Guild Wars 2

Little known fact; Arcane Brilliance blasts at your target!
Can be really handy when you know it. Just remember to detarget if you want to blast under yourself.

Hey guys,

I figured a thread that gathers elementalist tricks could be interesting. I know we already have those “Did you know?” posts on reddit with most tricks, but this seems to be a good place to keep them updated.

I will do short videos explaining tricks I think is not that wellknown, I hope this catches on and more people join in as well.

So far I only have one video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b-McRrIedk

Let’s compile a complete list to help new elementalists out there!

Tricks:

#1: – Blasting Staff, video

By toggling this trait on/off you get seperate cooldowns on the skills it affects. Doesn’t work unless your character is created after the NPE patch.

#2: – Vapor Rally, video

Rally by killing a mob that gives experience while using vapor form experience

I was assuming all stats would be put to 1000 from the current 926. I just logged in and realised healing power is not part of these base stats, wrong me

If I remember correctly did Jon say that the stat the 7% was based of was subject to change, so let’s hope for that

I don’t get why people are so quick to scream nerf seemingly without considering all of the changes. I would say the D/F damage is close to unchanged.
Let’s compare the coming D/F to the current one to come to a conclusion.

The builds I will compare are 66060 to the current 66200.

Fire:
66060: Additional trait, VI or V, whichever 66200 didn’t use.
66200: -
Air:
66060: 220 Ferocity from Ferocious winds and Aeromancer’s training
66200: VI and X, resulting in 16.67% dmg.
Earth:
66060: -
66200: 10% from Stone Splinters
Water:
66060: 10% when >90% hp and 2% / boon, resulting in 16-18% dmg. Frost aura when hit.
66200: -

Result:
66060: 220 ferocity + 10% when >90% + 6-8%
66200: 6.67% + 10% + 10%
——————————————
This becomes 220 ferocity vs 8-10% dmg, depending on number of boons, critical chance and how good you can keep above 90% hp. In any way, with current meta builds are 220 ferocity stronger than 10% damage. We also get a random free frost aura for -10% damage taken as a bonus

Guardian is throwing rocks

I figured we might as well post some of our fractal recordings as records just to get some up on the board. Sadly these are our daily casual runs, so a lot of them won’t fit the restricted ruleset.

Anyways, now you have something to beat

Snowblind
Guardian: Painbow (Zorkoma) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aptdB5t0Br4
Engi: Charlie (Charlie Ihl) :
Warrior : Aldarn (Berserk Mode) :
Ele 1 : Particlar (Particlar) :
Ele 2 : Taku (Tákumi) :

Unrestricted Time : 6min 56s (executioners axe on skip after elemental source)
Game Build : 39,327
Day : 27th September, 2014

Cliffside
Guardian: Doomblade (Bright Skyblade) :
Engi: Taku (Takú) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKAQ4fvPIkw
Warrior : Nick (Nicks Warrior) :
Ele 1 : Painbow (Feronni) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XicDF0IlrY
Ele 2 : Aldarn (Johnny Howitzer) :

Unrestricted Time : 10min 51s (silly rocks in the end)
Game Build : 43, 467
Day : 24th December, 2014

Volcanic
Guardian: Painbow(Zorkoma) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3EfVyBz3wM
Engi: Doomblade (Dark Doomster) :
Warrior : Wonderburger (Aseara) :
Ele 1 : Particlar (Particlar) :
Ele 2 : Aldarn (Johnny Howitzer) :

Restricted Time : 6min 49s
Game Build : 43,910
Day : 13th Januari, 2015

Molten Duo
Guardian: Gnarl (Mr Charr Ranger) :
Engi: Zip (Inneal Draoi) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-zcE06aEN4
Warrior : Arathorian (Arathorian) :
Ele 1 : Impale (The Alchemy) :
Ele 2 : Zorby (Blathlach) :

Unrestricted Time : 2min 15s (effigy skip)
Game Build : 39,135
Day : 19th September, 2014

Sorry for the wait guys, approved!

Sorry for the wait guys, approved!

Ele has mostly gotten nerfed from the start, it hasnt gotten any bit weaker. The reason why this didn’t show in the begining was that no one knew how to play it well.

“You can now fly down to the Imbued Shaman with your kite instead of running”

evilunderling.9265:

I’ve said this before, but there was another weapon reveal in the trailer that’s not in the list in the OP. The segment starting here shows a girl dressed in incarnate armour with a stowed sword and dagger, likely implying that elementalist will get mainhand sword, although it could also be a reveal of daggers for mesmers, swords for necromancers, or even more far-fetched possibilities.

Good eye. To me it looks like elementalists will get swords. I added it to the OP

skullmount.1758:

That Revenant greatsword proof isn’t correct. That’s just he FGS which is just a regular sword.

I can’t wait to see the engi one, with those mobile turrets/gadgets flying around him.

Thanks! Edited to Sword.

MyPuppy.8970:

Oh no torch please, we can already spit fire from every hole, what would be the point?

I think that is a limited view of what the torch could be. But nevermind that, what would you guys want to see? Shortbow/Longbow maybe?

Good thinking, I’ll add a theory list to the OP

With profession specializations, you’ll unlock access to a weapon previously unavailable to your profession as well as new traits, skills, and unique mechanics – all of which will transform your profession into something new.

The bullet point I’m most interested about in the new expansion!

Some more information about the specializations came out during the after party, read here!

Assuming one specialization gives one new weapon for the existing class we got following!

Specializations:
Heavy:

• Guardian – ???
• Warrior – ???
• Revenant – Uses a Staff (video + no polearm/spear) or Sword(video)

Medium:

• Thief – Uses a rifle (screen)
• Ranger to Druid – Uses a staff (video + PAX announcement)
• Engineer – Uses a hammer (video)

Light:

• Necromancer – Uses a Greatsword (PAX announcement)
• Elementalist – Uses a Sword (video + comment)
• Mesmer – Uses a Shield (video)

Crovax.7854:

You are saying 40 and 50. Does that mean reward tiers start at x0? I was under the impression that 31-40 was one tier and 41-50 was another. Wouldn’t it be easier to do 31 and 41 then?

Reward tiers are just as you say, 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50.
There could be a difference in droprate between levels in the same tier, say lvl 31 and 40. However, this is unlikely and even if so is the case the difference should be miniscule.

Assume this is the case and you’re looking to do a tier 4 fractal run (lvl 31-40), you’d be losing out if you didn’t do the lvl 40, the highest lvl in that tier.

Not to mention lvl 40 and lvl 50 has nice instabilities

KING Fractal Droprate Research

I wanna include Dekeyz in a discussion me and Zelyhn are having atm. We’re both trying to compare D/F and D/D in a dungeon setting. This rotation uses 66200 with V-VI-XI/VI-X-XII/VI.
The number of LW could be a bit off, we want each Fire → Fire rotation to be 15s.

D/D Rotation
Cast when off CD: RtL, Arcane Brilliance, Arcane Wave

1. Fire – Burning Speed – Ring of Fire – Fire Grab – Air – x4 LW – Water – Frozen Burst – Earth – Earthquake – x9 LW – Fire
   Repeat following x2:
2. Fire – Ring of Fire – Burning Speed – Air – x4 LW – Water – Frozen Burst – Air – x4 LW – Earth – Air -x8 LW – Fire

This is for fights where you would generally bring S/F or S/D, ie most dungeons. I’m not saying it should replace D/F.

Solo and Duo should belong to the person.
A 5 man record should belong to a guild. Should the guild disband or some players from it join a new one will the record stay at the old one

You’re right, edited the rotation

I just had a showerthought. If D/F changes to come close to S/F LH, then D/D should be above both?
My rotation is very rough, maintains 12-15 might without Sigil of Strength.
What do you guys think? DD meta?!
http://youtu.be/0gsWj3N6DsM

D/D Rotation
Cast when off CD: Fire Grab, RtL, Arcane Brilliance and Arcane Wave

• Ring of Fire + Burning Speed
• x4 AA
• Frozen Burst
• Earthquake + Ring of Earth
• x9 AA
  Repeat following x2:
• Ring of Fire + Burning Speed
• x4 AA
• Frozen Burst
• x4 AA
• Ring of Earth
• x6 AA
• Ring of Fire + Burning Speed

I’ll copy paste from the dungeons forum. Get ready for some ‘napkin maths’

“Lightning Whip: Moved the attacks points in the cast further, aftercast recuded by 0.2 seconds. Dmg reduced by 10%.”

Total attack chain was 1.15 seconds including aftercast, after update it will be 0.95 seconds.
0.9/0.95 > 1/1.15. In other words are we getting a ~7-8% buff for the Lightning Whip, assuming you can keep AA 100%.

I decided to do a ‘in depth’ video of the current rotation, showing fresh air CD as well as number of Lightning Whip AA’s. You can see it here: http://youtu.be/XfGtRcHSNqs

I do by no means a perfect rotation in the video linked and there’s also slight differences in builds. A solo 66002 build has lower recharge on attunement than the 66200, —> swapping back to fire more quickly.

I would guess though that the current rotation will change to x9 AA before going back into fire and maybe x4 before each blasts. In a more detailed manner,
Current D/F Rotation

• Burning Speed
• x3 AA (3.45 sec)
• Water -> both blasts
• x7 (8.05 sec, which is a bit fast with 66200)
• Burning Speed
• x3 AA (3.45 sec)
• Earth -> Magnetic Wave + Ring of Earth + Arcane Brilliance
• x7 AA (8.05 sec, which is a bit fast with 66200)
• Burning Speed

New D/F Rotation?

• Burning Speed
• x4 AA (3.8 sec, really tight with water blasts)
• Water -> both blasts
• x9 (8.55 sec)
• Burning Speed
• x4 AA (3.8 sec, really tight with water blasts)
• Earth -> Magnetic Wave + Ring of Earth + Arcane Brilliance
• x9 AA (8.55 sec)
• Burning Speed

New rotation has no trouble with fresh air but a slight issue with the time for water blasts. In the calculation below have I neglected the might differences in each AA hit, ie I’m assuming the rotation has reached its steady state.

Old Rotation in AA’s
x3 + x7 + x3 + x7 = 20
New Rotation in AA’s
(x4 + x9 + x4 + x9)* 0.9 = (26 AA)*0.9 = 23.4.

We seem to have gained DPS corresponding to 3.4 AA of current Lighting Whip, or 2.5 AA if we keep x3 for the water blasts, for the price of 1.7s or 0.75s longer rotation.

hybrid.5027:

Particlar, based on what you have napkin math is telling me this is like a 10ish% dps increase. Which should make it only slightly worse than S/F hammer in personal DPS. Pretty interesting.

Jerus.4350:

Nice, good to hear. Curious how that will change rotations, able to slip an extra whip in here and there between swaps?

I decided to do a ‘in depth’ video of the current rotation, showing fresh air CD as well as number of Lightning Whip AA’s. You can see it here: http://youtu.be/XfGtRcHSNqs

I do by no means a perfect rotation in the video linked and there’s also slight differences in builds. A solo 66002 build has lower recharge on attunement than the 66200, —> swapping back to fire more quickly.

I would guess though that the current rotation will change to x9 AA before going back into fire and maybe x4 before each blasts. In a more detailed manner,
Current D/F Rotation

• Burning Speed
• x3 AA (3.45 sec)
• Water -> both blasts
• x7 (8.05 sec, which is a bit fast with 66200)
• Burning Speed
• x3 AA (3.45 sec)
• Earth -> Magnetic Wave + Ring of Earth + Arcane Brilliance
• x7 AA (8.05 sec, which is a bit fast with 66200)
• Burning Speed

New D/F Rotation?

• Burning Speed
• x4 AA (3.8 sec, really tight with water blasts)
• Water -> both blasts
• x9 (8.55 sec)
• Burning Speed
• x4 AA (3.8 sec, really tight with water blasts)
• Earth -> Magnetic Wave + Ring of Earth + Arcane Brilliance
• x9 AA (8.55 sec)
• Burning Speed

New rotation has no trouble with fresh air but a slight issue with the time for water blasts. In the calculation below have I neglected the might differences in each AA hit, ie I’m assuming the rotation has reached its steady state.

Old Rotation in AA’s
x3 + x7 + x3 + x7 = 20
New Rotation in AA’s
(x4 + x9 + x4 + x9)* 0.9 = (26 AA)*0.9 = 23.4.

We seem to have gained DPS corresponding to 3.4 AA of current Lighting Whip, or 2.5 AA if we keep x3 for the water blasts, for the price of 1.7s or 0.75s longer rotation.

Someone with a detailed spreadsheet should be able to see the total damage increase of that and ofcourse, correct me if I’m wrong

Sublimatio.6981:

Lighting whip gonna be nerfed to ground instead of staff. Lol ^^

“Moved the attacks points in the cast further, aftercast recuded by 0.2 seconds. Dmg reduced by 10%.”

Total attack chain was 1.15 seconds including aftercast, after update it will be 0.95 seconds.
0.9/0.95 > 1/1.15. In other words are we getting a ~7-8% buff for the Lightning Whip, assuming you can keep AA 100%.

I think the tables would look more clean if we split the current time column to a time and a guild column.
That or have a new line after the time and remove the ‘by’.

I would gladly help out with record approving.
I’ve never yet been a part of any record run but I like to think myself capable. I hope that the community deems me impartial and cool headed enough. Although I’m more of a lurker than an active talker here, I can say that I visit this forum daily. I also have a short history of using ftp.

Please fix the [KING]‘s Experienced Fractal Guides link!
It’s no longer on my account but on our guild account

Also although unfinished, stephoa.7082 nominated my elementalist specific fractal guides rather than the guilds generic. Sorry for the confusion :>

I see a few people linking the [KING] Experienced Fractal Guide to my channel.
I just want to let you know that we have moved them to a youtube guild channel some time ago.

So if you want the most updated guides it would be here instead.

As for my votes,

1. Best Solo Player of the Year
Though my love for ele, I have to say Sesshi followed by Sandy.
2. Best Speed Run Group of the Year
SC without a doubt. 2 mesmer meta?!
3. Best Speedrun World Record
CoF Story[SC], split tactics ftw!
4. Dungeon Initiative of the Year
DnT tournaments were nice, what else than that and Fractal tourny do we have really?
5. Best Visual Guide
KING’s Fractal Guides
6. Best Written Guide
Although this isn’t really my area, I’d say Dekeyz’ Ele guides.
7. Community Member of the Year
Iris!
8. Most Fashionable Dungeon Runner of the Year
#BearHat.
9. Best Comedy of the Year
rT’s thug life or sanderstep
10. Epic Fail of the Year
KING and traps, thats all

Lvl 1, no daily reward chest with last fractal, Molten Duo.
Doesn’t seem like the end fractal is a common denominator

Just finished lvl 20, no daily reward chest. Both have been on Jade Maw

Jeremlloyd.6837:

10. I’d add KING vs Last AC Story

Why cant we just forget about that?

I like this idea!

Sarahfull.4930:

A question, if you may:
Can you do this aoe trick with the engi grenade barrage?
or even with the 3-nade atuo attack?

Yes you can, with both, it’s not really practicalfor a few reasons though.
1, because of the 1500 range (from grenade trait) and that you need to max range it.
2, Compared to MS/IB the projectiles are few and damage low.

F1= Fire Attune
F2= Water Attune
F3= Air Attune
F4= Earth Attune

1, 2, 3, 4, 5= Abilities, 1-5. [This is default]

Heal Skill= Mouse 4— Mouse Button click
Utility 1= Shift + 1
Utility 2= Shift + 2
Utility 3= Shift + 3
Ultimate= Mouse 3 – Scroll Wheel click

Dodge= Mouse 5 – Mouse Button click
About Face= X
Closest enemy target= C
Open Inventory= Mouse 6 – Mouse Button click

I thought nothing was off the table

Aggrostemma.1703:

Guys!
The OP never stated he wants to run a DD…

Archangel.5942:

…Would you happen to know a PvE D/D build? XD

It’s not really viable to run with cantrips in PvE.

Now in general D/D isn’t really viable for PvE either, it’s atleast not amongst the highest DPS builds. If you want to use a generic/easy-to-use D/D build for open world I would go something like 06242 with traits: 0/I-X-XII/VI/VI-X/II.

The icicle on top of the Elemental Source has a hitbox that is placed 230 units underground. So any AoE that has a range of 240 or more can quickly kill it.

Examples apart of your own can be;

Thief
Cluster bomb (shortbow #2)
Engineer
Traited AoE bombs

Video explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO1-C1EwAgY

Taku beat me to it

Well done guys!

Wooo, this got active! Quoting a few responses I want to discuss

Jerus.4350:

Maybe I’m just bad but D/F is kinda /meh in the might stacking category, better than staff but much worse than scepter. You get what, earth 4, water 3 and 5, Awave, and Abril?

That’s the same number of blasts as you get with S/D and one less than with S/F (excluding the 1-2 extra blasts from LH AA).
A lone D/F ele in fractals should be able to maintain between 15-20 might for the party (assuming str runes) on his own. A warhorn blast or any other outside help and your party might should be set.

That said, no one plays perfectly and I always seem to blast retal instead of might. We tend to run with two eles in fractals to consistently keep max might (together with the wide advantages that an ele brings too of course).

Thaddeus.4891:

PS Warrior is not worth the DPS lost in coordinated runs if the group can have a LH Elementalist that can stack might without much problem. […] In fractal, that’s a bit harder. Some can, but the majority of LH Elementalist can’t do it all the time in fractal. Against some boss, they will down or will need to stop their might stacking to avoid dmg, making them less reliable compare to a PS warrior as a source of might.

I don’t like LH for many fights in fractals due to that you either have to interrupt the AA by dodging or you’ll be locked out of LH because it wont be recharged for the second fight. I know its very popular to stay close to the theory, and on paper LH looks great. My personal opinion is however that there are very few fights in fractals where LH > D/F in practice.

Though, I have to agree that in some cases PS might is more reliable than to trust an ele not to fail a dodge.

hybrid.5027:

I’ve said before I’m not a fan of double ele set ups in fotm that aren’t trying for YOLO record run strategies. If you’re doing a casual run it will be smoother and faster with one staff ele, a PS warrior and an extra utility class.

I’ve seen this discussed before so I’m unsure if we can come further than to disagree with each other
I don’t follow the reasoning that two ele’s equals YOLO record run. If what we want is casual runs why not run 2 guards and 3 wars? Pardon the analogy, I know its exaggerating. But there is a difference between sacrificing party defenses (blinds, reflects, stability, cc, etc) to bring more damage and sacrificing damage to personally be more tanky.

A fractal party composition of 2 eles, 1 guard, 1 war and 1 engineer/thief doesn’t lack any active defense that the party would get without the second ele. The only reason said party composition would be worse is if the ele’s are being carpets (read play bad and lay on the floor).

spoj.9672:

Triple eles for fractals tbh.

Oh, don’t tickle my Swedish meatballs <3

Anyways, to answer OP:
Go PS on warrior if your party might is low. This can be due to various reasons.

• No ele in your group
• Bad ele in your group
• Content demands ele to go staff
• Missed blasts due to messy coordination or underlying fields

In the terms of choosing PS or Ele, Ele > PS.

That is one beautiful snowman.

Purple Miku.7032:

I thought about that too, it’s just… who cares about HotW -.-

(sowwy Painbow <3)

No need to apologise, you’re just speaking the truth <3

manarchon.2089:

ppl not knowing how to deal encounters or play in fractals of have “play it how you like” builds and playing attitude like cleric guardians using only staff to fight, no stability, walls etc. Warriors refusing to use warbanners even though group wipes, thiefs without blind, support eles with only signets etc

Isn’t this a description of a pug? <3

I wrote this post with only fractals in mind, for dungeons LH is very useful and other replies (Miku’s <3) can be read for advices.

I’m currently working on video guides of all different fractals.

I wouldn’t recommend LH for many fights in fractals due to that you either have to interrupt the AA by dodging or you’ll be locked out of LH because it wont be recharged for the second fight. I know its very popular to stay close to the theory, and on paper LH looks great. My personal opinion is however that there are very few fights in fractals where LH > D/F in practice.

Generally swap frequently between all of your different sets to bring what is needed for the next fight.
In my guild we believe 2 ele’s are part of the meta compositions in fractals. Usually the second ele brings (close to) the same build as the first one, remember just because you’re the second ele doesn’t mean you should staff mossman. There’s also fights where both eles should be staff.

To tl;dr my unstructured thoughts; Bring what the group needs. Generally the second ele can go staff given that the might is kept high. However, this does not mean always.

Enko.6123:

That’s not the raw data I’d like to see. I’m talking about the individual inputs.

The number is currently lower than lvl 40 tier because they only reset 41-50 instead of the entire thing. If you look at total number of chests under 50, its at 127 (at the time of this post).

We chose to only reset the tier that ANet said they changed.
We still got our old sheet and can compare the droprates from the lvl 40/30/20 tier of the new spreadsheet with the old one to see if numbers diverge.

This gives us as accurate data as resetting the sheet completely.
If we after ~200 lvl 40 runs see a trend of diverging droprates compared to the old one, will we reset that tier completely with the input history we have.

ShadowRX.9024:

Well there you go Particlar Challenge ( Lv 11 cuz if i want higher like 40+ i would probably have to get condi gear and it will take around 25min+) this took 13min xD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCvin8Ui_CM

Woooo!

Lots of love <3

Proposal Overview
Raid Leader boards – A scoreboard similar to the challenge leader boards in GW1.

Goal of Proposal
Keep people interested in content they’ve already finished and perfected together with create an interesting competition between different guilds.
I believe this was what the Fractal leader boards was intended to be, whatever that was created for it could be utilised here.

Proposal Functionality

• The raid leader board is a global guild rank that can be viewed through signs placed outside of the entrance of the raids in every major town or in a new tab in the PvP/WvW windows.
• The leader board resets weekly the same way other guild missions reset.
• Upon reset, each player of the top 3 Guilds/Teams will receive a Raid Chest for their efforts.
• A second tab of the score board shows the overall record times of the current Raid.

Associated Risks
Long development time for low incentive.
The underlying reason for this suggestion is fear that more experienced players will lose interest in the raid content if/when they find them too easy.

I just finished a 50 with 1 guard, 2 ele, 1 necro in 30minutes.

Fractals:

• Bloomy
• Molten Facility
• Trollmanova
• Molten Duo

According to (un?)popular opinion we had 3 bad professions in this party but still managed to finish it quick.

Helloo fellow elementalists

About two monts back I made a post about a new series of elementalist fractal guides.
I want to do this because I feel there are so many little things an ele can do in fractals and to optimise you need to change builds and weapons frequently.

I’m sorry about the wait, but now is #2 out! I do have the next ones recorded so expect the future ones to be out shortly.

Here is Molten Duo Fractal Guide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrbS-HK6_YA

Please let me know what you think!
Let me know if anything is annoying, unclear or needs improvements.

Have a good one!