Guild Wars 2

Om Im.7863:

“Cleric has too much toughness and HP at a cost to other stats”, “tone down toughness and HP”
What more HP? (assuming you mean Vitality)
Are we playing the same game ?

By HP, I meant Healing Power, not Hitpoints. Sorry if that wasn’t apparent.

Supreme.3164:

Cementing the healbot role even more is far from being a good suggestion

But that’s exactly not what this amulet would do. Currently Cleric amulet has 900 toughness and 1200 healing power. If these go down to 560 and 1050 respectively, it would make the ele a lot more susceptible to damage while upping their ability for group support via the 560 concentration. Simultaneously, it gives a bit more power too than cleric does. What it does is shift the focus from bunkering to supporting.

Saying the amulet has 3 defensive stats isn’t exactly true either. Concentration isn’t strictly defensive, it will also improve offensive boons like fury and might. This could give eles more offensive play via fire(might-stacking) or air specs(fury up-time).

This skill should work just like Spear of Justice works on DH minus the burns and tether. It can’t be that hard, right?

@NorthernRedStar I disagree about Druids and particularly Necromancers, necros are actually easy pickings for a thief with Unhindered Combatant, when you are not fighting to defend a point. Especially when they are low on shroud. The thief gets rid of chills just with dodging, and the CCs usually have really big tells and can easily be dodged. If the CCs miss, the necro is as good as dead.

Herald, Scrapper, Dragonhunter and, to some degree Chrono, are tough 1v1 match-ups for a thief. Druids and eles can plain outsustain a thief but they can be bursted down too. Especially druids since they are usually rather squishy.

Cambios.7451:

My ranger, warrior, and guardian all do fine in full berserker.

So do mine actually But I find it a lot more comfortable to have some bulk with tough/vita.

Cambios.7451:

I’ve never used mace+axe.

I use sword+axe with hammer on swap right now.

Sorry about that, I must have misread.

Bump. I would like some more feedback on this.

When you play another profession, can you see a value for this kind of amulet? Would you as an ele use it?

What bugged me the most about leveling my rev was the lack of movement speed. Only Glint and Shiro have movement-speed skills, that’s why I probably used Shiro and Mallyx when leveling. Impossible Odds was weird on the other hand, first you move really slow, you pop IO and move really fast, then go back to normal movement which at this point feels like crawling… I was so happy when I got Superior Speed Runes. I was even more happy when I unlocked Facet of Elements.

I’ve said this before in other class sub-forums, and I’ll keep saying it until people get it. The GW1 classes that are not alrdy in GW2 will never be introduced in the game as they were, and certainly not by their original names. Not even as ESpecs. What could happen, however, is they introduce a mantle bearer of sorts. Just like thieves are mantle bearers to assassins.

But that’s basically just a naming issue, u can just rename this and I’ll be happy. ^^

Or well, not quite. This ESpec doesn’t fit how the class works currently, in order to do that it would have to summon a legend that is a Ritualist. That could be Master Togo for example but it still doesn’t quite fit. What happens to the spirits when you swap to assassin stance, for example? Do they just sit there useless, or do they have an AA, or maybe they get destroyed? Or do they have an AA that’s based on the stance you are in?

Furthermore, I dislike the idea of physically summoning the spirits of these powerful beings. Remember what happened the last time Shiro was physically summoned? Revenants summon only their essence, the spirit isn’t physically there. So while spirit summoning isn’t off the table, I think they should be nameless spirits, since being a spirit itself grants power. And the spirit summoning could well be the elite skill, whereas utilities could draw on that. Like cleansing a condi for each spirit you have in the world. Healing for X amount for each spirit you have in the world. A certain baseline should be there for when you have yet to summon any spirits.

And lastly, I think we’d need an off-hand weapon for this as well. While the current off-hands might work mechanically, they don’t work conceptually. Focus would, on the other hand, and I really don’t see a reason why they wouldn’t give us both OH and MH.

For maximum efficiency, use the active part of Glint Heal when you are the target of a heavy hit such as a Mordrem Snipers fireline-type attack or a Veteran Arrowheads frontal cone-shaped bash. It will revert condi dmg to healing as well so fe. burning will heal you very fast. Frogs also hit hard. The Glint active part is potentially the best self-heal in the game.

Secondly, full berserker gear in the jungle is generally a bad idea. Only thieves can usually get away with it. (Infiltraitors Arrow + Unhindered Combatant) Invest in some Marauder pieces to beef up your Vitality.

Thirdly, mace+axe is a condi set whereas you are running power gear. Hammer works good but you should probably go Sword+Shield and/or Staff. Sword+axe will work too, but axe is a bit redundant with Shiro. If you want to run mace+axe, you should get some condi gear to go with it, and swap Shiro for Mallyx.

PS. After reviewing my revs PVE-build, I should take my own advice regarding the third point..

@Keadron No, you are just noticing them more. Mesmers did start to use condi builds after the last balance patch, but that’s just because their bunker meta was obliterated. Revs have mostly moved away from demon, since shiro is just plain more effective. Necromancers are still as they were before.

I usually run Cleansing Water instead of Powerful Aura, and “Aftershock” instead of “Feel The Burn”. I like to have good condi-cleansing and an on-demand Magnetic Aura.

Buran.3796:

• You can get an ascended greatsword doing the DH collection in achievements, albeit is less cost effective than just crafting directly, and anyway you will need the proper weaponsmith (hunting?) at 500.

It’s an ascended longbow, not a greatsword. Which is probably what you meant but an error occurred. Your other advice seems good.

Btw, worrying about ascended gear is stupid, you can even raid in exotics. Only place you really need ascended gear is high level fractals where you need to stack up on AR, and even then jewelry will be sufficient to about lvl 60 fractals.

Double LB? Really? Or is that a mistake? They share cds, I don’t see any way that could be good.

I honestly think ANet could do a DLC utility pack kind of thing between expansions that would give us 1 new utility skill of each type per profession. Maybe no elites but anyway. It would also give them a reason to have a hard look at the current utilities and see what’s not working. The DLC could be a cash-only type of purchase.

Magnetic Aura is already in staff, it would be weird to have the same skill in 2 different weapons. So yeah, your latter proposition is preferred. But on the other hand, Magnetic Wave is already a really strong skill. Would an actual MA make it too strong?

Ye, chill should’ve never gotten damage in the first place. “Chilled to the bone” would be an awesome elite even without the chill damage. A bit high on cd but that can be fixed.

Merc amulet is not the problem, and neither is Cleric. If anything, we need more variety for the amulets. The problem is power creep, overperforming classes and on some classes, lack of sustain.

To be fair, rev hammer is fairly slow and obvious, so you should be able to dodge those without problems. Lack of experience shows here, you need to be able to dodge those heavy hitting ranged skills.

Where can I find them? Twitch is a mess, and Google only finds stuff 2015, I’d like to see how this season is going but I can’t find anything… -.- I suspect I’m looking in the wrong place.

A link would be appreciated, thanks in advance!

@Supreme Did you even read the whole comment? Quoting myself here: “Ele is in a good place when it comes to boons” That does not include any other ele aspects.

I was worried about the concentration really. Ele is in a good place when it comes to boons, and adding Con to a stat set that alrdy has the most beneficial stats for ele might be too much. That’s why I asked for opinions.

Edit: 560 Concentration brings about ~37% to boon duration.

I would like an amulet with the following stats:

- 1050 Power
- 1050 Healing Power
- 560 Toughness
- 560 Concentration

The reason why I would like this is I basically play the meta Tempest build, but I feel like Mender’s and Cleric’s Amulets are both sub-optimal. Cleric has too much toughness and HP at a cost to other stats, while Mender’s doesn’t have toughness at all. Toughness is essential to tempest, so I can’t live without it.

Now this amulet, which I’m branding as Keeper’s Amulet, would tone down toughness and HP but add a bit of power and a lot of concentration to make up for the loss.

What do you guys think? Would this be balanced or would it promote power creep too much?

First of all, drop the torment runes and go with berserker runes. Swap out the torment sigils as well. Thieves are not good with torment, don’t try to force it. Play to your strengths.

Put the hydro-sigil into SB, and take blood as your 2nd sigil there. Reason for this is that if you swap to SB while in combat, you are likely trying to disengage, and those sigils will help you with that. Personally, I have leeching and ice sigils on SB, but I think it’ll work the other way around as well.

For the DP, there are more options. Force, accuracy or bursting are good for 1 slot, I would go with force. Accuracy and bursting feel a bit redundant, but hey, whatever works..;) For the other one, I would go with an on crit sigil like ice or air. Air will add to your dps, but the chill from ice will make it harder for your target to escape, maybe even good for forcing a dodge.

And lastly, I would go with PI. EA is a bit more forgiving of mistakes but if you get condibombed in the first place, you are likely doing something wrong anyway. Maybe use EA until you get off the training-wheels, and swap to PI when you are more confident with your thief?

@Meld If you trait Valor instead of DH, you lose the traps, which kinda defeats the point of this entire build concept, doesnt it? Please elaborate instead of just asking vague questions.

Aaand when they have a longbow handy, even the kiting usually ends up with a dead thief. If they don’t make any serious mistakes.

Btw, Rodgort is not a dragon! Rodgort was an NPC in GW1, and he was clearly a human. These seem like good and fun specs, keep them coming, but…. I don’t want to detonate djinns! I mean come on, they are a civilized culture. You wouldn’t detonate asuras either, right?

@King Kai Avatars of Dwayna and Lyssa need to be reversed, since Dwayna is the goddess of healing, not Lyssa.

Aside from thematical issues, there needs to be a lot of toning down as well. The avatars can’t be permanent, they need an activation much like overloads do. GW2 also doesn’t have damage types, so u can’t have damage type-flavored skills. The avatars only need the stat-boost component, anything else is pretty much OP.

I’ll dog into this more later, I gotta leave for now.

I think thieves need more access to Unblockable, and a faster weapon swap.

@bluri I’ll tolerate you bunching guards with warrs and thieves, since they are a one-trick-pony. But rangers? Rangers are definitely in the meta, they even have a notable presence in the ESL Pro leagues. And a good win rate as well, I might add.. They aren’t even a filler class, some teams opt to have druids instead of other classes.

I randomly have a bug where movement keys stop working, but dodging or otherwise using a mobility skill will cure the ailment. Doesn’t have anything to do with shouts, AFAICT, though.

@Jekkt It seems I failed to impress my point. What I meant was instead of having a 3-part AA-chain, why not simply have 1-part AA? Speaking of AA, evades and reflects feel too strong for AA, and these seem like they are a bit hard to control for max efficiency. You could incorporate them into the other skills, or trait them.

Water #3 needs either a longer cd or less stun, I’d prefer less stun. 2 sec stun on 25s cooldown seems too strong. 1s stun and reduce casting time to 1/4s? Would make it easier to use as an interrupt as well.
Air #2 needs some more love. Give it a daze maybe, and increase cd to 25s? This would also bring it more into line with RtL, and give you a possible healing window during the disengage. Btw, I love the synergy between Air Sw and D.
Maelstrom could be stronger, maybe increase the stance duration to 10 secs?
Weaver’s Frenzy(GM Minor) seems underwhelming. Currently, you could only gain
max stacks while using the elite skill. Maybe not even then. Even a 15% attack speed boost is not that big a deal, since it only affects your AA.
Shared Stances (GM Major) seems too strong. You could effectively reduce the cd of the healing skill to 20s just by using your stances. Needs a triggering condition, such as getting hit while in a stance, a hit removing 1s from cd. Even this with an icd(1s). That way, if u are focused, you could reduce the cd to 20s, but you couldn’t super-recharge it while off-combat.

If you are not a Tempest, your elite choices are equally bad, because they are all used situationally. Tornado is good for clearing a point of enemies, but as soon as u neutralize it, stop the tornado early. You also need to be pretty tanky to survive.

Fiery Greatsword works either as an escape weapon or as a gap-closer. It has good damage, so remember to hit those skills before dropping it. Both these elites have the problem of closing out your regular skills, which you need to be able to defend.

The elemental is a bit lackluster. Be sure to use it either in Air or in Water, those 2 can actually bring something extra. Earth and Fire pretty much suck.

@Jekkt Love the basic idea. I’m pretty sure it needs further balancing, though. Not sure if AA-chain is a good idea. Elementalist as a class tends to revolve around swapping elements, so often u don’t even get to utilize that chain.

But this is semantics, and is highly dependent on how the class rotates. If your class rotates through elements for max dmg, AA-chain doesn’t really work. If it doesn’t then AA-chain has a place.

@Alex Shatter That sounds a lot like a mesmer. But I’m not against eles having some mesmer vibes.

I’m pretty sure they’re just going to slap us with a kittening Greatsword. Isn’t that the universal go-to weapon?

But, in the name of wishful thinking, I would rather like to see Scepter to give revs some of that ritualistic vibe.

We all know this is a long way away but posting just for the funz. What kind of concepts would you like explored? What role would they fit in? What would be their theme and lore? Most importantly, what would they bring to elementalists that we don’t already have?

Been revolving some ideas on swords and mantras for ele, for example, but I don’t have anything ready to present. Just wondering if anyone else has been thinking about these things.

I know people mostly want old issues to be fixed, and I agree, but please refrain from from doing that in this thread. This is not the place for it.

Are you kidding? Trapper runes give 2 secs of stealth per trap. Even if you have the max 5 traps, that’s only 10 secs total. Scrappers, thieves and even mesmers can do more. Rangers can do the same, albeit with only 4 traps. Not to mention, if you run 5 traps as DH, you are an idiot noob. Another thing, when that trap activates, you lose the stealth. This is in no way OP, you just had a very bad team.

The only possible issue I can find is lack of condi removal when you go below 75% health. I wouldn’t want to rely on just Water OL for cleanses when there are Reapers and Chronos roaming around. So while Diamond Skin is awesome, I would rather go with water spec to get some active removals. That is, if you are unwilling to part with Air for soloing. Another option is to equip Cleansing Fire or swap your heal into Ether Renewal.

Another thing, Gale Song from the Tempest line works really well with Tempest Defense from Air.

This is not a bug. It works as intended. AFAIK.

Here’s mine: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAqaVn8lCFmi9OBGOB8PhFqiaLHHsdc+67+yvrnCgDA-TpBBABBcCAwa/hOOEAA8AAIvMwEHBAA

A total troll build, but fun, makes necros very angry when they can’t catch you and you keep Unloading on them from a safe distance.

I recommend getting into PvP with some other profession than thief. Thief is undoubtedly the hardest class to play there, and you need to handle, not just understand, your role before you enter a match with it. A noob thief is utterly useless in a match, whereas a noob reaper can still do some good.

As to your questions:
1. Yes, pretty much so. Game Mode is more the deciding factor. Team Deathmatch in unranked is totally different, it’s just kill or be killed basically. The strong points of a thief are high burst damage and mobility.
2. As good as any but as a noob, stick to defensive utilities.
3. Not finishing off players is a stalling tactic, which only applies when they are downed in a place that’s not in range of a point. It takes longer for them to rally via #4 downed skill than being finished and respawn in their base. Effectively not finishing them means they are off the table for a longer period of time. That gives your team an advantage.
4. Capping is taking a point for your team. In conquest maps, there are 3 points which most people call close, mid and far. Close is the one closest to your base, far is closest to your enemy’s base. Mid is the one in between them. Uncapping, on the other hand, as a term refers to making a point neutral, not sporting either teams color.

I assume you have HoT, since most people do, and would recommend playing either a reaper or a scrapper. They are professions that are really more forgiving of mistakes in PvP.

Ofc, if you don’t mind being called names every now and then, just practice with your thief in unranked and ignore them. It really is the place to practice and you can point this out to anyone you think is being unreasonable. And mention that you are new to PvP at the beginning of the match, so your team isn’t left in the dark. Use the “Team”-chat channel for this, not Map channel or Say channel.

If you have more questions, just shoot them here. We try to be friendly.

Onlysaneman.9612:

I’d assumed it would be a case of hit someone -> push them forward -> hit them again -> repeat until you reach the end or they manage to get out of the way.

That doesn’t really work on enemies with breakbars. Since they don’t get pushed, the skill would be endless in this case. The charge needs to go through targets.

The reliance on weapon swapping for condi cleanses doesn’t work in PvP at all. And running shouts + soldier runes is not an option when the shouts suck so badly.

Kalavier.1097:

Or as I’ve stated elsewhere in other discussions (Was me or somebody else who said it, forget which If it wasn’t me, sorry). Why do necromancers apparently get this big distrust and fear, yet elementalists get nothing? “MY GODS, THAT MAN RAISED A BONE MINION!” makes sense, but “MY GODS, THAT MAN JUST LAUNCHED A FIREBALL THE SIZE OF A PERSON!” doesn’t to some apparently. Really, the Eles I’d imagine would be the most distrusted magic user simply because they are the most directly destructive path of magic.

Any rational person can make the deduction that Necromancers and Elementalists are equally destructive. The reason why necros are distrusted more than eles is not because of this direct correlation. Just a few examples follow:

A. Necromancy is pretty disgusting. The average person wouldn’t wanna go anywhere near rotting corpses ridden with carrion feeding insects and the like, rotten and foul smelling flesh, or deal with the diseases that may follow. Just reflect your own feelings on modern day morticians. I mean, while it’s respectable work and somebody needs to do it, you wouldn’t want to do it yourself.

B. Why is a bone minion worse than a fireball in your face? Well, the result is pretty much the same, so it’s not that. You either survive or you don’t. Doesn’t make a difference.

Ok so, while the fireball materializes seemingly out of thin air, the bone minion you are now facing may have previously been your comrade and friend. Now this runt of a necromancer has gone and desecrated the body of your friend. All that’s left is a misshapen and corrupted piece of flesh and bone, where previously was a living and breathing person.

To set this up further, I have to tell you I’ve been in the military. While I never saw any combat, or even deployments, just the training period forms deep bonds of friendship with the people you go through that with. Much deeper than with your average friend, if not your best friend. I can just imagine how deep that friendship goes when you survive combat together.

Taking that into account, that piece of flesh that was previously your comrade, would make you feel like life itself has betrayed you. It’s outraging, unfair and it soils the memory you have of that person. It’s no wonder people wouldn’t like necromancers.

C. What happens after you die? The necromancer raises your corpse as well to add to his ever growing army of minions, desecrating your body and stealing your soul. He leaves to prowl on his next adversary.
What does the ele do? He may rob your corpse, but he may also be nice enough to return your corpse(charred to a crisp as it is…) to your family, and they can make their peace with your death.

D. People in this world believe in an afterlife and it’s very real. Getting your soul ripped out by a necromancer may rob you of that deserved resting place in the Mists/Hall of Heroes/Underworld. It’s exactly why ghosts are almost always angry, and rarely peaceful.
________________________________________

Most people think with their hearts, not with their heads. They are guided by feelings rather than thoughts. So the general opinion would sway towards hating and distrusting necromancers in general. It’s not to say everybody does it, or all necromancers are like that.

Sorry for the rant, but I honestly don’t understand how you can’t see this.

Wolfric.9380:

(Or give furry if condi convert is to much …)

I’d love for my asura to get furry.. ^^ But how would that work on charr? They get bushy?

Eastcorn.5901:

Hammer – Hammerhead Charge: Point your hammer forward and charge a set distance toward your target. Anyone you hit along the way gets pulled with you until you reach max range.

I like the idea in general, but how does this work in practice? Do they kinda get feared/taunted toward your charging direction or is it a pull that only takes effect when you reach max distance? Or is it a pulsing pull effect?

Also, the longbow counter-skill needs more work. The current config would utterly destroy any practicality the longbow has. Just burning feels UP without the firefields that warriors have on it currently. Ofc you can just not use it but I’d rather like some rework on it. A knockback maybe? And the name could indicate that the effect also has a delay, maybe 2-3 seconds. For that I could find some use for in PvP.

Naurgalen.2374:

WATER
- Shatter-stone needs to be worth to cast -I completely ignore it-, but because it is on a defensive line I wouldn’t improve its damage. I would love if it could deep-freeze chilled opponents -, but it may be difficult to combo as it already needs to be aimed. Another option would be to give weakness instead of vulnerability.

Maybe stun chilled opponents? I think it did that back in gw1. But well, Shatterstone was an elite skill back then.

I haven’t used scepter since they made Dragon’s Tooth ground-targeted. I hated that change so I stopped using it. I still remember the moment I realized this, my scepter flew to the nearest Mordrem in SW, and I’ve been on staff ever since.

Xunleashed.5271:

Overloads cooldown:
- reduce general cooldown from 20 seconds to 18 seconds
- half cooldown when overload is not completed (14 secs)

I can get on board with a cd reduction but not the halving cds. Getting interrupted or shutting the skill yourself is supposed to hurt you. You are not supposed to use overloads recklessly, and only disable it when not disabling will hurt you more.

Xunleashed.5271:

Fire overload:
- make the caster evade attacks during the channeling OR increase damage and range

Ummm, NO. Fire overload is plenty powerful.

Xunleashed.5271:

Water overload
- make the caster block attacks during channeling OR increase start/channeling healing

Blocking doesn’t fit the water-theme, blocking belongs to earth.

Xunleashed.5271:

Air overload
- ok

No argument there.

Xunleashed.5271:

Earth overload:
- increase protection OR add resistance ticks

Eles have plenty of condi cleanses, why would you need resi? And doesn’t it already give protection? I could get on board with blocking or pulsing stab, though.

Xunleashed.5271:

Rebound:
reduce cooldown to 30 seconds OR rework it: give all 4 elemental auras and convert 3 conditions into boons on cast

This I gotta agree with. Rebound is hilariously UP, yet it is still eles best elite skill? I mean, come on, our healing skills are better than this skill that is supposed to be elite? At least make it a blast finisher.

Yyeaah, this is why I play thief with an Assassin Amulet. Even if you have toughness and vitality, it’s pretty much just cutting down your damage, and not playing to your strengths. Thief survivability is based on dodging, mobility and positioning.

Anyway, this is a DH thread. I think the traps are pretty much fine as they are.

Urejt.5648:

Mes is best class to carry with moa in capable hand. Look at supercutie (hans stream). he plays mes and has 75% WINRATIO just by using portals and farming far.

I think I actually played a game with him, me as a thief, a few days ago. Don’t know if he was streaming or not, though.

I’ve recently had some success in ranked running double Pistols(and SB) with very glassy gear, and I can happily say I win most 1v1’s. While pistols may not be optimal damage-wise, they do give you an edge. Not needing to be in melee range. You can just stay out of enemy melee range and Unload on them for burst, and #2 for immobing them. It’s really a very chicken kind of playstyle but it does work, atleast for me.

Frankly, it doesn’t work against other builds that have high mobility and burst as well because of the glassiness. The biggest problems I have are with other thieves. Close 2nd are meditrapper DH’s and engis(for a different reason though). I used to run Assassin’s, but on Marauder’s atm, got tired of getting one-shotted. It’s a choice, though, not a weakness really.

Here’s a link to what I’m running: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAqaVn8lCdmiFmCGOB8PhFqiaLHHsdsrnCgDYO77+yH-TpBBABTcEA64QAg1+DyXGAgHAQAnAAA

You mean Lightward’s Battlestaff? Definitely that! I don’t even need to see the other one..:D

For PVE, pretty much anything is fine, as long as it keeps you from getting killed most of the time. I wouldn’t enter PvP without a shortbow, people would probably start calling me names. And besides, for mobility, SB is king.

Frankly, thief has pretty steep learning curve, you really have to adopt a different playstyle than what you’re used to. Personally, I always try stay mobile, darting in and out of combat, bursting enemies to death before they can react. Thief has amazing mobility and you need to utilize that, moving between points faster than anyone else.

With any other class, you can basically tumble head first into combat, but with thieves that kind of play is just foolish, and gets you killed in a blink. A dead thief is a useless thief.

PowerBottom.5796:

Salamander.2504:

I’m going to try it for myself later., but I’m curious if anyone is using bunker guard this season, and if they are having any success?

currently playing this and it has the potential to become meta.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAre8dn8cCFditCBmCBEEhlKiSe2z9fHbACgIIb8Ov0D-TJRIABGVGAgnAAO7PM7JBAA

Can you please elaborate on this a bit? I’m interested because it looks a bit like my PVE build and that fascinates me, but I’m still doubtful.