Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, not trying to whip out a ruler and measure our Trueshots …

But out of curiosity, what are the highest Trueshots you’ve pulled off in PvP thus far?

Against Svanir with my build, without help 14.5k.

With some non-opimal buffing from a druid, 17.5k. This is Berserker Scholar crits with Force and Crit Chance sigil. Druid was providing the additional 15% damage buff and 10% damage buff, but forgot to get out the Frost Spirit and I was not at 25 might, foe was only at 20 Vuln.

Highest I recall in match against a player was 14k.

The more i think about it, this needs to be our Elitle Illusion.

Phantasmal Commander

15k hp in pvp and 30k in pve, 1s cast and 30s recast on death.

Lasts until shattered twice or slain. Increases health of illusions you control by 50% and continually grants them Quickness. While active, illusions you control do not fade upon a foes death.

Has a sub skill that can retarget your illusions to a new target, 5s recharge.

Ross Biddle.2367:

No.

Dead phantasms can’t have alacrity. Random cleave and AoE takes care of that

Boy dont you sound silly now lol

joaosequeira.2184:

Hi, i have sugestion (im not a pro but theres my 2 cents) if you use Sigil of the Smoldering on the warhorn instead of Agony sigil, you can pretty much spam signet of fire because the fire duration becomes 16s and the cooldown is 16s too, so you can perma burning all the time just from that skill and burning is stronger than bleeding, but maybe that depends on one’s preference :P

Definitely depends on how long you camp earth vs swaping through fire but yea the weapon sigils are definitely not set in stone

Woaden.9425:

Other than staff master all of the things you mentioned are possible with SB.

I don’t believe that the 10 endurance from a ‘staff master vault’ is near enough to call staff superior to SB in mobility.

SB’s infiltrator’s arrow travels 900 (vs 600), and is much faster with no aftercast.

So, do all the things you just mentioned, (dash is indeed awesome) but use the SB. You’ll go farther faster. Not to even mention vertical teleports.

I guess it boils down to how much the cheaper cost of staff 5 and the endurance return allowing for another 450 range dodge add up compared to short bow. The vertical mobility is definitely in short bows favor but damage evade frames and cost are in favor of vault.

Uriel.4865:

The Dodge Dash is not the best choice for a dardevil stick in my opinion.

The dash is fantastic for specialization dual pistols who needs mobility, but with the stick the other dodges are more interesting.

It depends. The damage dodge is great for sure, but my particular build uses staff and p/p so dash works wonders for my build. Depends on if staff is your primary combat strategy or your fall back, and in my case its my fall back aoe teamfight weapon to cover p/p lack of aoe damage.

Ohoni.6057:

Eh, it’s not bad, but SB does have its advantages. First is the ability to hop up onto certain areas that would take several times as long to climb manually (even with Swiftness and dodge/leaps). You mentioned it, but it’s important to note. Second is that it’s instant (when it lands) meaning you are here and then gone. This is great for confusing people. Staff can move you forward but it’s very clear where you’re going, not so clear with SB, making it easier to juke people moving non-linearly.

Most of your build concept works as well with SB as it does with Staff, minus a few endurance procs from the staff skill. It also means focusing very heavily on mobility options that are not as useful for anything else, meaning you’re sacrificing the ability to actually do things when you get where you’re going. Other DD builds are almost as mobile while being considerably more combat-effective. I mean, good for a footrace, but not terribly practical.

They still need to bring back the original Feline Grace though.

Fair points, but most of the utilities and elite are still interchangeable to what ever the player desires, as are the other two trait lines and alternate weapon set.

My build used staff and p/p in Marauder with DA/CS/DrD to have a very solid damage output while the utilities were all physicals, which allowed me to deal with stuns, lock people down from range with immobilize to land more of my unload successfully (e.g. more efficient use per initiative rather than spamming), and using the fist flurry to trade blows rapidly in melee range after a knockdown from Bandit’s defense. The Impact strike combo elite was very, very effective at +1ing someone who was a bit low with a Sigil of Intelligence swap to have 100% crit on all three hits.

Sigil of Intel with multiple Vaults is also some very reliable and high damage.

Not saying the build is perfect obviously, as a defensive condi build was its bane, but i could literally just run away from them and heal, and be more useful elsewhere if it came to that. It was fantastically effective in Stronghold where mobility is king.

Khazik.8052:

I like how we’re basing the strengths of a class on it’s ability to leave/disengage a fight, rather finish it….

Am I the only one who thinks thats F’d up?

It still also gets INTO a fight, can finishing people off well, and be on its marry way. I’d say this is infinitely better than just “being good in a fight.”

I love this idea, never knew I wanted it but now I need it

I love to run persistent phantasm builds. I’d like to See it still redirect damage from allies to itself, but also gain a significant health boost and also gain your effect, and remove it from the trait and replace the trait version with something else.

Being able to “switch” all my phantasms to a new target would be a huge utility I’d love to have, and I’d gladly give up a utility slot for that function.

Phantasmal Commander: Summon a banner wielding Phantasm with high health to lead your other Illusions. Existing illusions switch targets to assist the commander when he is summoned. The commander attempts to follow the nearest ally near the foe, and redirects 50% of incoming damage from allies to itself and grants continual Might (15s) to nearby allies.

Every gushes about the mobility potential of Shortbow, but Short Bow can be beat in terms of pure speedy mobility with the synergy of a certain combinations of traits and the Staff.

Basically the combo for near infinite dashes and Staff leaps goes:

Brawler’s Tenacity trait, Staff Master trait, and Unhindered Combatant, along with staff + Channeled Vigor heal.

Dash, lose 50 Endurance, use Staff 5, gain 10 Endurance back, Dash again, lose 50 Endurance, Staff 5 to gain 10 Endurance back, Dash again to lose 50 Endurance, Staff 5 again to get 10 more back, now we’ve gained half 30 Endurance just from the staff 5, but then we can channel the Heal to get 110 Endurance back, and then Dash again, and shortly after another staff 5 will be available, but by this time you’ve already gone from near to far in pvp or clear out of any chasing zerge in WvW.

Short bows teleport goes slightly further and faster, but it also costs slightly more initjative, does not have evade frames, and can fail. It does have its benefits in traversing up vertical spaces which is very useful on some maps and useless on others. No reason a build couldnt use both either potentially, but for general use purpose id say staff could certainly replace short bow in plenty of builds for many situations.

On top of this, you have permanent swiftness, Evade on the start of each Vault, and remove Immobilize, Cripple, and Chill with each Dash.

I honestly do not see how any build can prevent such a build from disengaging on a whim. I love this build for its mobility, but I fear it may bring Daredevil to a state in competitive PVP in which it can be anyware it wants, and can get out of any fight in which its not instantly locked down and killed while stunlocked (even though, Bandit’s Defense!)

Channeled Vigor is on a 16 second recharge and now channels its effect in under a second. This means every 17 seconds you are getting back at minimum 110 Endurance, +10 Endurance per Vault, and Vaults range is getting fixed to work properly to its full distance along with its Evade component, and if you happen to steal to something thats another +50 Endurance. This also doesnt consider that you could run the Signet that provides another +100 Endurance.

I’m not saying its broke or overpowered, but it certainly did feel extreme. I think people are vastly underestimating how potent this mobility will be.

In particular in Stronghold, it runs supply faster than anything I’ve seen, since unlike Mesmer portal it doesn’t really ever have a cool-down or have to stop. It can also get into the lord room, kill some guards, and get the hell out with little the foe can do to stop it. It can contest a treb like no one’s business as well, as the treb user should never be able to land a hit on the Daredevil, then it can just keep hitting the treb with hit and run tactics, or take out gate guards super easy and run away.

To provide an example of the above change:

If I stayed in Fire Attunement and used Fire Overload on cooldown, combat would go like:

(assuming I just swapped into fire during combat)

• Use abilities for 5 seconds until overload fire is available.
• Channel Overload Fire for 4 seconds, it then goes on 10 second Recharge and leaves a lingering fire tornado for a while.
• Cast more abilities that are off cooldown, use some utilities, use auto attack
• Fire Overload is available again, begin channeling again.
• Use abilities in between overload again.

If at any time I swapped out of Fire, I would have Recharge added to any existing;y recharged fire attunement from the overload. So if I swapped right after an Overload, the 10 second recharge on fire from the overload would be increased to 20 seconds without arcane trait line, or 18 seconds if using arcane.

This would cement Tempest as a camping strategy specialization that strongly benefits builds that camp the appropriate attunement for the given circumstance.

Jekkt.6045:

well if tempest minors wouldn’t be so restrictive they could add buffs to staying in an attunement there.

Agreed, my idea to make it work better is twofold:

Current minors are rolled into base line functionality of Overload, one of the two minors gains “Stability on Overload” for 4 seconds. The open minor spot becomes “Singularity of Focus” which would increase the Tempest’s damage, healing, and condition damage by 2% per second they remain in an attunement, capping at +20%, and resetting on swaps.

Secondly, I would change the Overload Mechanic slightly. Overloads would place your attunement on a 10 second Recharge after completing, but if you swap OUT of the attunement you are in, then you also incur the swaping attunement timer in addition to the overload’s timer. This would mean that you could overload back to back faster by remaining in the same attunement, OR you could swap out and have a longer recharge since you’re adding on the swap timer.

This also means that there is some small benefit to stacking Arcane with Tempest, as you could still swap faster since it would reduce the cooldown from swaping, just not the independent cool down from the Overload itself.

The net effect is that an elementalist could specialize in a specific attunement of choice if they wish, taking the -33% recharge timer traits and accompanying trait line, and primarily camp one attunement if desired based on their build and combat needs. Being able to use each Overload essentially 5 seconds after its storm dissipates is very, very powerful and would make the Tempest feel more like a persistent storm caller.

OneKlicKill.4285:

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

princode.2750:

We still have d/d ele spec to fall back of tempest wont workout fot us. D/e spec will still be the strongest even with the release of new spec

After 3 years of exactly the same spec a lot of people get bored though. That’s why I’m gonna change to Revenant main in HoT, so much new fun stuff.

100% this. Tempest has failed to captivate a majority of the eles who have been around since pre launch. It was an utter flop and disregard for feedback. I will be playing rev as well. It’ll hold the players who are captivated by shinny but tempest is not the fast paced class we all love.

Speak for yourself and only yourself please.

I for one happen to enjoy the tempest and I’m happy to see it continually improve. It expands my options in the areas that I would like to use my Elementalist, such as mid to close range wide area support, healing, and control.

I think it is very good at that, and at doing what an Elite specialization should do: Change the way you play, not be a huge upgrade over base options. But I guess I like Dragonhunter and Daredevil for the same reasons, as both offer unique new play styles to each class that were not possible before with said class.

Sunshine.5014:

Swiftwynd.1685:

If doing a full hard core no damage at all tank you could do staff clerics or nomad and camp water with soothing mist triat water 1 spam with signet of regen and practically afk save for having to dodge occasionally

+1 Staff Water is a much better tank.

Yea but it deals no damage. The nice thing of the above build is it still contributes damage while being surficently durable and self sustaining.

If doing a full hard core no damage at all tank you could do staff clerics or nomad and camp water with soothing mist triat water 1 spam with signet of regen and practically afk save for having to dodge occasionally

Trueshot Issues:

Unlike most ranged abilities in GW2, it is very easy to miss a max range Trueshot on a moving target due to the self immobilize.

In pvp, another player at 1200 range could slightly backpeddle to completely avoid the damage by watching our animations.

As such, could trueshot have 1,200 range limitation to start the cast, but allow its after cast range check reach out to 1,500 range to help it land on fleeing foes more reliably?

If this is not technically possible, increasing Trueshots range to 1,500 would help tremendously.

The only, and I mean ONLY change I’d like to see to Trueshot, is to have it gain 1,500 after-cast range AFTER you have begun casting it, so that if used at max 1,200 range and a foe moves during the cast, it would still likely land.

In pvp, I’d have seen some smart players who would see me standing still, knowing im at max range, and they would just barely walk backwards to avoid the hit, then move back to 1,200 range and keep hitting me with their range. It needs some forgiving bonus range since, unlike most other ranged skills, we lose distance when chasing our foe while trying to use it.

Axialbloom.8109:

How often did you go into water?

I went into water occasionally to heal up a bit, but in the build i was using at the time i had no healing power, but still had heal on auras, which was around 1kish if i recall, and i was running full shout-auras and Wash the Pain Away.

With my above build it will be far superior at healing to full with a water swap, and using water overload for emergency healing for self or allies, then a quick swap through fire to mightstack, then back to earth to keep up the bleeds and protection. It plays like a looooong rotation swap, in which you sit in each attunement long enough to overload fully then on to the next as needed.

The Sand Squall is a Tempest build that focuses on maximizing personal survival, sustain, and condition damage to contribute offense while managing the positioning of the boss at all times to best suit the raid’s goals.

The goal of the Sand Squall elementalist is to:

• Position the Boss at all times, focusing on keeping the boss as stationary as possible, while avoiding mechanics that would interfere with this (e.g. the forced teleport)
• Maintain permanent Protection on them-self (enhanced to 40% mitigation with trait), and on any nearby melee allies who can be in range behind the boss.
• Provide enough self-sustain to need minimal healing from anyone else if possible. A healing-specialized Revenant’s Regeneration should suffice.
• Maintain as many Bleed and Burning stacks as possible without sacrificing any of the above.

Traits, Weapons, and Utilities can be adjusted as needed to account for the unique aspects of each raid fight, so long as the above goals are met. Use your personal judgement!

Here is the Build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJBLhFyxgiIW2A/GQHxiGg52XDsFWiWwKINOEAWAVAA-TxRAABdq+DAnAgA1DYmyPm2fI6HAgjKBJFwiSjA-e

This particular variant seeks to maximize Toughness as the primary stat, while still achieving as much condition damage and sustained healing as possible.

Warhorn is ideal for situations in which the raid boss will not require an invulnerability, else Focus would be idea. Dagger offhand does not suit this build’s goals. Focus’s Flame Wall is also handy for keeping up burn and offering a fire field if needed, but again, not really required as Warhorn fire also has a long lasting fire field.

Primarily, we would be camping Earth, only occasionally swapping to fire if we’re already high on health and wish to fire off extra burn and might stacking skills, overload fire, then return to earth to continue taking very, very little damage.

Earth Scepter’s auto attack is wonderful for maintaining bleeds, even in the event that you need to reposition the boss. It doesn’t trigger Signet of Renewal as fast as I’d like, but it serves its purpose. Swapping into water for additional healing sustain is very strong, and overload water could be used to heal yourself or nearby allies to full very quickly.

Additionally, Writ in Stone allows us to activate our signets on cool-down to reap the benefits at no cost. This wonderful trait would only be changed if the boss fight has any heavy condition or Critical Hit elements, in which case Diamond Skin or Stone Heart would be used for maximum protection.

The source of this build’s amazing defense is mixing Settles armor and Apothecary Jewelry to have a very high toughness and HP value, along with additional sources of Toughness, such as Earth trait-line, Signet of Earth, and a maintained Scepter Earth #2. All of this is supported by the raw healing of Signet of Renewal, and the healing from Water abilities, the Water Elemental Elite, and the very strong healing over time of Soothing Mist and burst healing of Water Overload.

This makes this build incredibly self-sufficient in terms of tanking the boss, and provided no one else in the raid is running a similar set up, you should almost be certain to have the highest total armor in the raid, allowing you to be the boss’s primary focus.

I was able to test a similar build out in the BWE3 raid preview, but it was focused on a Dire stat set up. Even with this inferior set up, I was only being hit by the boss for less than 2,000 damage per hit, which I suspect will be far lower with the above build. My condition damage will be slightly less, but my ability to self-sustain will be far greater, and thus my ability to keep the boss precisely where I want him and as IMMOBILE as I want him, will be amazing.

With the first boss, the only situations in which you should have to move even an inch is:

a.) When he summons the blue lightning aoe under himself, in which case you move back or dodge, then return to your position or move him slightly.
b.) When the lightning aoe that raid members need to stand in spawns more then 1,200 range away, in which case you reposition him to be in range of your ranged damage team.

Even with my inferior set up, I was able to keep the boss completely still for maybe 80% of the time.

Lastly, during the Split phase, this build transitions into a condi damage team member for Red boss very easily, while offering them some healing sustain and protection up-time and might stacking if needed, and revives like a champ.

I firmly believe that this build will be one of the top meta Tank builds in GW2, depending on future content, and will have the flexibility to adapt to almost any tanking scenario I can imagine.

Love to hear your thoughts!

CandyHearts.6025:

As it looks right now. . . Cleric’s or Zealot’s seems the best way to go imo. We don’t know if they’ll add any condi to staff so personally I’m waiting until the 23rd to buy any gear. I don’t want to waste laurels on a build that would feel useless.

Condi based Healing druids may not have to use staff. Axe + Torch might work for a heavily condi focused druid who builds A.F. with damage and pops into C.A.F. as needed to heal.

It all depends on how the numbers work out.

Knighthonor.4061:

Eurantien.4632:

If you want to heal a bunch but still do decent damage then you have to go with Apothecary imo.

Explain please. …

Physical damage on any every class without crit chance and ferocity is very, very low.

Condition damage only requires Condition Damage and Duration to contribute significant offensive pressure.

Ergo, if a class has any condi weapons available and can heal, it will offer more damage while healing than alternatives.

This is why Tempests will, in my humble opinion, be a bit better equipped for raid healing WHILE offering consistently good damage.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Tanking on one boss is by highest toughness so ele can’t pull that off. I’ll have to review the raid footage again, but I think the boss moves too much for staff or dagger to be useful, especially if they up the difficulty.

Elementalists can achive the highest armor potential in the game, or close enough to not matter.
Source: tanked for my raid with over 3k armor.

nearlight.3064:

Not really that into raids, but a poster here discussed a condition tempest build that she did quite well with for the content. It was D/WH rabid/sinister and used earthen proxy to ensure it had enough damage mitigation with all of its toughness that the signet heal could sustain the attacks that weren’t wholly dodgeable, and apparently the burn output and boonshare skills with such a build ended up being quite high. I’d imagine you’d start out in earth to stack protection with earth overload, then camp fire to burn everything forever.

Might have been me

I tanked for my raid in dire gear and had no issues really with keeping the boss highly immobile and just face tanking the damage from its frontal aoe. If i had taken a toughness healing and condi stat combo i would have been even better off for self sustainability.

The bleed contribution from earth overload and scepter warharn was good. Now that i know that the boss has no crit mechanics, i could have swapped between earth and fire more reliably, and would change my traits up a 6bjt to have more sigils with Writ in Stone and maybe take earthen shield.

The thing is everyone thinks the boss has to move a lot, but with the tempest ele tank style the boss inly moves if you have to dodge out of the blue teleport aoe or if the lightning aoe is too far for your rdps to hit. This makes an ele tank actually extremely effective if you have damage styles that work best on stationary foes, which eles and thieves excel at.

Totally bet Staff 2 on Druid will launch a deadly spirit Raven that will constantly peck our foes.

Durzlla.6295:

I would imagine that we’d have some sort of bonus to casting glyphs tied to the rune since the reason anet gave for giving us existing skill types was to enable runes that worked with them. However, i do like your take on it too, a lot actually.

I … could work with a Glyph rune idea

Rune of Ranger V.2
(1): +25 Healing Power
(2): +2% Outgoing Healing to Allies
(3): +50 Healing Power
(4): +3% Outgoing Healing to Allies; Glyphs recharges are reduced by 10 seconds when you change Forms or Attunements (10s RC)
(5): +100 Healing Power
(6): Activating a Glyph causes your next Glyph used in a different Form or Attunement to be 50% more effective.

Oh i love posts like these, I’ll chime in

Spirit weapon Staff:

Summon a Spirit Staff that follows the Guardian, firing off the staff 1 auto from guardians staff that heals allies and dazes foes for 1 second, firing the skill every 4 seconds. Staff can be destroyed, like other spirit weapons.

Command: Ground target, staff leaps into the air and descends at target location, applying 3 second daze and begins to cast the Empower animation, healing nearby allies significantly over three pulses. Heals less than “Receive the Light” but wider area and lower recharge.

Traits:
The staff’s healing Arc and Daze on Command would apply Burning from the trait.

Ancestral Spirit – Elite

Summon a Spirit Warrior that assaults foes and redirects 50% of damage from allies to itself. Very, very durable companion that is summoned as a randomized ghostly character of your race. Default summons is dual wielding swords and does leaps and auto attacks, sticking to foes well. Spirit Weapons used while Ancestral Spirit is summoned are instead wielded by the Spirit Warrior and are improved. Ancestral Spirit’s duration is 45 seconds, with a 2 minute recharge that begins upon summoning.

Command:
Command becomes what ever the most recently used Spirit Weapon is, but if none are summoned, it defaults to Ancestral Gift – Heal the Guardian for 50% of the Ancestral Spirit’s remaining health and consume the spirit.

Traits:
Simple burn on attack and cool down reductions.

Counter:
Foes would be highly encouraged to focus down the Ancestral Spirit, as leaving it alive in a prolonged fight is to the Guardian’s favor, particularly as damage is redirected to it anyway. Focusing down the Guardian may work if you are condition damage heavy. As always, Moa Morph is freaking op as hell to counter.

Sanctuary – Elite

Simply put, I’d hardcore buff Sanctuary to be the premier bad-kitten super saver skill as the Elite. Area increased to cover a capture point’s worth of space, and it would have an improved heal and pulse Aegis to all allies within every second, and would prevent Downed allies from losing health naturally while also healing them for 4% per pulse (20% total over the 5 second duration of Sanctuary.

This would make it worth its 180 cool-down and worth competing with our very nice Elite options.

Replace Sanctuary’s now vacant slot with:

Arena of Courage – 45 second Recharge.

Create an Arena at your location that pulses Protection to allies for 2 seconds each second. Foes who attempt to leave the Arena are Taunted (3s). Lasts for 6 seconds.

What kind of rune do you imagine the Druid specialization will get?

I guess we’ll know for sure in a week’s time, but what type of rune can you guys come up with for the Druid?

I’ll start off with an idea I had:

Rune of the Druid
(1): +25 Healing Power
(2): +2% Outgoing Healing to Allies
(3): +50 Healing Power
(4): +3% Outgoing Healing to Allies; when you activate an ability that heals an ally, deal damage in an area around the healed ally. Damage scales with Healing Power. (10s RC)
(5): +100 Healing Power
(6): When you heal another ally, convert 10% of your Healing Power into Power for 10 seconds; stacks 5 times.

This Rune would work perfectly for a druid who wishes to focus heavily on healing, almost as good as Monk Rune, but who also wishes to contribute some offensive potential by transitioning their healing power into offensive power when needed.

I’d honestly eventually just like to see a stat menu selection system with the following options:

3-Stat Configuration
Select a Primary and two Secondary stats, like our current three-stat amulet values.

4-Stat Configuration
Select Two Primary and two Secondary stats, like with Marauder.

Remove Celestial. Celestial generally favors only a few builds and classes, and leaves builds with no “real weakness” unlike the above two options. The above two options should offer what Celestial was really supposed to do: give hybrid builds more options.

This would be the simplest way to add on to the system in my opinion. If certain combinations are egregiously too strong, I’d rather review the stat system itself to see if systematic changes are needed rather than simply preventing certain combinations.

As it stands, Power-Precision-Ferocity are a bit too intrinsically linked, while Toughness is really not as valued as it probably should be.

I wouldn’t mind a PvP specific change so that base armor across all classes was reduced, while reducing the benefit of Power slightly and increasing the potency of Ferocity a tad. Basically, Power based non-crit builds against a player with low or no Toughness should be effective, and high power/crit/critdam builds should be very effective against low toughness builds, but moderate to high investments in toughness should be very valuable to protect against physical damage, at the cost of not protecting well against Conditions obviously without Vitality.

And healing power being underwhelming isnt news to anyone. It likely needs either additional functionality or scaling to be increased and base values to go down on things like Water Blast finishers and base heals across all classes.

Lastly, Boon Duration and Condition Duration really need to be standardized into proper Stats similar to Ferocity so that we can place these on Amulets and maybe change their values on Runes as well.

By pushing Boon/Condi Duration onto Amulet stats, we can remove some of the “Dire Stat” issues in which condi builds only care about maxing condi damage then dumping the rest into defense.

XGhoul.7426:

Perplexity since you guys thought it was a good idea the first time around.

/s

I want them in, but rebalanced to be more fair across all game modes.

There really should be +45% “specific condition” runes for EVERY type of condition and boon. If a player wishes to specialize their build toward heavily favoring specific conditions or boons, I think it should be encouraged and allowed.

It creates better “peaks and valleys” of power if builds can favor more extremes than broad increases (e.g. why Celestial can be overbearing but Marauder feels more balanced, or heavy general condition or boon duration could be overpowered but just +45% to only Might isnt too bad.)

Anyone have opinions on such a systematic change? Good bad or otherwise?

nearlight.3064:

This would be cool but will probably never happen. The devs have issues implementing changes that involve creating new coding as opposed to simple changing numbers and adding effects, as evidenced by typical balance changes and the fact that teleporting through purging flames still burns you, along with so many other weird coding bugs in the game.

I agree that the scale of such a change of this size and scope would take a significant amount of time and resources for the developers to get it done right, and would likely have a huge list of bugs at first, but i think this change is necessary for improving the use of combos and they should take there time implementing this well after hots launch.

Valento.9852:

Well… I’ve been hearing some guild talks from Sickest Guild (World First Kill for Vale Guardian), and EG. It looks like our squishy nature, and unstable/inconsistent design won’t help with dynamic raids, only same stationary ones. Not sure if Tempest will have a truly WORTH place in raids. I’m gearing my Engineer.. I’m kinda too sad about Tempest and Ele.

Their opinion doesn’t really mean that much. Their world first, while nice, was very limited in scope due to the small window of opportunity. This basically means they get huge points in my book for their determination, organization, and “quick” adjustments and optimization, but they are not going to be the be all end all of what “should be used” in raids considering we’ve experienced only 1/3 of one wing of three wings thus far.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestions-Combo-Finisher-Overhaul/first#post5611323

This post discusses a proposal for updating Combos + Finishers to make all of them relevant for all modes of game play, and encouraging a variety of build stat combinations to maximize their effectiveness.

The primary mechanic change is that all effects produced from Combo Fields and Finishers will take the highest “stat” of the two players to produce the final Effect.

For example, a Berserker ranger shooting a Projectile Finisher through a Sinister Elementalist’s Fire Wall will use the Elementalist’s Condition Damage and Duration on the resulting Fire Projectile Finisher.

Additionally, all “Armors” from the combo fields would be correctly worded and coded as Auras, and this would have another very pertanent effect on Auras: Any Aura would also use the higher “value” stat between the two players, and would count as being activated for both players to trigger any traits or runes.

This would mean that, for example, if you applied Lightning Aura to an ally by placing a field or using our Aura Share, it would use the highest daze duration modifier between the two players, AND any Dazes it produces could trigger Lightning Rod.

I’d love to hear your feedback on this post and that one, weather you agree that such a system would be healthy and promote better group play, or if you think it would completely disrupt the game in an unhealthy way.

Eager to hear your collective thoughts!

TL:DR

• Fields and Finishers need to be more rewarding on the whole, and player’s variety of builds should reflect their overall potential.
• Combo Fields and Finishers now use which ever stat is higher, the Field Placing Player -or- the Finisher using player.
• All Combos should become weaker at base line, with higher potential scaling than currently available if either Player has invested in the stats that will boost the combo.

(I.E. Condition Damage Elementalist drops a Flame Wall in front of a Berserker Longbow Ranger, the condition damage and duration from the Elementalist will provide the Burn damage and duration. Similarly, Water Field Blast would be cut in half on its base value, but tripped or more on its healing power contribution, and if a high healing power player places the water field, it would have more healing potential when blasted than it currently does.)

Introduction

I think it high time that that this system, a core system that has been roughly left in place since the launch of the game over three years ago, needs a complete balance review.

There exist certain combinations that are core to the balance of the game, that have such an impact that they shape the entire game meta for challenging content, while other combinations have legitimately no use in regular game play, and even may be detrimental if they override the more powerful combinations.

Additionally, in general, it does not feel rewarding to use most combinations, particularly those which result in a damage Condition being applied, if the Finisher player has not invested in Condition Damage and Duration.

When the game was being teased pre-beta and Launch, Combo Fields and Finishers were touted to be something that coordinated players would enjoy performing with each other, that players would go out of their way to position Fire Walls with Projectile finisher players, or set up poison fields for allies. Sadly this has never been realized outside of a choice few combinations, with virtually all requiring Blast finishers.

Now that raids are going to be a thing, and certain combat tasks are now mandatory, I think it is time to fully realize the potentials that Combo Fields and Finishers could mean for Guild Wars 2’s unique combat, and here is how:

Currently, using a Combo Finisher in a Field uses the Stats of the Combo Finisher Player, and the Field placing Character’s stats have absolutely no impact on the end result. This absolutely needs to change for Combos to have relevance in challenging content.

Similarly, some Combo Fields + Finishers reward base values and using them multiple times rather than either player investing in a stat to improve them (i.e. water fields being blast without healing power, Might from Fire fields lasting long enough baseline to ignore needing Might duration).

With all that said, here are my proposed changes. The goal is to have four fields that have good synergy with Power damage, and four with good synergy with Condition damage, while the final two primarily benefit from Healing Power, but almost all categories of Fields can benefit from Boon Duration and/or Condition Duration.

Global

• All Combo Fields and Finishers now use the highest value of either the Finisher or Field placing character’s stats to determine their values.
• All “Armors” renamed Auras, and are effected as Auras by Runes, Traits, and Sigils. The Auras produced utilize the highest stats between the two players just as the other Combo effects do.
• Whirl Finishers now attempt to strike the nearest valid targets instead of randomly firing.

Fields that Favor Condition Players:

Fire Fields

• Blast – Might reduced to 2 per Blast, duration increased to 30 seconds from 20 seconds.
• Leap – Fire Aura 5s (aura’s burning and Might generation use highest value from either Finisher or Field placer)
• Projectile – Burning increased to 1.5 seconds baseline.
• Whirl – Same as above.

Poison Fields

• Blast – Area Weakness for 3 seconds, no change.
• Leap – Weakness 6 seconds, down from 8.
• Projectile – Poison increased to 4 seconds baseline from 2.
• Whirl – Same as above

Ethereal Fields

• Blast – Area Chaos Aura for 3 seconds (aura’s Conditions and Boons use highest value from either Finisher or Field placer)
• Leap – Chaos Aura 5 seconds.
• Projectile – Confusion reduced to 4 seconds baseline from 5.
• Whirl – Same as above.

Earth Fields —NEW—

• Blast – Area Magnetic Aura for 3 seconds (Reflect’s Crit Chance is based on highest Precision between the two Players)
• Leap – Magnetic Aura 5 seconds.
• Projectile – Applies 1 Bleed for 8 seconds.
• Whirl – Same as above.

Fields that Favor Power Players:

Dark Fields

• Blast – Area Blindness 3s, added area Life Steal that damages foes and heals allies, separate scaling with power and healing power.
• Leap – Blindness 3s, added area Life Steal that damages foes and heals allies, separate scaling with power and healing power.
• Projectile – Life stealing bolts that scale like the above effects, Damage changed from 230 (0.03) to 150 (.15) and Healing from 202 (0.1) to 150(.15) (both significantly improved with scaling)
• Whirl – same as above.

Smoke Fields

• Blast – Area Stealth 2 seconds, down from 3 seconds. Stealth now becomes a Boon, while Revealed now becomes a condition.
• Leap – Stealth for 3 seconds, now a Boon.
• Projectile – Blind 3 seconds, added small additional power based damage on hit, 150(.15).
• Whirl – same as above.

Lightning Fields

• Blast – Area Swiftness for 7.5 seconds, down from 10.
• Leap – Lightning Aura 5 seconds, Daze duration scales with highest duration from both players, triggers On Interrupt and On Daze effects from both players.
• Projectile – 2 Vulnerability for 10 seconds, up from 5, added small additional power based damage on hit, 150(.15).
• Whirl – same as above.

Ice Fields

• Blast – Area Frost Aura 3 seconds (scaling on Chill from Frost Aura scales with condition duration of highest player in combo)
• Leap – Frost Aura 5 seconds, read above.
• Projectile – Chill 1 second, added small additional power based damage on hit, 150(.15).
• Whirl – Same as above.

Fields that Favor Healing Power / Boon Duration:

Water Fields

• Blast – Area Healing, Values changed from 1,320 (0.2) to 660 (.6) and scales with Outgoing Healing Power. (Significantly improved healing potential if one player has invested in Healing Power and Outgoing Healing.)
• Leap – Healing, Values changed from 1,300 (0.5) to 650 (1.5) and scales with Outgoing Healing Power. (Now this becomes a very, very strong heal if one player invests in healing power, theoretical maximum potential of 5,439 if player has 2,000 healing power and +49% outgoing healing increase).
• Projectile – 2 seconds Regeneration, no change. Regeneration now uses highest player’s healing power, outgoing healing, and boon duration.
• Whirl – same as above.

Light Fields

• Blast – Area Retaliation 3s changed to Area Light Aura (3s). Retaliation from Light Aura scales with Power of highest player, Duration of highest player, and Vulnerability from Condition Duration of highest player.
• Leap – Light Aura 5 seconds, same as above.
• Projectile – Removes Condition and now Heals for moderate amount if condition removed 500 (.5) Healing Power scaling.
• Whirl – same as above.

In general, I’d love to see each rune have a unique effect at the 4 and 6 tier, and open up more variability in what is allowed in tier 1, 2, and 5. I’d love to see runes that trade of raw stats for additional Boon or Condi duration increases, or reduced incoming condi duration etc. I’d love to have more options for performing and countering certain condi builds with such runes, or to offer more raw support options to heavily invest in specific boons, similar to reworking other runes to function more like Rune of Strength.

For example, a +45% Protection rune set, or +45% Regeneration rune set, heck even a Quickness themed rune set. Similarly, condition sets for +45% Bleed, Poison, Torrent, and Confusion to match the Burning options.

Lastly, I’d love to see some “Conversion” sets that really swing things heavily to provide more hybrid builds options, such as:

Rune of the Druid
(1): +25 Healing Power
(2): +2% Outgoing Healing to Allies
(3): +50 Healing Power
(4): +3% Outgoing Healing to Allies; deal damage in an area around a healed ally for half the healed value (10s RC)
(5): +100 Healing Power
(6): When you heal an ally, convert 10% of Healing Power into Power for 10 seconds; stacks 5 times.

Zalani.9827:

Trapper runes could be interesting.

+1 to trapper runes, I would like to see “something” change with the perma invis thief trapper build though if they are going to make it into PvP.

Additionally, I’d really think its about time we see full support to any of the new conditions with Sigils updated. We need duration sigils, proc sigils, swap sigils, et all for Slow, Confusion, and maybe some of the new Boons as well where appropriate, particularly in runes.

Good example is the Rune of Resistance could … well you know … have some awesome Resistance synergy to help builds that struggle with Condis. Thief, I’m looking at you:

Rune of Resistance:
(1): +25 Toughness
(2): -5% Incoming Condition Duration
(3): +50 Toughness
(4): -10% Incoming Condition Duration, gain 3 seconds of Resistance when you have 3 or more Damaging Conditions (10s RC, counts individual bleed/burn/poison/confusion stacks to trigger)
(5): +100 Toughness
(6): When you activate a heal skill, gain 5 seconds of Resistance (Cooldown: 20s)

This would significantly help certain classes with low condi removal have a defensive option they could use at the cost of not taking another rune set that might offer superior offensive or utilitarian options. The entire rune works well for its intended purpose: Lower condi duration in the hopes that the Resistance it applies will help you outlast the burst of some high damage condis like burning, but it doesnt permanently remove the threat, and is vulnerable to boon stripping.

Josh Davis.6015:

Hmmm, new amulets. Aside from zealots, anything else you folks think would be interesting?

I’d love a full pass on all Rune sets to bring them up to par with each other and to expand existing options.

As far as amulets go, other than Sinister, I’d looooove to see more Marauder-type amulets which focus on two primary and two sub stats. I think this would open the door for a bigger variety of support, bruiser, and mixed-damage type builds without creating “all around good” builds like Celestial which have no weaknesses.

Each of the following amulets has definite places in existing builds and classes, while not creating the “no weaknesses” aspect of Celestial.

Example Amulets:

Petulant: (condi damage builds who also want some sustain over max damage, Necro, Ranger, and Engineer would likely enjoy these)

• Condition Damage and Toughness primary
• Healing Power and Vitality secondary.

Regrowth: (great for self-sustain, team support bunker builds with condi damage as their primary, but weak, offensive tool. Would be amazing for many Tempest, Guardian, and Druid builds)

• Toughness and Healing Power primary
• Vitality and Condition damage secondary

Tenacity: (great to bolster up low base health Bunker options for Thief, Elementalist, and Guardian)

• Vitality and Toughness primary
• Power and Precision secondary

Raider (these would be good for classes with medium to high base health who wish to primarily focus on physical damage while still having moderate condition damage options, ie many Warrior, Guardian, Engineer, and Revenant builds)

• Power and Precision primary
• Ferocity and Condition Damage secondary

Abyssal: (good for any class with crit mechanics, ie Reaper, Elementalist’s Arcane skills, Thief’s 100% crit from stealth etc, Sigil of Intel synergy etc)

• Power and Ferocity primary
• Toughness and Vitality secondary

Devastator: (be-all offensive all-in rune for hybrid offense builds that wish to use physical and condition damage equally well, but which forgo all defensive options, excellent for Warriors and Necromancers due to innate tankyness, but could lead to some interesting glassy Elementalist, Thief, and Guardian builds that live on their reactive defenses)

• Power and Condition Damage primary
• Ferocity and Precision secondary

Had a flash of inspiration last night.

What if Overloads had seperate, lower recharge timers that stacked with attunement swap timers?

For example, what if using an Overload placed the attunement on a 10 second timer, which would increase further if you changed attunements like normal?

This would allow the Tempest to Overload more frequently if sticking to a single attunement, but would not change the current system much if frequently switching, although this would once again allow arcane to lower the total recharge rate since it would still lower the swap recharge.

Do you think this could be the mechanic shift we’ve been clammering for to make a strong playstyle shift option for players who wish to shift away from the rapid attunement shifting game play?

Id love a revampex tornado that has no abilities but rather changes its effects based on your attunement, and attunement passives would work with it.

Fire would be a flaming twister with burning application. Air would be current visual with bouncing lighting that deals most raw damage with vuln applied. Water would heal and cleanse conditions and partially revive downed allies. Earth would blind and reflect projectiles while applying protection.

All forms would knock back every 3 seconds and their above effects would e,tend beyond thsir knock back radius.

You know, now that Daredevil is shaping up to be a good “almost must have” line, with a lot going for it, it makes me happy that Acro isnt as strong as it used to be. Why? Because eventually we will have a second elite spec, hopefully Rifle-sniper based, and this will offer some interesting game play differences. Lacking Daredevil, future elite specializations will not have the amount of mobility or defensive options afforded by the DrD line, and as such, they can have their power placed in other areas.

For example, it may not be entirely unreasonable for a Sniper rifle set to have a 2,500 range, 3 second cast time shot, due to lacking the defensive and mobility options to constantly outrun other players. Maybe the Sniper line has more stealth synergy, which DD completely lacks.

It could be centered around sneaking into a good map position and +1ing people from a long distance, and make projectile reflects/destroy very important. Utility skills would be interesting to imagine though. Maybe thief’s version of turrets, to make a defensible holding position? Turrets with a heavy cc focus, giving the Sniper the ability to entrench? Thematically I’d love to see sturdy “Special Operatives” as the “turrets,” thieves from the “thief guild” with special tasks they perform regularly and on command.

Nike.2631:

Just want to highlight this thread about the water-attunement overload both because it’s clever and because there’s some good suggestions there I hope aren’t overlooked just because they set up a more focused space to look into options for the Tempest.

Sen… senpai noticed me! blush

:^) in truth though, i really do hope water attunement overload does get some lingering storm and waterfield to bring it into thematic synch with the other overloads.

The lingering storms are thematically the only storm calling element to the tempest so i feel they should be a big hilight feature.

Well if we look at the other three storms, they essentially continue to do what the channel was doing before but with a small twist.

I think creating the water field along with continuing the overloads cast effect is a start. What other mechanics could be a nice twist to fit with a water field?

I’d love it if Ice Bow could be reworked as a decent 1,200 range pure damage Conjure, using the long bow model instead of the short bow, and we could get a new Heal Skill Conjure: Conjure Water Mace.

We could have our healing / supportive Conjure moved to Water Mace, and it could be a nice melee healing play style, healing nearby allies, removing conditions, applying protection etc. Would go well with some base Elementalist builds and definitely some of my Tempest builds.

As far as new weapons for Elite Specs:

I’d definitely be on-board with Dual Claws / Fist weapons if we ever get a Cantha themed Elemental Specialization. This would be a single target, "2-hander’ set for the Elementalist that would focus on mobility, single target melee effects, and locking down and trading blows with a foe in melee range:

I’d call it the Disciple: The Disciple can activate their attunement while in it to become Devoted to that attunement, putting all other Attunements on recharge for 20 seconds, and greatly enhancing their current attunement as they channel the energies directly into their body, assuming their Elemental Form Disciplines.

Fire Discipline: Your Condition Damage and Damage are increased by 30%, and Recharge Timers are reduced by 25%. You receive +15% incoming damage and Condition damage.

Air Discipline: Your Activation times are decreased by 25%, you gain permanent Super Speed, and Recharge Timers are reduced by 25%. Incoming Cripple and Chill apply 1 second of Immobilize.

Water Discipline: Your Healing Power is increased by 25%, Healing Power contributes to your Power and Condition damage, and Recharge Timers are reduced by 25%. Poison’s healing reduction is increased to 50% when applied to you.

Earth Discipline: You receive -20% Condition Damage and Damage, gain Stability (3s) every 3 seconds, and Recharge Timers are reduced by 25%. Your movement speed is permanently reduced by -15%.

So there I was, minding my own business, when I get a call from some anonymous number.

It was Water Attunement, and I put all of its its blubbering tears, bloops, drips, and splashes through Google Translate, and finally figured out what it was trying to say:

“Water Attunement is deeply saddened that its other three siblings have nifty storms to play with after they party hard with their Overload, while poor little Water Attunement merely gets its bubble unceremoniously popped.”

I think we could cheer up the poor thing by adding a 4 second Storm to the end of it that continues it’s Overload effect, similar to the recently added Earth Overload Storm, and tack on a Water Field during the Overload and on the Storm, since Air and Fire both offer Fields as well.

Additionally, other players have also offered up the suggestion of having it partially revive allies during the channel and on the storm, maybe 3% per pulse? This would total to 27% healing to a downed ally’s revive bar if the entire duration of the Overload + 4 second Storm hit them.

Please, give Water Attunement a Storm effect to round out our Overloads. It wont stop calling, and its running up my phone bill!

Xillllix.3485:

Alekt.5803:

Personnally, I would like to see the water overload being able to heal downstated allies, with a slight increased heal on them.

I’ve proposed 2 things for the water overload;

First one was a cc potential: make enemies float around you while you are channeling in the floating bubble.

Second one was exactly what you are proposing: Make the water overload either res downed allies or heal them for 2-3 times more than normal allies.

I agree that how it is right now it is quite underwhelming, it’s just another heal and the effect is uninteresting.

That would certainly be cool.

Going a bit further, I’d like it if it could leave a storm behind so that it matches up with the other 3 Overloads, so something like:

“Create a surge of accumulated water magic, healing and cleansing allies while partially reviving downed allies. When the cast ends, leave a whirlpool Water Field that heals the area, applies regeneration, and partially revives downed allies. Using this skill causes the attunement to have a longer recharge.

Healing per pulse: 392 (0.05)
Revival per Pulse: 3% (5 pulses during Overload, 4 pulses during Storm, for total of 27% Revival)
Healing Final Healing: 2,132 (0.75)
Conditions Removed per Pulse: 1
Regeneration per Pulse from Storm (4s): 520 (2080 health total from 4 pulses)
Storm Duration: 4s
Interval: 1s
Combo Field: Water
Water Attunement Recharge: 20 s
Radius: 360
Breaks Stun

BUG FIX NEEDED:

Light’s Judgement and Dragon’s Maw

Both traps were not increased to 5 minute standard trap duration, and instead fade after 1 minute.

Please remember to fix these along with the other trap changes

FEEDBACK:

I’m really enjoying the above changes, but I still feel that Light’s Judgement needs more damage, a longer duration on the reveal, and maybe a brief Quickness tossed in to allow us to swiftly react to a stealth-ed character triggering it, maybe 4 seconds Quickness on trigger.

The Vulnerability on it is fine, but perhaps it could have no damage on activation, just vulnerability, and then 2 seconds later it deals a high burst of damage if the foe remains in the area? We lack a burst damage trap outside of Dragon’s Maw, and to a lesser extent, Test of Faith. Procession of Blades has the sustained damage covered well.

NEEDS TESTING/DEVELOPER CLARIFICATION:

Will Hunter’s Verdict pull foes through our traps with good positioning, and if so, will it allow us to pull a foe into Dragon’s Maw so that it can then pull them into its center, rather than it trigger during pull and the foe still end up at our location?

Example:

Foe is 1200 range, traps are placed at 600 range, and I’m obviously the 0 range point. If I pull a foes through all my traps, and Dragon’s Maw triggers, will the foe remain inside Dragon’s Maw (since it should be pulling them at this time) or will they be pulled through clear to me?

I sincerely hope the former is correct, and that pulling a foe through Dragon’s Maw leaves them in the trap!

OlliX.1705:

Luke.4562:

Make way, adulescents.

A large well similar to Elementalist’s Static Field and Necrid Trap from Lupicus.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Static_Field_
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Giganticus_Lupicus

A more proper Unholy, Dimensional Cage stopping people inside and maybe draining large amounts of health to heal the Necro and his teammates.

This would effectively combo with Wells, Minions, Marks, Epidemic…
Also it would give control in WvW, and solve some PVP focusfire and chasing problems Necro has.

omfg yes… o__o

Call it Well of Despair.

The Lupi cage will cause sooooo much Triggered in our enemies :^)

Coldtart.4785:

Being able to keep a boss stationary through sustain isn’t going to help against the vale guardian because the fight mechanics require you to move him around.

BTW you could just as easily ‘tank’ with a guard and have the advantage of also being a healer at the same time.

No it doesnt. It requires you to dodge its close range ground target teleport and reposition boss to be within range over the lightnjng aoes’s ranged damage dealers. This means 80% of the time you could keep him completely still, and i did it in our attempts. Jt also makes it super easy for a ventari or druid to target the heals for you.

Healing could be either through ether renewal or sig of restoration with sigil trait. Since bosses dont crit, swapping into water and taking improved Soothing Mist with high healing power is amazing sustainable healing too but you lose iut on condi damage upkeep.

Here is something people tend to never consider:

Tempest Elementalist can camp in Earth form, in Dire gear, can maintain good bleed stacks and can maintain permanent uptime on protection, which allows for some insane tanking capabilities.

This allows them to have a decent condition damage contribution through bleed stacking while being able to keep the boss STATIONARY, which most other tank builds cannot do. In fact, if the healing power set becomes an option instead of Dire, they could probably be completely self-sustained and free up healers to focus on other allies.

By keeping the boss stationary by face-tanking its hits and dodge-rolling through the teleporting aoes, this allows the normally non-viable Staff Ele and Greatsword Warriors and backstab Thieves to pull off their respective builds much more effectively, increasing the damage of the raid by a very significant amount. Sinister Engineers greatly benefit from stationary foes as well.

Additionally, if bosses ever have a type of critical hit mechanic at some point, Stoneheart will be very, very valuable.

Lastly, Elementalists can have the highest possible toughness + damage mitgation in the game, although Rangers also are quite fantastic in this area. If we ever have a boss that deals more consistent, high, sustained damage on the tank, the Tempest Earth camping tank will become even more valuable.

I think Apostate’s (Condi >Healing / Tough) would be a strong option if less defenses are needed to self-sustain, otherwise Settler’s (Toughness > Healing / condi) would offer better sustainability, while a support variant for a Tempest healer supporting the party would run Apothecary’s (Healing > Toughness / Condi)

Landaren.9875:

Yes it’s to high, nerf it.
No one is going to use the crappy bow or DH anyway, Original guardian is better in all aspects of game play.

The future tears of people like you shall sustain us Hunters of Dragons