Guild Wars 2

I have to agree to the OP to some extent that ele needs work. Having played multiple professions in spvp I can say that there is a gab between eles and (certain) other professions.

It may be correct that you can outperform others in 1v1 if you are allowed to drag out the fight (and if skills are not on cooldowns). It may also be correct that there are certain bunker builds that outshine other bunker builds (except guardians ofc.).

However, the main issue as I see it is that eles are forced to spec water/arcane to be on par with other professions. If we spec glass we don’t really become cannons and with such a low health pool we are forced to get lots of toughness/vitality or thiefs (and other burst classes) will simply mow us down in matter of seconds, in particular in hot join spvp where you rarely go 1v1 but more like zerg v zerg. Thus, there are only a few builds available to us if we want to be somewhat competitive.

Having said that, I still find the ele class fun as hell, in particular d/d style. What saddens me thugh is when I try to pull a combo on a foe only to realize either of the following: A) All skills hit and I luckily kill him cause he was glass, my RTL stopped 10 feet before him and he 100blades (or whatever) me to death while I can’t move or C) that my 5 seconds of combo only took 1/4 of his health, probably due to some misses and now he begins to fight back but no matter, cause I suddenly get instagibbed by a d/d thief without any chance of reacting. My health drops from full to nothing in 1,5 seconds.

Playing a mezmer or thief, if I get outnumbered or my combo misses, well, no matter, I just reset the fight or move on unharmed (in stealth).

The thing is, other classes can do what we do, but only with fewer skills and less care + having more health and hit harder.

Right now, the only viable build is staff (or perhaps d/d) bunker or bunker/balanced build).

A question: has anyone ever felt successfull going full fire (might stacking build) or full lightning? Probably not. Maybe going full earth for the rather unimpressive auromancer build could work but still… Whats left? Oh, the mandatory arcane/water trees..

As the title says, is mesmer viable when balancing damage between crit/power/condition (not to confuse with balance between off/def). This is the build I will try out:

http://gw2skills.net...HbOuck5sEZIy0CA

The point is to be able to do decent damage from multiple sources rather than rely mainly on condition damage or raw damage. There is a focus on shatters, though.

You get bleed damage from Sharper Images, which should do some decent damage with 869 condition damage (though iDuelist would propably be better at stacking bleeds, but I really like the focus and its great against ranged projectiles with feedback trait and helps with kiting against melee). The staff + staff clones also benefits from the condition damage.

At the same time, there is some decent, though not high, power which can give some burst with mind wrack and decent damage with sword attacks so they wont be totally useless.

I would love to hear any thoughts on this, not just my suggestion for a build, but the balancing out of damage between different sources? Does it work?

I support changes to the mantra system. Ideally, I would love to see it being possible to recharge all mantras at once (as a trait) or perhaps reducing the recharge time in proportion with the number of mantras equipped.

There is nothing worse in spvp to have 3 mantras equipped and standing around 15 seconds to be viable again.

Those of you who have tried a heavy mantra build have probably come to the conclusion, that it is simply not duable (at least in spvp) due to the very long mantra recharge time when having more mantras.

First, I suggest to reduce the mantra recharge time from 5 to 4 sec.

A possible solution could be a percentage-wise reduction of recharge time for each mantra equipped, either as a standard or a trait, thus reducing the problem with heavy mantra builds and a total very long recharge time:
- 1 mantra: normal recharge time (4 sec)
- 2 mantras: 15% reduction (3,4 sec – 6,8 sec in total)
- 3 or more: 30% reduction (2,8 sec – 8,4 sec for 3 mantras)

I can see this may cause issues with heal, for example being able to spam it more often. Alternatively have a trait that provides for all mantras to be recharged at the same time.