Guild Wars 2

I just want to come in here and say. Sorry SoS

S/D is a more burst focused build I must say. Also to me our days of bunkering are over (others might say no). The old bunker build is 0/10/0/30/30 or 0/0/10/30/30 with MAX PTV gear but with that setup you do trash damage. IMO you should have both defensive gear and offensive gear. Also experiment with your traits a bit. If you want to know, I run with this build http://intothemists.com/guides/953-glass_cannon_dd_arcane_roaming_build

Well since I have time I’ll show you what I PERSONALLY think with the traits you came up with.

1. “Fiery Entity”
Well.. what you put makes it too good to be true. The only way to fix it is to remove some of it or tone it down so much that it won’t have a significant impact and will be useless.
– Fire Attunement recharges 20% faster.
Fire Attunement imo is a burst focus attunement focused on blowing all your skills for the most damage then switching out to other attunements. With most of those spells on a longer than 9 second CD (burning speed+RoF 15, Phoenix 20, Flame wall 20, Fire shield 40, meteor 30 etc..) The only use of this would be to switch in to use 1. your auto attack which is absolute trash except maybe scepter but that is outclassed by the air auto attack. or 2. Use your secondary skill (Drakes breath/Fire Font/Dragon’s Tooth) which aren’t reliable skills and thus not worth attuning into fire and putting it on a 7-12 second CD again.
– Take less damage in Water Attunement; You create Water field when Ice field ends.
This will require lots of tweaking to even be effective at all (damage reduction) As for water fields when ice ends, we have ONE ice field on a FORTY second CD. Since I believe this is geared more to staff ele, you should be more in the background anyways so you shouldn’t be face tanking the enemy melee train or random AoEs.
– Deal more damage in Air Attunement; Control effects burn.
We already have this in air master trait X (Deals 10% more damage in air)
– Regenerate health in Earth Attunement; You create Fire field after execute Blast finisher.
Once again we have this in water attunement (adept trait 5: Soothing mist)
I hope you understand how many fire fields we have and their CDs compared to our blast finishers right? We have 2 fire fields in D/D, 2 in Staff, 1 on Focus, adding more will be pretty useless since they are all on a much lower CD than our blast finishers.
-VIII “Vapour Pierce” – Water spells pierce and ignore defense.
Straight up broken. Staff water 2 is my main source of damage after unloading all my fire/earth spells and it does a LOT of damage over time (look at some GvGs and see how many of these you see in the air).
-IX “Searing Gale” – Air spells remove a boon.
Unless you have in ICD, it’s pretty much broken. 5 boons removed just for chaining 5 spells in S/D. Constant lightning whips = no boons at all. static fields can utterly destroy zergs by stripping might/protection/retal/stability.
-X “Molten Rock” – Earth spells explode on impact, dealing additional damage.
How would this work for PBAoE spells we have? The only skills that would work are Scepter 1,3 Staff 1,5 or Dagger 3. Scepters main source of damage is in air and it pretty much outclasses the other 3 auto attacks, staff 1 is very much inferior to air 1 or fire 1, dagger 3 doesn’t even do much damage at all.
-VIII “Backdraft” – Fire spells pull foes into center of AoE when you land a critical hit.
Don’t know how this works for anything EXCEPT lava font. It’s just so strange I don’t see what it can do. I assume you want to make it easier to group up enemies right? However a guardian GS5/Hammer5 does a better job of grouping up enemies than this would ever accomplish.
-VIII “Steam” – Fire spells blind burning foes.
seems useless to me unless you go scepter. D/D only reliable burn is drakes breath but most fire spells are ridiculous to land (fire grab I’m looking at you…). Scepter 1 with this is just plain stupid. perma burn+blind? almost no counterplay for this.

For me, the answer is NO. I personally run a Zerk/Arcane build focusing on burst more than sustain and bunkering. Bunker builds just does.. Not enough damage.

-Instantly killed an unsuspecting thief with Fire 3,5 arcane blast+wave, lightning from air 15 minor trait. (D/D)
-RTL to a target to find out you forgot to target it makes me look bad
-RTL while immobilized
-Swapped into the wrong attunements and be useless for 5 seconds.
-RTL into a zerg and toranado’d to look cool. Died instantly.

Blix.8021:

Draco.2806:

Blix.8021:

What is not considered farming to you in pve? Just curious.

Not following some pre-set goal that results in your earning specific loot or specific amount of gold is not considered farming, I think.

What activity in particular is not farming? Because according to you dungeons, world events, and killing champions are all farming.

World events I guess may be considered farming but I like to champ HUNT instead of farm. You get MUCH less for that since I’m not on a cycle, I just explore a map and kill what I find.(Btw I do lots of events I pass for fun since I rushed to 80 without experiencing a lot which adds up over time)

Draco.2806:

Blix.8021:

It is incredibly easy to get 10g a day.

If you’re willing to spend your day farming, sure.

Personally, I do not appreciate doing a second job in my spare time.

Vespirisa.1497:

It could be that I play a LOT compared you. I’m on pretty much on all Friday-sunday. I can earn up to 20g but I usually rake in 10-15. 30 X 12.5=375. But I didn’t play everyday.

Could be.

I used to play often at launch. Back when precursors costs no more than 80G. I ended up with 40 G from all my adventures towards 100% world exploration.

Maybe I’m just not accustomed to taking grind for granted, and going for farming instead of going where I want. I’d rather not get accustomed either.

I actually spend most of my time goofing off in WvW or running JPs.
I like to run CoF 1,2 and maybe a run of SE =5G
2 invasions or so 1hr 30 min or less = 5-7g (depending how many champs I find)
That is an easy 10G that you can get in less than 3 hours.

Draco.2806:

I’m gonna go with “No” to that one as well.

Unless, of course, what you want to do just happens to coincide with the best-paying farming activities performed for hours every single day. Even then 200G is way too much without a really good prior set-up.

It could be that I play a LOT compared you. I’m on pretty much on all Friday-sunday. I can earn up to 20g but I usually rake in 10-15. 30 X 12.5=375. But I didn’t play everyday.

Draco.2806:

Blix.8021:

by that logic everything in the game is farming. play wvw – wxp farming, play spvp – glory farming

I was talking about how you described specifically hunting down the content worth the “most” in the most efficient way possible every single day and… That’s farming. It just is.

I wasn’t doing it the most “efficient” way possible. I did it the most “enjoyable” way. If I did it more “efficiently” I would be done in half the time.

Draco.2806:

Vespirisa.1497:

I don’t play it like I’m farming, I like to explore and champion hunt with a few friends on these maps while gathering everything I need.

I’m gonna go with “Hell no” on this one because that’s actually how I tried to play the game, and I barely had 50G to show for it after six months. Specifically hunting down world bosses, high-tier mats and running dungeons is a calculated and time-consuming motion. What you’re describing is farming specifically for the sake of maximizing your gains.

During this living story release(1 month) I have earned almost 200 gold from doing what I want to do. (Although I did do 2-3 invasions a day to get the achievements). Probably half or more of the gold I earned however was from the events/dungeons/finding some champions to kill on random maps.

Draco.2806:

Vespirisa.1497:

I play to have fun and soon enough I have everything I need.

…But what you just described is hours upon hours of every day dedicated solely to farming.

I don’t play it like I’m farming, I like to explore and champion hunt with a few friends on these maps while gathering everything I need.

Zepidel.5349:

@ everyone saying just farm the mats yourself, how about HOW LONG does it takes I’m pretty sure its over 100 hours of gathering mats… again a massive grind.

I’m backing up my 200g claim with a real source were is yours?

15 minutes max to gather your daily orichalcum and ancient wood. hardly a grind. It’s just like doing a CoF run or doing dailies. As for ectos I just salvage rares I get from world bosses like FE, Golem, kitten, Teq, etc which takes less than 10 minutes each. T6 mats I buy from the money I get from events/dungeons. It’s simple. I havn’t grinded for hours ONCE in this game yet I still have full ascended trinkets and a legendary. I don’t even think about the grind. I play to have fun and soon enough I have everything I need.

Zepidel.5349:

Vespirisa.1497:

200g? The amount I spent was no where near that number. I just refined ori and ancient wood I gathered, made some sharpening stones and crafted a few exotics. I think I spent less than 25. Also the 200g on the website is due to the inflated prices that will eventually drop. oh from 450 I just refined ascended mats I got from champ loot bags.

Yes 200g. You speculated in wood/ore, as did I thankfully. Regardless its 200g.

Wrong again. I gathered all the Ori and Wood. Its what I did for my legendary which took about 2 weeks. The routine just stuck and I stockpiled a good number of mats.

200g? The amount I spent was no where near that number. I just refined ori and ancient wood I gathered, made some sharpening stones and crafted a few exotics. I think I spent less than 25. Also the 200g on the website is due to the inflated prices that will eventually drop. oh from 450 I just refined ascended mats I got from champ loot bags.

Few people on reddit showed us pics of the ascended boxes they recieved.

I don’t get the hate with ascended. Personally I love it since I can do everything I enjoy like fractals, JPs, Dungeons, WvW, Orr, World Bosses and get the regular rewards ALONG with ascended materials that I can slowly save up for my dagger I plan to make. Ascended shouldn’t be a grind unless you make it a grind yourselves. Just chill and relax and you can still get the weapons.

It’s more like 2 seconds to hit an enemy with fireball.. Plus this is in the wrong section

Asurans. I used to like them until I transferred to T1 WvW.

Thaia.5146:

Mourningcry.9428:

I think transumataion stones will be the primary, if not only, recourse.

xXRichiXx.3846:

~~SNIP~~
but is there a way to upgrade a exotic to a ascended without having to transmute it??
~~SNIP~~

The thing is, the exotics he talks about are usually made purely for the skins. I’ve made a lot of them and trasmuted all of them.

At least you can buy some of the mats to speed up the process. Since I can only play about 3-4 days a week I’m satisfied.

The blog post already says Ascended weps will drop in these chests and you choose the stat combo/weapon too.

Lordelel.7105:

kRAVen.4195:

ykyk.2740:

kRAVen.4195:

I think TC’s reputation as recruiting to push into T1 is totally uncalled for. TC’s recruiting push to me was more about never losing. Yes, those type of people/guilds transfered to TC. People that want to win but rarely have to matchup with somebody higher ranked with themselves. Those looking for an easier wvw experience.

The tears coming from this type of post used to be delicious awhile ago – now they are just stale…

If I wanted to bite, I would say that whatever server your kind self is from is certainly giving us an “easier” wvw experience… but that would be too easy, eh.

It is a poorly defined term. I think you constituted its definition here though.

Definitely the same old same old, though. People from wvw guilds calling out pvx guilds and “winning” server showing little class in game and in forum.

I’ll bite. It’s just one guild being called out by the way, not “guilds”. Let’s look at this objectively. Ask yourself a few questions from a neutral point of view.

Why would SEA guilds transfer from a server (CD), pvdooring most of the time in SEA prime during their match-ups and winning those match-ups consistently to another server (TC) that was losing consistently over 100k against two servers, (DB) & (Warmachine-KN), which was well-known for their SEA coverage and strength? Certainly not for “easier fights or easier wins”.

Why amongst so many guilds, is only one guild from one server in particular being called out by so many in the forums? If just one or two individuals then ok, maybe just trolls but so many people and guilds calling them out? Why the dislike for said guild? Why is nothing mentioned about other guilds from that server in the forum? What exactly did they do to warrant such dislike? Have you read what that guild has said to others, has been saying about others, has been saying about themselves and their posting in forums? Do you know what other guilds’ and individuals’ experiences are with that guild? Why are so many people leaving that guild? What made them leave? Guilds will always have people joining and leaving but why did so many people leave that guild?

I’ll sign off with this quote and hopefully we’ll never meet each other in a match-up again.

“You can’t see yourself. You know what you look like because of mirrors and photographs, but out there in the world, as you move among your fellow human beings, whether strangers or friends or the most intimate beloveds, your own face is invisible to you. You can see other parts of yourself, arms and legs, hands and feet, shoulders and torso, but only from the front, nothing of the back except the backs of your legs if you twist them into the right position, but not your face, never your face, and in the end – at least as far as others are concerned – your face is who you are, the essential fact of your identity. Passports do not contain pictures of hands and feet. Even you, who have lived inside your body for sixty-four years now, would probably be unable to recognize your foot in an isolated photograph of that foot, not to speak of your ear, or your elbow, or one of your eyes in close-up. All so familiar to you in the context of the whole, but utterly anonymous when taken piece by piece. We are all aliens to ourselves, and if we have any sense of who we are, it is only because we live inside the eyes of others.”

- Paul Auster, Winter Journal

Estaily

Having been on Kaineng and Dragonbrand, I have to say there was no 100k point domination by either of the 2. The biggest difference was during the BG/KN/TC matchups by about 50k. The rest of the 7 weeks we played Kainengs biggest victory was only about a 20k lead over TC down to a few thousand. Yes we had a strong SEA but our NA was lackluster since it was only RISE/RE/CO (usually 2 of us ran 1 map) and the original KN guilds. We constantly lost our borderlands to TC multiple times a week which kept he score so close. Also when DB won, TC wasn’t playing claiming PvE and how they were burnt out. It wasn’t coverage but about NOT showing up.

I remember vaguely during my KN days where TC was applauding KN for not spawn camping during our 7 week slugfest(The best 7 weeks in WvW).

The points I agree with are revealing when they take action against you or if you hit them in stealth. Although it is fun to sometimes unleash a nice fire 3-4 combo and see them downed nearby when they unstealth. Other than that stealth is not that bad of a mechanic.

Don’t know how it is a big accomplishment when TC vastly outnumbers us and not many people want to play WvW when TC rolls their monster blobs (I’ve seen it for many months).

Pentzski.4620:

Hello CD, you’ll be getting approximately 10 new transfers sometime tonight

Enjoy the TC megablobs.

EP just camping EB. Go do something useful please. Thought you were all better than this.

CD is bugged :/

Open on Crystal Desert

SnakeMx.3784:

CD, I introduce you the Tc Blobs. They never engage on open field fighting unless they outnumber the enemy 10 to 1.

If that doesn’t happen, they run to the closer tower or WP out.

After roamin FABL this reset. FA has the better duelists.

Deli.1302:

Vespirisa.1497:

Here i was hoping to avoid T1 blobs by transferring here…

You need to transfer MUCH lower to avoid the map zergs. No higher than T5.

I’ve been down there and I didn’t like it. But the chance of CD pulling TWO T2 servers is really low.

Here i was hoping to avoid T1 blobs by transferring here…

GitzZz.7345:

Thanks for the replies. Do you find that under 1600 toughness you just melt? I try to go for near that. Divinity runes or 2 water/monk/divinity?

It all depends on what weapon you use. For Staff I use Celesital but Zerk can work. For D/D I run a mix of Zerk+Knights with some PTV so I don’t melt instantly. I can do decent damage with about 16.5k HP and 2700 armor. Runes I just run all divinity. If you can’t afford 6 then 2 monk and 2 water can work. Ruby/beryl Orbs are good if you want more damage.

Well.. leaving T1 was the best decision I have ever made. Let’s see what CD gets this week

Ayusaki.6739:

Saw this on reddit, took me a moment to realize this changed too.

Those ruins can be an interesting place to fight with lots of things like using terrain to your advantage. Well I can say I’m not disappointed in this tiny preview.

Urrid.4593:

gidorah.4960:

i look forward to the roamers gathering at these points so we can 30vs1 them when we need the buff

Basically this.

it will however reduce the amount of “2v1” pressure on northern towers on reset night.

I have to hand it to them, almost any significant change can have a far reaching impact. (That’s why I like WvW).

The 5 cap points seem like a great place for roamers to duel AND help out their server at the same time if the system is how I imagined it to be.

insanemaniac.2456:

Vespirisa.1497:

insanemaniac.2456:

bringin spvp to wvw 2013!

WvW is just like SPvP. We capture and hold for points. Except capture points have defensive walls and gates protecting it.

the gameplay is different

bloodlust will be pure spvp without number restrictions

We still have pretty much NO details on the new system other than capping. There should be more to it.

kittennit.7648:

Im excited for the borderlands map changes, the new capture points look like they will promote small group play. But please get rid of the PvE Mobs in there, downing ur enemy just to see him rally of a mob is quite frustrating.

I’m talking about the drakes in this SS

I like stacking bloodlust on those PvE mobs though.
But yeah in those areas they need to remove it

insanemaniac.2456:

bringin spvp to wvw 2013!

WvW is just like SPvP. We capture and hold for points. Except capture points have defensive walls and gates protecting it.

MrSilver.5269:

Thanks!

I just found that in wvw most of my healing comes from blasting water fields. I had almost full cleric’s before for a touch over 1,000 healing, and with base 300 healing I’m not noticing any reduction on my or my group’s survivability.

I just feel like elementalists are punished by having to spend some much gold to get that celestial/divinity gear. I’m just not willing to make that large of an investment for what may only be marginal improvement in performance.

In any event, thank you all for the input. I really appreciate it!

The heals from water fields are based on the healing power of the person BLASTING the field.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Vespirisa.1497:

Staff fear is 1 second(1.5 if traited) on a 40 second COOLDOWN and can be dodged. DS is on a 20 second CD with the same duration. Specteral Wall i have never seen on a roaming necro ever. Minions are just inferior to the many other utilities necros have. Many wells and skills like corrupt boon can do wonders. I’m curious. Are the eles you fought just standard bunker 0/0/10/30/30 builds with full PTV? That build to me is just trash and unable to survive considering how much water magic got nerfed and how little damage you do.

I have seen quite a few go with the gfull Fear-nuke option, taking ALL fears, Terror (damage while feared), Torement from DS can all be very strong. Then you have just how much health they have, i mean its insane.

Sure the Minions arent that great, however they can be traited to be very solid if you are a minion master you wont be taking wells or corrupt boon so it doesnt really matter to them.

Since the corrupt boon nerf its not that great, taken down to 5 boons, sounds like a lot but when combined with the Epidemic nerf it hurts group fights. It seems like it, i dont think i have EVER encountered a Zerker ele

I am not talking about group fights but more 1v1. Zerker ele isn’t that good. I run a half knights with mostly zerkers and 1 or 2 PTV items for the other half. Minion necros I feel are too reliant on minions just like how condi eles rely on fire magic. Are you willing to spec 30 in death magic when Curses and Spite have much better options(IMO)

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Vespirisa.1497:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

FrownyClown.8402:

necro has no stabilty nor escape mechanisms

To make up for that they have like 40-50,000 health, plenty of fears, plenty of AoE damage, Minions some of which have stuns.

Also – they HAVE stability, not alot and needs to be traited but they have it and if they take one of the transformations then they have a 20(iirc) second one.

Ele, low damage, low condition damage, not alot of pressure(imo) and low health – what do they get to counter that?

I agree with necros having a lot of hp but fears.. I believe they have 2 (Staff and something. correct me if Im wrong) And…. lolminions. All the good necros I see dont have minions. I have seen plague/lich with wells and stuff. As for damage I am capable of doing 700 (1500+ on crit) with lightning whip and 4-9k with fire grab. We can’t spec full PTV and the same 0/0/10/30/30 traits. Condi Ele has never been useful. HP has never been a problem with the insane heals with Water and signet. Those are just some random stuff I want to throw out about what you said.

They have the Staff fear, the DS fear, the Spectral Walk (iirc) utility fear, then they have the traits to make them last longer, do damage, along with Torment.

As for minions they might have iffy AI but i see quite alot Minion Master Necros running around with the right build they can be traited to remove conditions, heal on attacks, cause Poison when they die and such. Then you got the Minion Elite which is pretty solid as well.

Ele might have all them heals, but they wont kill someone. I have fought plenty of level 80 Ele in WvW and unfortunately it ends in 1 way – they die or they run. Sure you can go “burst” but even then its not burst compared to other classes and means you even weaker.

Staff fear is 1 second(1.5 if traited) on a 40 second COOLDOWN and can be dodged. DS is on a 20 second CD with the same duration. Specteral Wall i have never seen on a roaming necro ever. Minions are just inferior to the many other utilities necros have. Many wells and skills like corrupt boon can do wonders. I’m curious. Are the eles you fought just standard bunker 0/0/10/30/30 builds with full PTV? That build to me is just trash and unable to survive considering how much water magic got nerfed and how little damage you do.

Fuzzion.2504:

Ryld.1340:

Fuzzion.2504:

I can outlast guardians. Infact im far from squishy. Also i can deal a good amount of damage, so not really sure what the OP is on about.

You can’t do a good amount of damage AND outlast a guardian as Elementalist. Atleast, not a decent guardian.

With food ,stacks and fury, yes. Almost 50% crit damage with 62% crit chance with might stacks is decent in my books.

I can get about 90% crit damage and 50ish Crit chance with might stacks and I can duel lots of guardians.

Esqi.8496:

SoR picked up BP from DB… but that’s an NA guild so doesn’t apply here

Having run with BP while I was on DB. I can say I wasn’t impressed. Don’t think many of us want more NA guilds.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

FrownyClown.8402:

necro has no stabilty nor escape mechanisms

To make up for that they have like 40-50,000 health, plenty of fears, plenty of AoE damage, Minions some of which have stuns.

Also – they HAVE stability, not alot and needs to be traited but they have it and if they take one of the transformations then they have a 20(iirc) second one.

Ele, low damage, low condition damage, not alot of pressure(imo) and low health – what do they get to counter that?

I agree with necros having a lot of hp but fears.. I believe they have 2 (Staff and something. correct me if Im wrong) And…. lolminions. All the good necros I see dont have minions. I have seen plague/lich with wells and stuff. As for damage I am capable of doing 700 (1500+ on crit) with lightning whip and 4-9k with fire grab. We can’t spec full PTV and the same 0/0/10/30/30 traits. Condi Ele has never been useful. HP has never been a problem with the insane heals with Water and signet. Those are just some random stuff I want to throw out about what you said.

I agree vit isnt really needed. When on a staff I go more into damage than survivability. Also fiery GS is useless as a staff. With how powerful meteor storm/tornado is, there is no reason not to pick up tornado

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

The bigger problem in my Opinion is WvW. Pretty much any class can go solo, take camps, 1 Vs1….well almost, ele from what i have seen in WvW just cant. It has to much emphasis on the healing and support and not enough on damage (and conditions!)

I have to disagree witht this statement. We are fine in WvW. We just arn’t as strong as we used to be. I can easily take camps solo and 1v1 many classes(except you pesky engis). Staff eles have insane CC support and damage in WvW. Chaining meteor storm with tornado, I can hit 5-6k with ONE meteor. Their static fields and water fields are still big gamechangers though. If you can stay alive in the back, you can dish out tons of damage. The problem I see with a lot of eles is just the build. Try experimenting more!

I WP into BG bay to refresh siege and boom. 10+ omegas straight in my face.

Fun times in JQBL with Ascii! We stopped so many yaks to hills and it was still paper hours later until we took it.

Deli.1302:

Vespirisa.1497:

Unless I’m behind on everything.. what is BP doing in SoR?

That’s not the only DB guild that has members on SoR. KUSO is another one.

Hmm.. Well that’s nice to know.