvW guild and our ele’s work as a team)

I run a 15/0/0/25/30 s/d might stacking build for FOTM (and really any dungeon for that matter). I have Runes of Monk and Water for boon duration and all my weps are from CoF.

If you’re roaming PvE then probably d/d with 0/15/0/25/30 (you don’t need the extra 5 in water for aurashare since you’re just solo roaming). Again runes of monk and water for boon duration. The only time I’m roaming PvE any more is either farming mats or karma in Orr, so swiftness is a must just to get from one place to the next.

The 0/10/0/30/30 d/d build is really a great learning build to get experienced with the class. If you don’t feel like you’ve mastered ele yet, then stick with it until you fully understand how this class works.

Gaudrath.6725:

Some tools are better for certain jobs than others. For example, nothing beats focus for trolling enemy trebs, but for everything else in WvW focus pretty much comes last, sadly.

Agreed… just the range when standing on top of the wall is garbage unfortunately… and people use Arcane Abatement incorrectly IMO for gate defense.

We are also talking about two different things though, I’m talking about 2 or 3 ele’s working together, not a single ele trying to fend them off… unfortunately any one worth their salt in WvW would just back off and cata if you’re the lone ele up there and just have to wait until the gate goes down or your reinforcements arrive, but such is the life of WvW.

I guess my point was more showing that there are plenty of viable ways to use different wep sets… and you’re talking to a guy who’se probably never had the same set in my hands for more than 10min straight in WvW for the very reason you mentioned. Different things serve different purposes, and some sets ARE unquestionably better than others given what you’re trying to do, but that seems to be limited to PvP and WvW. I have plenty of fun running any weapon set I want in any dungeon or PvE area, because it’s just not difficult and if I didn’t run different builds the boredom would kill me…

No matter what though, teamwork trumps all, if you continually find yourself the lone guy fending off a zerg of enemies pounding at your door, it’s probably time to find a new guild or server

Lavadiel.6231:

rebind your keyboard. Default binding in unplayable and you will bever be good dd with it. You may also consider 12 button mouse, but I found keyboard with good binding a lot better than 12 buttons razer naga.
My binding is corresponding to the user interface:

^This. I have heal, utilities and attunement swaps on my thumb. Razer Naga is so overkill, but I love mine and don’t know how I played ele without it (bought it last december, had been playing ele since launch, that’s a lot of months doing a lot of left-hand acrobatics)

Asmodal.6489:

water
you can put 25 stacks of vurnability on your target in like 2 seconds while chilling them for 10+. if the target is low on health you get a 40% damage boost on arcane wave, blast and 5 base attacks.

How do you get the 25 stacks? Shards of ice gives 3 stacks on the build you’re using for both Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave, so that makes 6… and then 1 stack for your first 4 attacks after using Arcane Power… that adds up to 10 stacks, not 25… what am I missing?

Well, to each their own. I’ve made it to lvl 31 on Guardian and feel like I could continue lvl’ing PvE by simply laying my forehead down on the keyboard and going to sleep. Wake up 8 hours later and have gained 10 lvl’s. Some people think this is great, others terrible.

Ele is a very complicated class to master, but worth the effort for those that enjoy that sort of thing. I also have been training bonsai for years, same principles I guess, requires forthought, concentration and commitment. Cant just charge face first into battle and start smashing whatever key on your keyboard your finger happens to hit first (or in my other hobbies case, cut of whatever limb jumps out at you).

There are traits that are meant to work together, and from multiple trait lines. The 0/10/0/30/30 build is a great cookie cutter to really learn what ele is all about, but I don’t know any proficient ele’s that use it like they did when they first hit 80. I agree that there are lots of build specs and the more time spent in ele the more you learn that there are viable builds and playstyles for every weapon set.

In WvW I’m constantly swapping wep sets and changing a trait or two depending on 1) what the rest of the ele’s in my guild are doing and 2) where we are and what our objective is. Our ele’s work as a team in WvW and try to compliment each other. If I log in and I’ve got 3 ppl running s/d and only 1 staff I’ll spec for staff, or vice versa.

Regarding Gaudrath’s comments about staff for solo roaming or d/d during keep defense, to each their own. I agree that staff “solo” roamer is hard, but a guild mate and I, running staff and s/d as a 2 man team have rolled 3/4/5 man parties multiple times in WvW. And who really runs solo in WvW anyway? At least not at the higher tiers. Regarding keep defense, d/d is perfectly viable if you know some keep defense tricks that d/d or s/d can bring to the table, but it requires some coordination with other ele’s, but FAR more viable than just dropping Meteor Shower from the walls and thinking your accomplishing something amazing.

I guess what I’m getting at is I completely agree with OP. We have a complicated class and it’s still a learning experience. I’ve been running ele since launch and I’m constantly tweaking things, and probably always will. I also try to find a trait line that works pretty well with all wep sets because I don’t want to have to head back to retrain skills every time I want to swap weps, just open my hero panel and swap one or two traits up while I’m running to the next keep or tower or camp. I don’t recommend this for everyone, but I’m in charge of about a dozen ele’s at a time in our guild sometimes and I have to make sure I can compliment what my guys are doing.

There are plenty of things out there that many say are “must haves” and they just aren’t. Mist Form for instance… A lot of beginner ele’s, or even those that may have 300 or 400 hours in the class tell you it’s “mandatory” and I used to feel the same… but the longer you play this class the more skill you gain and you can replace those “Holy Crap I’m Gonna Die” safety nets like mist form and cantrips, arcane shield etc. with things that are more beneficial in the long haul, like extra blast finishers, working arcane power into the middle of your finisher chains so you’re stacking might and criting at the same time, lightning flash bombs.

BTW, Tornado…. extremely OP when used in the right situation. An elite that many have said is just crap for months, actually isn’t… there’s a lot more out there, while the spank and tank Warriors have pretty much maxed out their knowledge base at this point in the game, we’re just scratching the surface

been using gw2lfg.com for months now. Works fine. Use it or don’t at your own risk, but you don’t even need to post on it, just look for someone else who is posting and try to join their group

Guilty of this in AC often, but I’ve never had someone do it to me without first warning the party before the run starts and I’ve never done it without asking if it’s ok.

I think you just got some bad eggs.

Personally, I’d love to see them do away with the 30 tokens instead of 60 DR, but maybe switch it up to where whatever character you entered a dungeon with is the one you have to finish it with… but that’s just me.

The best way to handle the Raving Asura fractal is to drink beer, and play with friends on TS. That way the constant falls are funny, not frustrating.

^ that would be awesome

Below post, I’m talking about the 30 vs. 60 tokens here, not the other DR’s that apply.

I feel that if I’ve taken the time to level an alt to a point where I can run a dungeon, help me understand why I can’t run whatever dungeon or path I want with however many alts I want and receive no DR if I’ve bothered to get that character to that level? If I have 4 characters that can run a certain path, there’s no question we should be able to run that path over and over with all of our alts.

OK, so I can understand why running 1 path over and over with the same character receives DR from 60 to 20 to 10; you’re trying to encourage players to do multiple things in the game on any given day, and I’m fine with that, I don’t mind at all how non-grindy GW2 is compared to other games and I don’t mind doing other things because there’s plenty to do out there that will benefit, but if I have multiple alts that can run that same dungeon, why should I be punished for putting the time in to get those alts to that point?

There are far more real players than bots, there are certain things the majority of us shouldn’t be punished for because of the few bad eggs.

I think it’s way easier than it was before they changed it. Almost impossible to fight it without the perfect group of really talented players, or the 1-2-2 kite method, now it’s gotten really easy.

sell them for a whopping 5s each right?

Uncontested ON MAGUUMA As of about 5 min ago

Now closed on Crystal Desert… anywhere else?

Sir William PD.9615:

Can the GL of the Maguuma guild called GODS please contact me?

Thanks

I’m on Mag, and I’d been butting heads with GODS all week, pretty sure they’re on Kaening

It’s not hit and run warfare, it’s siege warfare, so larger groups will always be more beneficial than smaller ones. While I agree that the smaller skirmishes are more fun, that doesn’t mean they should “force” those things to happen by penalizing players for playing the way that is most successful for the type of maps they’re played on.

If they’re going to approach the smaller-scale warfare, they probably need to completely redo the maps, make them larger with multiples as many control points, lots of smaller victories instead of a handful of huge ones… that would naturally move the gameplay to smaller fights because having lots of small coverage instead of one or two large ones will net the server as a whole more gain… I’m all for making the warfare smaller, but only if it’s done the right way.

If the zerg is following a commander, or frankly any leader for that matter and the leader goes after you, then here they all come, like lemmings off a cliff. If the commander actually has a plan in mind, then they’ll probably run past, and you may get 1 or 2 stragglers, or none, at the back of the line that break off to come after you.

Guardian, Mesmer, Ranger…

Now hear me out on this… there’s about a thousand people who will read what I just wrote and think, “ranger???” wtf is wrong with this guy?!?

But here’s why I say so, they’re always too far away to ever take any damage, and since they can’t dish out any damage, they can spend their time still being useful by leading :p

OK, seriously though, I think it depends on the play style and the zerg on the commanders back. If you’re taking an offensive approach, then you want a front line player like a guardian or warrior. Defensive, probably mesmer or ele. We have a great commander on our server who actually is a ranger. I don’t know if there’s a class that’s better suited to command than any other, but there are definitely people who are better suited than others.

ganeshori.6309:

Heck, I’ll bite. Great to be back to my home Tier. If we do good this week….please Anet….give the goomies or the branders the T2 spot, hehe.

Send us all your oceanic/asian guilds before you send us up to T2 first plz Otherwise it might hurt a little, kinda like this past week… good grief Kaening, I thought they were all hype… their US presence was no better than us or DB, but wow the beating we took overnight.

It’s a shame how few people have figured out this class… although as someone who feels I understand it well, what I really mean is, it’s a shame how few ele’s ON MY SERVER have figured this out, the rest of you servers, I hope you never figure out how amazing our class is Especially you WvW’ers.

I understand the idea of, “play the game the way you want.” But it’s not about a right way and a wrong way, it’s about a learning curve, and yes there are better ways to play a given class then others.

Running dungeons with other ele pug’s, I’m amazed, I bet 10% or less PvE’ers have any clue what their class is really capable of, and a large percentage of WvW’ers don’t seem to know either.

You gave the right answer, I’d take your lvl 46 over his lvl 80 any day.

S/D is fantastic for PvP if used correctly. 0/15/0/25/30 for PvP with a superior sigil of air, as it give you the single target damage you need, and in PvP there’s no need for aurashare (on the 1 aura you have anyway in s/d) because you’re solo or 2 manning a lot, take the extra dmg from Bolt to the Heart. If you’re a WvW’er (or even PvP), then 15/0/0/25/30 with a superior sigil of fire, you get aoe flame blasts when swapping to fire and aoe flame blasts for crits.

Regarding Josh Mitchels comment, “s/d and */f don’t see as much use in WvW as d/d and staff. It’s really a shame.” It is a shame that most people are comfortable with d/d and think they’re great and therefore aren’t willing to switch. S/D is everything d/d is, but more so, and requires more thought and effort. S/D is way better imo for WvW then d/d, but I hope only the ele’s on my server figure this out

I feel bad for people who are annoyed by someone else’s enthusiasm You’re doing great and asking all the right questions, seeking help the right way and listening to people who know more than you, so kudos. While I feel I have a great grasp of my main profession, I’m constantly asking questions and seeking guides for my mesmer, thief, guardian, etc. No one is an expert at everything.

If you ever need some help you’re welcome to send me a mail in game. I run an ele training guild on our server (Maguuma) to get all our WvW guys up to snuff. Be glad to run a dungeon with you some time and see how you’re doing.

Ele is a very complicated class. Take your time. I was well past 80 before I really figured out what I was doing, and that was 3 or 4 months ago… I’m better today then I was last week, and will be better next week. Huge learning curve for this class, but extremely worth it.

Because of that, ele’s seem to be shunned sometimes for dungeon runs simply because so many of us just haven’t had it all “click” yet in our minds. Those of us who have already powered through the learning curve, well, we know how much better we make our team, and our teams thank us for it. I constantly have people say in chat, “where the heck is all this might coming from? Is that you guardian?” People just don’t fully know what we’re capable of yet because it takes a while to get there, and so few ele’s really understand the class and what we excel at. It pains me when I join a pug dungeon group with another ele and think to myself, “man we’re really going to destroy this,” and then we get in and the other ele in there is just plinking away with staff 1 or meteor shower, or even worse, a d/d ele who has no idea what a combo is… Sad face

Keep working at it. My guild recently recruited two new ele’s, both are as experienced (or more so) as I am, we’ve been working as a team, we’ve been training other ele’s in our guild and from other guilds on our server (we’re a WvW focused guild). In a class as complicated as ours, if you have guys that know what they’re doing you can adjust and do something different, if one of my guys is running a s/d might stack build, I’ll switch up and aoe heal on staff, or aurashare on d/d and vice versa. Or sometimes we’ll both rock out a s/d build and our team pretty much permanently has 25 might stacks. 2 S/D ele’s that know what they’re doing are devastating. Our last FOTM run on lvl 26, two ele’s and 3 guardians, no one ever had less than 25 might, no one ever went down, and the guardians were begging us to come play with them again.

I’m an ele snob. I have 4 lvl 80’s in full exotics, but I will always be an ele snob, and it’s easy to see why. We are the best class in the game, especially regarding group dynamics and the benefits we can offer the group/party as a whole. The only one that won’t get boring over time because of the volume of things we can do, and have to do to be effective. But with anything, to achieve perfection takes time and effort, once this game is a year or two old, and lots of ele’s know what they’re doing, we’re going to be like the Monk of GW1, every LFG message in chat will include, “GLF more, ele’s please”

btw, I was a Monk in GW1

I have almost 1000 hours on ele, so hope this helps. Once you feel you’ve mastered all that d/d has to offer, I encourage you to start running s/d, it is everything d/d is and more if used correctly in combo fields and blast finishers, and will give you the range you desire. It is almost impossible not to have 25 stacks of might with S/D unless you have no idea what a blast finisher is. I would encourage you to continue using d/d as it’s the easiest way to learn about aura’s and blast finishers, might stacking, boons, attunement swapping, etc. D/D teaches you how to be an ele, then you can move on.

Ele works best if stacking boons, especially might is a primary concerns, the damage will come from that. I almost never use my main attack 1 on purpose, there’s so much more you can be doing with so many skills at your disposal. Learn your combo fields and blast finishers. I am still surprised at how many lvl 80 ele’s I see in dungeons, pve and wvw that are pretty good, but just don’t really have a clue how to make this class shine. It’s painful how much that so many people are missing out on.

As Lysico said, know all your weps. If you’re never going to WvW, then there’s less of a need for that, but I’m constantly swapping wep sets between fights in WvW depending on what the situation requires.

You could consider running a cantrip build until you lvl up to 80, and once there a cantrip build at 10/10/10/20/20, or learn how to use Evasive Arcana in earth as an extra blast finisher in ring of fire correctly and run a 0/15/0/25/30 for solo PvE. Running the cantrip build with 10/10/10 fire/water/earth will net you might and protection from cantrips, and still get fury and swiftness from your aura’s. This will give you a bit more tankiness. Just pop Armor of Earth when your Churning Earth is casting so you can’t be knocked down, will give you protection and extra might from those 10 trait points in earth and fire.

This is a very elementary approach to the ele, but cantrips can help keep you alive until you really learn the mechanics. In my opinion, any ele I see running a cantrip build just doesn’t know what they’re doing yet, but hopefully they’ll get there. If you ever master the class, you probably wont use any of them, including Mist Form, which many consider mandatory, but it’s really only a “holy crap I’m about to die” button, not really necessary when your skill will eventually replace your need for the extra safety. In PvE once you learn the class, you’ll never bother. I’d argue Arcane Wave is the mandatory Ele utility skill, everything else is preference.

It’s a complicated class and takes time. Don’t get discouraged, it will eventually click and when it does you’ll be grateful you stuck it out.

as someone who has played ele for a long time, and a member of a wvw focused guild who runs a lot of dungeons, I’d highly encourage you to also not get pigeonholed into a single weapon set. Although you have to open your bag to swap out out of combat, I may do an AC or CoF run, or FOTM and use d/d, s/d and staff all on the same run. Many starter ele’s will run the d/d cuz it’s simple cookie-cutter of everything an ele can do, but it’s no where near your best weapon set for a lot of situations. Only time I ever run d/d anymore is when I’m farming mats and just want the extra speed buffs for running around Orr. If you’re a d/d junkie, learn s/d, it’s everything d/d offers and far more. If you run a lot of wvw, have your staff, in large zerg fights it’s invaluable.

Jack of all trades profession is a legitimate statement. Although that generally means great at everything, best at nothing. There is one thing we’re best at, and that’s offensive and defensive support in group play, and that all revolves around your combo fields and finishers. 25 stacks of might on your whole team during a dungeon run, easy. Massive AoE heals, easy. Perma swift your team, easy, protection and fury, easy. If your a tank and smash-A player, it’s not the class for you, but if you care about how your whole team does, look no further. Glad to see more and more figuring it out, although I read the ele forums daily and it’s painful how little ele’s still know about themselves.

One suggestion, get to know your combo fields and finishers like the back of your hand and you’re party will always beg for you to join them on a dungeon run

So much complaining on this thread… I bet within a month everything will settle back to normal so who cares, it’s a game, and sometimes it’s fun to see different competition, even if that competition is way better or way worse than you are.

Besides, how nice it will be for Sorrows Furnace or Ferguson’s Crossing to get a week or two in a higher tier before they’re right back down to tier 7 for the rest of eternity… or what if it actually get’s some PvE’ers from those lower ranked servers to start WvW; “holy crap, my server is in tier 1??? Maybe I should stop chaining events in Orr and go do that WvW thing?!?”

Cheshire Kitty.9205:

Lets be real OG is not Original at all. Just a bunch of bad sports. And if you know anything about the grudge T3 its once hated always hated. We will most likely just remember all this as a failed guild of elitists 5 years from now when we revisit the game.

Just don’t judge the rest of Mag We’re not all bad apples

What will be fun is the few weeks of wildly volatile ratings changes. Top tier teams will probably find themselves in lower tiers for a short while, simply because scores this coming week should expect to be closer in the top tiers than some of the middle tiers, who may have an epic blowout week and find themselves tier 1 for a week or two.

Johje Holan.4607:

Why don’t Mag and DB just agree now before the match starts to tag team Kan? It would make the match a lot more fun.

That’s the welcome that FA and DB gave us the start of this week… while part of me thinks it shouldn’t be a “pick on the new guy” tier, the same thought process from highschool of “the seniors picked on me when I was a freshman, so now it’s my turn” will be hard to ignore

My prediction, Mag will dominate during NA daytime/primetime hours but we don’t have the overnight presence and will lose ground there. I’m hopeful we wont be teamed up on through opening weekend like last week, so hopefully we can establish enough of a lead during the day so that our overnight losses aren’t as tragic.

I have no idea who wins this, I feel DB and Mag are pretty evenly matched, DB with a edge because of Oceanic presence. I’ve never faced Kain so we’ll see.

As long as the battles are bloody and hard fought, I don’t think anyone will have complaints.

playandchill.3908:

Cyril.1486:

My wishlist for 2013 is putting people in charge of Wvwvw that actually care about it and not people that only care about this E-sport crap that is failing big time. This is not Guild Wars 1 where Structured was actually very good. Jump off the dead horse allready getting boring now.

This.

WvW has so much potential. It.s very frustrating to see Anet doesnt care.

TESO RvR is coming tho……gw 2 might be dead soon

Most GW2 players are still PvE, just good ole’ fashioned business sense, gotta appease the larger of two masses. There will be WvW updates, just not as much time spent on them.

All this “Flame and Frost” nonsense in my opinion should be time spent updating WvW… but I’m biased and unfortunately in the minority. I went to Orr the other day, hadn’t been there in a long time, but wanted to get a new set of armor for a different build I’d been working on, and noticed a bunch of new dynamic events… they were PACKED with people in the Cursed Shore… hadn’t seen that many since I used to run Karma chains months ago in Orr… so it’s clear that Anet is appeasing the masses… while I’m the WvW minority and would rather see energy spent there, I can’t argue with the business sense I guess.

Long Live the WvW Minority !!!

Pawlegance.7012:

I don’t see how what I am wishing for is related to esports in any way or form. I just want server/battlefield progression that goes beyond acumulating points and actions to actually mean something for more than the couple of minutes inbetween swapping objectives. Note that I don’t talk about sPvP at all.

I’ll tell you how it applies… it’s the 3rd law of forums.

If a man makes a post, another man will tell you you’re wrong.

DaisyRogers.6837:

SlimGenre.6417:

Nerf All The Things!!!

Front page of every forum on every topic on this site is riddled with “nerf this” and “nerf that” threads… last time I checked, if someone can do something to you, that means you can do it back to them… Every time you complain about what someone on the opposing server is doing to you, someone on your server is doing it to your enemy. Sounds fair to me.

I’m starting a movement… it’s called the “Stop The Nerf” Movement

ranger thread is devoid of nerf cries… just saying.

no way, ranger definitely needs nerfed regarding damage output… oh, and they have way too much in the way of team support. And all rangers look like they’re French Muskateers too, so we should nerf the way they look

:p

yeah but, who actually finishes their storyline ?? lol I guess I have on one character.

Good question regarding the “on critical” sigil’s. Wonder if that 30% chance only triggers 15% of the time if on a single wep in a dual wield setup? I would probably assume what Tarroes said is true and it’s more about which skills that particular weapon uses, 103 or 4.5

I’d say finish hearts and areas up to about lvl 30. After that dynamic events and dungeons are you best bet for leveling (dungeons give you that nice gold too). Small to medium sized groups are my favorite for dynamic events, to make sure you get enough hits on all those bad guys so you get some exp for kills.

If you’re brand new to the game, I’d take either a ranged class or warrior to get a feel for the mechanics, ranger, war, guardian, necro. Play them to about lvl 20 so you’ve got a feel for the mechanics. After that, go with what looks cool.

First class for me was a ranger, took it to lvl 80 and haven’t touched it since. I’m an ele for life (bring on the nerfs, I can take it!!) and I love running a thief or mesmer in WvW cuz they faceroll people and nothings more fun that severely irritating someone over and over

What curuniel said about combo’s is spot on if you’re looking for synergy. Every class has them, ele’s have the most, but it’s a more complicated playstyle than ranger/war/guard etc.

[/quote]
I really want to hear from them WHERE they saw AoE as an issue in dungeons or PvE.[/quote]

Burrows in AC. They’re nerfing the whole game because of Frost Bow 4 for AC Burrows j/k

Nerf All the AoE !!!

Llyr.8763:

I’m baffled by the “you shouldn’t aoe people rezzing the downed”. That is literally my only chance for a kill.

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. The first thing you should do when someone is downed is drop lava font on them, maybe even static field when someone goes to rez them.

What idiot told you that?

both nice tower defense builds, but I wouldn’t venture too far beyond that with it. Staff ele needs to consider support if roaming. Other than that, I think it’s great if you don’t mind hanging out at SM all day plinking at people coming at your door

any class can be as good as they want to be. Played the other night lvl 26 fractal with a glass cannon d/d thief who didn’t down once. Played dungeons with a stack of ele’s and it was the fastest run ever. Run with other ele’s I’ve spent my entire time rezzing and never once saw them share an aura, boon, might, heal… nothing…

you either know how to play your class or you don’t. Take ranger, I have an 80 ranger and I feel like a limp fish gasping for air. I know plenty of people who swear ranger is far better than most give them credit for.

the d/d build has made it easier for ele’s to be decent, so it shouldn’t be much of a problem getting bumped from groups anymore. But the best ele’s I see lean towards s/d or even staff, especially in pve and know how to use it.

Nerf All The Things!!!

Front page of every forum on every topic on this site is riddled with “nerf this” and “nerf that” threads… last time I checked, if someone can do something to you, that means you can do it back to them… Every time you complain about what someone on the opposing server is doing to you, someone on your server is doing it to your enemy. Sounds fair to me.

I’m starting a movement… it’s called the “Stop The Nerf” Movement

I will say quickly that for straight PvE, especially solo’ing… my favorite build is a 10/10/10/25/15 in d/d. Carry cantrips for extra might and protection, and boon duration runes. All zerkers gear

Missed some of your questions, here ya go… wow I’m spending a lot of time on this thread

Question #6:
If I am to go support ele, will I need to stack healing power? Especially in Water line?

I’d spend more time regarding which traits you take thinking more about how those traits work together instead of the extra points you get for them… meaning if you’re taking 30 in water, it’s to be an auramancer d/d or to work off conditions with staff. If you’re going glass cannon staff bomber then probably nothing in water, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re all precision and power for traits, weps/armor/accessories add a lot more to that than trait lines do. Build your trait lines for the traits themselves. My point being, the 300 pts in vitality and healing power really don’t add up to much, most ele’s put 30 in water not for the points, but for the traits you can get at the top tier. S/D and D/D ele is an offensively-minded support role, sharing swiftness and fury through aura’s and stacking insane amounts of might, in order to do this you need 30 in water, not for the points, but to share the benefits from your aura’s, you’d also need 10 in air. If you just solo’ing around Tyria, there’s no need for 30 in water, throw that into Fire or Air for more dmg.

Question #7:
What are the best things an elementalist should look out for in gear?

Personal preferences here. I have 2 gear sets, but I’m primarily a WvW’er. I have a PVT set that I use with my auramancer, and I disagree with above post regarding damage output, if you know how to stack boons and might, the extra vitality and toughness is far more beneficial for WvW and you can still hit hard (not as hard as a thief or glass cannon warrior, but you’re far more versatile than that)… My other set is my support set, which is an all Precision/Vit/Healing Power set and I use staff for that. I have a sup rune of water and water runes. I use a lot of the AoE more for crowd control than anything and focus more on passive and active healing my team and condition removal.
For PvE however (if I ever did that anymore, except dungeon runs) I’d rock a straight zerkers gear on everything and probably never die… but I’ve been playing this class for a long time. As your skill increases, you need for toughness should drop to 0 and vitality should drop substantially, still keep some though.

Question #8:
Is condition damage worth it? When compared to other professions (e.g. the necromancer) I only have damaging conditions on the S/D build.

Yes and no, I vote no. Burning is minimal and easily removed. Bleed stacks are so/so for ele in s/d and that’s about it. I’d either focus on crit or power, you’re going to pick up some extra damage from, say churning earth bleed stacks, but I wouldn’t build an entire playstyle around conditions.

Question #9:
Can I play any kind of elementalist in PvE with any combination of weapons? Is the D/D build viable for dungeons or is Staff-S/D the way forward?

I play whatever weapon set best compliments my team. If I’m in a mainly melee dungeon group, I’m running scepter/dagger and just stacking might like it’s my job (cuz in that team, it is). If I’m with a bunch of ranged players, I’ll spend more time running support on staff, don’t want to be the only melee character taking damage. If I’m in a mixed group of 2 melee and 2 ranged, I’ll usually run d/d. I’m I’m just running around solo’ing, it’s whatever I feel like playing with at the time, it’s pve, it’s easy, it’s just practice

Question #10:
Could I possibly be the tank elementalist? I am pretty good at dodging.
There are some good tank builds that some use for sPvP, but I don’t really see why you’d bother for any other gameplay except in the Mists. Why tank? In wvw you’ll just get zerged by too many people, in dungeons you’ve likely got other characters more suited for it and in PvE it’s just so easy to steamroll over everything, why bother with a tank build.

OK, answers to your second set of questions…

All of my answers are for basic, cookie-cutter pve. I have multiple sets of weps, armor, etc, but I primarily WvW and run dungeons for money, so I often swap stuff around depending on what I’m doing… however, here’s my recommendation regarding a basic pve build that works well for everything with either s/d or d/d.

If you’re a straight PvE player, then zerkers all the way. If you know how to attunement dance, balance your boons, etc. then you should never be squishy. And for pete’s sake, it’s PvE, npc’s attack about once per second. Now, you’re fairly new to the class and things really open up once you hit 80 and beyond and really learn what you’re doing, so if you still feel squishy, go for a power/vitality/condition damage if possible, that extra vitality will save you. I’m not a fan of toughness… ever… but just personal preference… I’d rather have the extra vit.

regarding runes, two runes of the monk from AC armor and 2 runes of water… this adds a lot of boon duration, which again is your lifeblood as a d/d or s/d ele. There’s no argument here, this is how the class and wep set was designed. After that you have 2 more spots, which can either be runes of hoelbrak/strength/fire for might duration or citadel/rage for fury duration in my opinion.

Sigils are a choice, although with a dual wep set and a PvE focus, I’d get one stacking sigil (like corruption/bloodlust etc) and one perm stat (like 5% extra dmg). Another option would be sigil of fire for the AoE fireblast, but that would be best if used with precision heavy gear.

Jewelry and trinkets… don’t know if you realized when I talked about armor, but really you want to start out slightly tankier and work your way towards more damage as your skill with the class increases. So if you still feel squishy, get knights stat jewels and as you get better with the class replace them with zerkers.