Guild Wars 2

I remember some old discussion with you Kodiak where you would say that as long as you seem to wave you arms around with some animation no one would be able to tell that you are not contributing to the output of the group.

Apparently you stopped caring now

But you should know that there are only very few stats combinations that reflect the gear you are wearing, therefore programs that view HP are actually very accurate on the type of gear/trait the the user has in his build.

Ice storm is worth using even on the thinnest target.

Besides, you can use the dodge-cast trick to stack all the ice meteors in a concentrated area, maximizing the chances to land them on a single target.

Tei.1704:

I strongly suggest you deviate from any speed clearing/meta guides you might be following. They aren’t written with pugging in mind, and you’re smart enough to realize some of the logic is questionable.

I write this kind of guides, yet I pug most of the time

Gaile Gray.6029:

there’s nothing new to report right now.

Right now
Right tomorrow
Right ever

Hahahahahahahaahahaha

Iris Ng.9845:

Or just go D/F

go D/F.

I like to summarize

Caeledh.5437:

This is a joke thread, right?

It’s only a joke if you don’t read the reponse posts that explain the OP’s position.

Staff air has been underpowered for a long time. Anet buffed some of its skills, but much remains to be done. This is a something I have been advocating for very long.

Read the posts explaining why our complaints are well grounded, only then if you are not convinced by our arguments you may say “this is a joke”.

Oh yes Ice spike is good in my opinion
It does over 40% more DPS than lightning surge, and honestly it has just about the same chance to hit even with its delay. Its cooldown is much lower, its AoE is bigger, and the buff it provides makes sense.
If chain lightning hits twice then it deals 45% more DPS than lightning surge.

The only use I have for lightning surge is to blind downed people from afar, if I am not in range to dodge-EA.

But the ele has access to all three in large quantity?

AAAAAAAAHHH no. Don’t do that.

It is far better to use defensive traits until you learn how to survive better or until you find better teammates, and keep using zerker gear in the meantime!

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Why do people think that this game is 100% ballanced around PvP?

Because it is 0% balanced around other game types.

pepper.6179:

isn’t air 2 a high damage single target skill?

It’s not high damage. If you consider its cast time then it’s actually low DPS. Its effect is almost useless because of this cast time. The cooldown is relatively long. Its targeting mechanic is primitive. And the AoE is irrelevant.

Next?

Join the cool club

Sounds like crab toss to me.

And that brings me to think that I should probably create a new thread for my posts.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Zelyhn-s-Advanced-D-F-PvE-Guide/page/7#post4740448

Also, arcane brilliance’s blast occurs at the location of your target if you have one selected, so if it walks out of the field then make sure to deselect your target before casting this spell (Thanks to Wandelaars for pointing this out).

Thaddeus.4891:

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

I reached fotm 80 without using a single revive orb lalalalala

You used a Ranger to revive the first person to go in? Or you did it after when ppl at level 80 could bring you in odd numbers fractal only? Probably the first one since the other one could only bring you to 79.

Or maybe there was another option that I wasn’t aware of.

The second option
It turns out, people in rT had reached fotm80 looong before I even met them in-game. I was part of the second wave when Haviz wanted to reach f80 with his rerolls It was tons of fun, we used vastly suboptimal comps, incomplete groups, even noobs like me! This was the point when I told myself: kitten I am glad I bought this game. And then Anet deleted it.

The thing is: buffing the air attunement will change nothing to staff’s strength in PvE. This means that we are discussing balance from a pvp perspective here, therefore DPS is not an applicable concept. That being said I agree with you Thaddeus: to each weapon its characteristics.

However, if we put balance aside for a second and just look at the usability of skills, staff air 1 2 3 are just wrong. Maybe 3 could be considered fine somehow. But 1 and 2 are bad, in terms of usability. If we could have them be more easily useful and balance them to compensate, we would all be happy.

Purple Miku.7032:

I’d support buffing of air attunement on staff.

The other attunements are fine imo, but air attunement’s #2 skill in particular is really crap. It should be instant cast for the blind.

Hold on, you mean that performing a massively obvious and unique animation that takes almost 2 seconds to complete is not appropriate for a blinding skill? You are breaking Anet’s heart!

Side note for all the people who say that Staff has the highest DPS in the game: it is true (I TCed it myself!), but it is only applicable when your enemy does not move much, when you have access to the required buffs, and when you do not need to do anything else but damage. Technically, that is very niche.

I reached fotm 80 without using a single revive orb lalalalala

We need a search option on these forums.

RemiRome.8495:

Does cripple + backpedal still work?

Yep. Or even better: cripple + run sideways. It’s automatic, even for the first fight.

serenke.4806:

Nikaido.3457:

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

Ah for those who did not forget, remember the time when we could do fractals level 80 with almost no AR? Ahh the good times when skill prevailed over gear (or hammer guardians)!

But nope, now we have scripted agony.

This. Anet promised no-grind, purely skill based end game. There was a ring of truth to it, until they did this.

You mean you bugged and glitched your way up to 80. As there was no proper way to go that high. Everybody who went to 80 knew they were doing something that worked only due to an oversight by devs. But of course you can call it “skill”.

I hate to break it to you but … there was a completely legitimate way to reach fotm 80 without using a single glitch.

The only oversight by devs was that there was still some scripted agony facing Jade Maw, an event which requires almost no skill.

Have I mentioned that I hate scripted agony?

I hate scripted agony.

Ah for those who did not forget, remember the time when we could do fractals level 80 with almost no AR? Ahh the good times when skill prevailed over gear (or hammer guardians)!

But nope, now we have scripted agony.

Frost.1503:

Hi everbody.
Why i can’t enjoy to Fractal lvl 50?? I have dona Fractal many times and i like it. But there is a block for people that can’t spend a lot of time to craft ascended armor and don’t like farming.

Why can’t I “enjoy” my lovely looking flatmate?? I have enjoyed many flatmates before. But there is a block for people that can’t spend of lot of time seducing and don’t like putting the effort to date properly.

Note that the rewards in my case are actually much better than the rewards for fractals level 50

I am a bit lazy to reproduce this myself, could you make a quick vid to document the issue please?

Particular has designed a good optimal rotation for D/D.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gsWj3N6DsM
You should check the comments of the video for more in depth info.
The build would be similar to that of a D/F build: 66200 and its variants.

Have a look at my guide, comrade

Yep, as expected, this patch hardly touched us.

Also make sure to check gw2dungeons.net, it is the most complete source of knowledge and a great guide for all classes in dungeons.

Quick update to reflect the changes the patch have brought us:

Lightning whip’s animation is now significantly faster, and even though it is slightly less damaging, the DPS output from the skill has been increased.

Due to the shorter animation time on this skill, the timing of the blasts on the optimal rotation has to be altered a bit:

Phase 1: Water
Once burning speed is complete, swap to water after 3 or 4 lightning whips. Use comet then frozen burst, instead of frozen burst then comet, so that you are sure to land both blasts regardless of your timing.

Phase 2: Earth
Once burning speed is complete, swap to earth after 4 or 5 lightning whips. No change apart from this.

As always, swap to fire when it comes off cooldown to start the next phase (this takes more than 7 lightning whips now; interrupting a lightning whip to swap to fire is not a DPS loss).

As you may have noticed, the timings have become looser, thanks to the faster LW animation time. This is really nice, since it gives us more flexibility in tough battles.

Additional notes

I have recently noticed that if your target stands in the burning speed trail, then the burning uptime of the rotation is well over 100% even without burning precision. This depends on the size of the target (larger targets take more hits per second from the trail), but on boss fights or large enemies you can definitely expect it to be true. This makes burning precision a bit useless, but it quickly becomes important if your target walks out of burning speed trail.

If your target is often out of your fire fields, then you need to alter the way you blast them. First, comet will not land correctly, so replace the comet cast by a lightning whip (once burning speed is complete, swap to water after 4 or 5 lightning whips then cast frozen burst). Also, arcane brilliance’s blast occurs at the location of your target if you have one selected, so if it walks out of the field then make sure to deselect your target before casting this spell (Thanks to Wandelaars for pointing this out).

A tip to land comet even if you have no target selected: position your chat window in the top left corner of your screen. Then the horizontal bottom line of the chat box frame will be at the level of the landing spot of comet if you cast it after stepping back/forward with your camera fully facing the ground (check attachment).

Neko.9021:

It should NEVER be blocked because it is Unbloackable.

Yet a simple sidestep, a fleeting branch, or a single drop of rain and the projectile will never reach its target

But heh, it’s still not as bad as firegrab.

Jerus.4350:

D/F is for tougher fights.

Those are the only fights you should pick, if you are a true and faithful elementalist.

But apart from that, D/F is also pretty good a killing critters

dlonie.6547:

Contrary to their famous statement, unless they explicitly confirm something, everything is off the table.

Words to live by

hybrid.5027:

Let’s be fair. they did’t say the new zones would have vistas, hearts, POI or skill points. It’s safe to assume they will be included.

Yep, you are right.
But I think the underlying question behind everything we are saying here is: have they learned? Are we going to get a bunch of swiftly made filler dungeons that we will get bored of soon after the release, or will they build content that can last? During the interviews and the presentation they insisted on their will to focus on the long term viability of the game. I really want to be hopeful! But just like on person’s character does not change overnight, I doubt this studio will change their habit to disappoint.

Wethospu.6437:

Nothing is off the table.

Unfortunately, dungeons are nothing.

Or they don’t specify which table: it could very well be the table the put in the trash a long time ago, along with the dungeon team.

Thaddeus.4891:

Its on of the two best build of the PvE Elementalist.

Which raises the question: which one is the third?

Wethospu.6437:

We must our self create our own content. Hopefully new GWSCR site will spark some speedrunning especially if solo category gets in.

Another idea is to resurrect the “Ascension challenge” topic with slight modifications. Instead of a competition with one active challenge there could be a list of interesting solo/group challenges for anyone to try at any time. For example Spider Queen solo with man mode is quite interesting, at least on Warrior.

And you just resurrected my soul! Yes! Let’s do this

My elementalist name is Zelyhn

But they have built a group finder in-game, and they will likely expand fractals. So we can expect more, not much though.

stephoa.7082:

I’m pretty sure most would agree d/f has a more active, dynamic rotation than staff’s.

As for those who don’t ….

Ancient Ranger.3276:

trait like stone splitters work much more efficiently and add a lot more dmg than 25 stacks of might.

I doubt that

Most likely new fractals will come between the end of LW (now) and the expansion. But then fractals are usually off the table, so I could be right.

Well they mentioned the manifesto, first and foremost. I think that this is a sign anything they said would have to be taken with the same mindset as the manifesto had to be understood, that is: it’s just words.

I feel like gw2dungeons.net does not get all the publicity it deserves. It is the ultimate knowledge resource for PvE. If people were more aware of it then this kind of situations wouldn’t logically happen.

Maybe a general gw2dungeons.net thread should be stickied here on the dungeon forums, so that people can give feedback, notice the links, and be aware of updates, etc.

Oh, and nice guide, I think you guild will enjoy it

I just want to be able to do this:

More more more!

Hey, if you are going for time, then you may want to use a non-FW rotation

Nerfing the sigil of battle is an adjustment that affects all might-heavy classes, and that is a lot of them. Therefore the classes that can generate might without relying on the sigil of battle will have a comparative advantage. We have many blasts and fields, so in a way we are getting better off!

It is entertaining when people say they will nerf Dagger mainhand…. seriously how many of us actually used the LW abuse on a daily basis? The only nerf is that we lose 1 second of burning on Drake’s Breath. That is it!

Then there is a broader change to might, but that is not specific to the ele, so we cannot call that a real nerf. This is the only substantial change of the patch: might builds will have a harder time building offensive power.

Title said “need few q/a”
I am confused :/