Guild Wars 2

Tragic Positive.9356:

bearshaman.3421:

Prophet.1584:

edit: I will also add that for Rangers to max out condi DPS we have to play a completely selfish build that does nothing for the team. There is very little content in this game that is meant to be played completely solo therefore playing a build that gimps your team is not desired. When you build a condi or power Druid you’re not putting out nearly as much personal dps but buffing the entire team.

What build is that?

Someone already linked it up in the thread.

only seeing reddit and youtube links…

Zenith.7301:

bearshaman.3421:

Zenith.7301:

Razor.9872:

Zenith.7301:

bearshaman.3421:

Also, every class has that “respec or gtfo” problem. Try playing anything in a raid that isn’t meta. Nature of raids/highend fractals/speedrun dungeon groups.

Ele:

dagger/warhorn, staff berzerker, or dagger/focus condi variations, or full water staff healing variation.

There, healer, condi, and power dps all used in raids.

Ranger has no such benefit of role flexibility.

Ele is a even more of a jack-of-all-trades that Ranger is. It’s understandable that it’d be more diverse. That being said, do you ever see anyone looking for condi Ele’s? No? Now look for condi Druids. Bingo.

Jack of all trades, master of all lol.

Condi ele works just fine in VG. It actually does just as much if not more DPS than condi ranger (while suffering from the same issue, that targets moving out of bonfire/flamewall wrecks their DPS). And most people alternate between condi and power ranger because honestly the DPS on either is utterly mediocre and you’re just a buff/healbot with side DPS capabilities.

Nobody brings a ranger to DPS because ranger DPS is simply bad, and most importantly ranger aoe/cleave is the worst in the game of the DPS specs.

If you make a ele for anything other than dps, you will be told to respec or gtfo. Because that’s what people expect eles to do. My statement was one of what people expect your character to be, not whether it had build diversity.

And I would argue ranger does have build diversity, but let’s stay on topic.

Plenty of eles running water staff, Nike from DnT even suggests it for a safe pug comp.

I mean, by your own logic, if I made a druid to wear anything but zerker or viper, I’d be told to regear or gtfo by optimal groups.

But that doesn’t happen, because the truth is most groups run magi/zealot druid even though they’re a waste of gear to carry failing groups in raid content where not a single fight requires anything below zerker or vipers.

Tragic Positive.9356:

bearshaman.3421:

Mesmer has one role and one role ever in any group content, or they get kicked. Trust me, they have it worse.

Yet they bring more in PvE mathematically, and I alone know of Burst Mesmer as well as Condi or Well bunker builds.

I played one, so I think we are only in kind of similar boat as mesmers. But they certainly don’t have it worse.

This is so wrong.

Optimal groups bring ONE mesmer. Optimal groups bring TWO druids and PS warriors. That alone tells you the strength of the buffs provided for a class that make some wanted to be stacked over others.

Nothing beats PS warrior in terms of group damage boost, and druid comes in second place.

I have seen many people go on about what is optimal for groups. I think what’s optimal depends on what the group is doing (to state the obvious).

I do know that because of wonky mechanics (the same issues our pets have with moving targets, shatters have with them too), mesmers come behind rangers on both power and condi dps (unless the target is highly mobile, then mesmer may do better on condi), heals, and most support/buffs. The alacrity and quickness of the mesmer is what gets them into groups (and portal helps too). That’s pretty much it. If your mes is spec for condi or dps or heals, you’re kick bait (unless playing with friends or guildies).

Note: I’m speaking about pve. I don’t do pvp or wvw, so no clue how things work out there.

Ranger I’ve done well with doing support, healing, and condi (usually a mix of the 3). I’ve never been kicked from a group. Not saying it doesn’t happen, but between these two classes, I know which one gets more traction in groups in my experience, and most other people who play both that I’ve talked to say the same thing.

Tragic Positive.9356:

bearshaman.3421:

If you make a ele for anything other than dps, you will be told to respec or gtfo. Because that’s what people expect eles to do. My statement was one of what people expect your character to be, not whether it had build diversity.

And I would argue ranger does have build diversity, but let’s stay on topic.

I have been witness of several occasions where an Ele was asked to take on a duty of healer. In PvP they can technically get away with anything. Cleric. Berseker. Any good ele will take the lead of the battle.
In WvW, they are beasts as Celestials (or at least used to, not sure about today).
And there is a video of the slowest Vale Guardian fight achieved by 10 elementalists (which means they are even the most versatile class, not only the most efficient – I think it was 17 minutes long VG)

No one else is scrapped into a single role as we are. That comparison to Elementalists was on spot.

Mesmer has one role and one role ever in any group content, or they get kicked. Trust me, they have it worse.

Prophet.1584:

edit: I will also add that for Rangers to max out condi DPS we have to play a completely selfish build that does nothing for the team. There is very little content in this game that is meant to be played completely solo therefore playing a build that gimps your team is not desired. When you build a condi or power Druid you’re not putting out nearly as much personal dps but buffing the entire team.

What build is that?

UnbentMars.9126:

Yes I know Auramancer tanks can already do a lot of these things, but I think that a Battlemage Elite Spec would be a great way to expand on those items.

Except Auramancers typically require Tempest, and the elite specs will be exclusive of each other.

Zenith.7301:

Razor.9872:

Zenith.7301:

bearshaman.3421:

Also, every class has that “respec or gtfo” problem. Try playing anything in a raid that isn’t meta. Nature of raids/highend fractals/speedrun dungeon groups.

Ele:

dagger/warhorn, staff berzerker, or dagger/focus condi variations, or full water staff healing variation.

There, healer, condi, and power dps all used in raids.

Ranger has no such benefit of role flexibility.

Ele is a even more of a jack-of-all-trades that Ranger is. It’s understandable that it’d be more diverse. That being said, do you ever see anyone looking for condi Ele’s? No? Now look for condi Druids. Bingo.

Jack of all trades, master of all lol.

Condi ele works just fine in VG. It actually does just as much if not more DPS than condi ranger (while suffering from the same issue, that targets moving out of bonfire/flamewall wrecks their DPS). And most people alternate between condi and power ranger because honestly the DPS on either is utterly mediocre and you’re just a buff/healbot with side DPS capabilities.

Nobody brings a ranger to DPS because ranger DPS is simply bad, and most importantly ranger aoe/cleave is the worst in the game of the DPS specs.

If you make a ele for anything other than dps, you will be told to respec or gtfo. Because that’s what people expect eles to do. My statement was one of what people expect your character to be, not whether it had build diversity.

And I would argue ranger does have build diversity, but let’s stay on topic.

The condi is useful for higher level fractals because of the amount of toughness the bosses have. And that’s the case regardless of profession. Assuming you are using the meta condi grenadier build for fractals, Some of the field/blast combos will be able to help mitigate damage. Grenade has blind on 3 and chill on 4, all your explosions do cripple with the shrapnel trait, so kiting becomes very important. Bomb 4 and 5 also have blind and cripple respectively. Flamethrower has knockback and blind, and mortar has chill and blind. So you have lots of blind, and cripple, with some chill thrown in, and in most cases, you can slip them into your rotation with very minimal dps loss.

The change made it less broken for pvp (it was) and useful in pve (where your chill would get overridden by everyone else’s chill, and the damage never happened).

Well, the first thing I’ll share is this: in my experience, the build that I use for OW roaming is gonna be different from what I use for group events like fractals and dungeons. Team support is wasted if you aren’t in a party. Your build seems to be trying to mix the two, and I would suggest making two separate builds, one for solo work, and one for group stuffs.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

I don’t think, ranger’s solo dps is too far from most other classes’ solo dps, because it can easily stack some might and vuln and because there are no buffs that the pets don’t benefit from.

Agreed. I don’t know about soloing dungeons or fractals, but nothing should be able to do that anyways. We do fine. In fact, we’re one of the better classes for OW roaming, and provide good support and dps in a group if traited properly.

The turrets aren’t useless so much as situational. If you are in a moving battle, then yes they are not a good idea, but in places where the fight happens in one spot and doesn’t move (dungeons, fractals, etc) then they can work just fine. In fact a number of really good builds depend on them.

As far as your idea, I won’t say its a bad idea so much as I really love the toolbelt. It’s like every 6-10 skill is actually two skills. So much customization options.

Also, can you change the thread to tell people what the thread is about? I really hate leading titles like that, and some people won’t even look at the thread for that reason alone.

Now I’m confused too… because you just said you don’t swap kits as much with scrapper, but it has more micro-management?

If you are talking about another set of ascended, then sure go for it. If you are talking about switching the viper gear stats to another type, I wouldn’t. Just my humble opinion.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/PvE-WvW-Bleed-druid/first

Check this one out.

Also, every class has that “respec or gtfo” problem. Try playing anything in a raid that isn’t meta. Nature of raids/highend fractals/speedrun dungeon groups.

Silverkey.2078:

I think ideally, DE should be a GM in the “Illusion” traitline (since it is based on illusion generation) and all the condi traits of “Illusion” should go to the dueling line (the condi line). This is what I suggested in my rework for example (signature).

Looked through your rework (I somehow missed this thread). Very impressive. I definitely would love to play this version of mesmer. On a admittedly trivial note, I’d switch the names of the Chaos and Dueling lines, i feel the names would better match the traits you have in those lines better that way lol. (Also Chaotic Interruption and Mistrust won’t play well together I think, but a minor detail.) Seriously though, very impressive redesign, well thought out. Best I’ve seen so far, at least thematically (I’m not good at mathing things either.

Fashion Mage.3712:

I think it’s only fair that tomes are the focus of the next elite specialization considering that the people who liked them in the first place got kittened in the kitten ; especially when one notes that tomes were deleted because the narrow-minded majority wanted less interesting elite skills (that initially appeared more OP than RF) over just simply balancing tomes properly which were cool to begin with.

alain.1659:

Tomes should be the next update with proper support/heal and GUARDING skills. Like a kit, one tome for defense, one tome for heal would be very interesting. I would definitely play that.

Something like this perhaps? :p
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/45rujt/guardian_elite_spec_monk/

Several ideas have been proposed along those lines. The ones I had seen gave tomes as the new skill (instead of prayers like this one seems to have), and the tomes (like this one) were kits that replaced your 1-5 skills, not your virtues.

Given how many traits do effect your virtues (and are scattered throughout all the traitlines, I think modifying them in this way would be hugely impractical. Minor changes, like what was done with DH, can work, but this would invalidate a lot of traits. And yes, I read what was at the end, but I don’t think that accounts for everything.

Dont get me wrong. I love the idea and sincerely hope that the next elite spec of guard does something with tomes for the skills as a kit. The weapon, I have no idea on. Same for some sort of thematic change to the virtues (that doesn’t break a bunch of traits).

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Daredevil_-_Venom_Share

You could modify this a little bit to meet your needs. It’s the meta build for raids.

Erasmus.1624:

Krysard.1364:

Condi transfer is insane, but it also is the amount of condis flying around pvp.

Not exactly part of this conversation, but I’m seriously baffled as to how anet kept caving so hard to people crying about how “damage over time” wasn’t as effective as “spike damage” (i.e. direct damage). Not only does GW2 have too many boons and conditions, but it really just was not a smart idea to give any given build/class responsibility for/access to more than 2 (maybe 3) conditions and boons respectively. It would have really helped with screen clutter and would have promoted more combat legibility and class flavor.

As it stands now, everybody does the same thing.

While I kinda understand your complaint, one of the strong points of GW2 is that classes aren’t pigeonholed by the “holy trinity” of healer,tank,dps. So part of that is intentional. How they go about doing it varies from class to class, and other things are more class specific. For instance, stealth is primarily the province of thief and mesmer (and recently scrapper), whereas I don’t think anyone else really has boon corruption.

At one point (before June a year ago) condition damage was reworked because it wasn’t on par with direct damage. After the rework, it became stronger (if you stated for condition damage) but weaker if you didn’t. (people before was just using it as bonus damage on a DD build, and never building for condi.)

Azure.8926:

If you have gold to blow for Healing you could attempt
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNApeGl8AhahYpQgmIOCIqcC+g1AuDShdwGAZbCA-TRSBABmqP45DBQFKBZ18HAnAgs2fAV1f0/JAoqyPA-e

Replace Radiance with Valor if you need more personal healing. A lot of things can be swapped around.

Or you could play the more popular DPS/Support build
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Dragonhunter_-_DPS/Support

What I find funny is classes like Druid who are made to heal barely benefit at all from Healing Power and have ridiculously low scaling but Guardian can gain double to triple its base healing on skills from healing power.

I just stumbled across the second one. I’ll check out the first one too. Thanks!

And yeah, what’s up with the scaling? I was playing around with that (I have a druid too) and I know with the druid most people have said not to bother with healing power as you don’t get much of a return on the investment, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with guardian…

Wolfric.9380:

Only a dagger/focus cleric support ele is currently meta.
I don´t play that and i won´t have much fun doing it. Power ele with fresh air is nice and i prefer my scepter/focus condi oriented ele. It performs suprisingly well ecept that i have it hard against necros and mesmers without water traited. So while i am squishy in viper it´s a lot of fun …

For conquest, sure.

For fractals, its either Dagger/x or Staff Fire/Air/tempest DPS build.
For WvW its a Staff build Fire/Air/Water backline style.
For raid, its also a Staff Fire/Air/Tempest build.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Elementalist

Just looking at ideas for a pve party support/healing build. Any suggestions/links to builds?

JollyDoctor.5738:

Just made an Ele, absolutely loving it, was wondering what’s considering the meta builds right now so I can get used to how it should be played before changing it up for my own playstyle.

Not sure what the meta builds are, but unless you are doing ranked or high level pvp (whatever that is, I don’t mess with that), high level fractals, speedrun dungeons, or raids, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Everything else is forgiving enough that you can play whatever you want.

Amineo.8951:

bearshaman.3421:

I would use malice over bursting personally… or the sigil for poison duration. I’m not sure how you are at 100% Bleed and 84.73 chill now, but most condi builds use 4 nightmare/2 trapper runes when using multiple conditions in a build. I would look at using that and malice and see how you get better options in place of whatever you are currently using.

If you are using exotic gear, go for viper. If you are using ascended, getting viper is a pain (involves raiding). Up to you.

Ascended Viper armor is terrible and not worth it, it’s just 30 more power and 0,8% more condi duration than an Exotic Viper armor set, ascended weapons and trinkets are enough when it comes to condi or support/healer builds.

The main reason for ascended armor is high-level fractals. I wouldn’t craft ascended armor for anything else, but the agony infusion slots are necessary. Outside of that, agreed, don’t bother with ascended armor.

I mentioned it because I didn’t know what he would be using it for.

Tragic Positive.9356:

@Ehecatl
Yes, I think I can fully understand your point of view now. It kiiiiind of makes sense but I’d much rather appreciate some connection to the story. It was the main reason why I fell in love with GW2. Anyway, nice talk.

@Daddicus
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/PvE-WvW-Bleed-druid/
This is a build that has been shared a lot across the forums and a lot of players offered a very positive feedback about it. And I’m pretty much sure it uses your choice of armor (it can naturally be adjusted later on).
But for solo content – this is one of the most fun things while being very efficient at the same time. Give it a go.

On the topic of magic:

One of the content leads answered some questions over on the Lore forums. If you want to read it, it’s the Lore Q&A thread. But in any case…

In one of his posts, he made it clear that EVERYONE in Tyira uses magic. It’s a skill that you learn much like cooking. Your parents teach you some of the basics, and depending on what you do in life you may learn more based on personal preferences. He even sighted examples of it using engineer, the most technological of all the classes.

So that particular point has been ruled on by Anet. Everyone uses magic.

Druid can do pretty good condition damage. GotL boosts both condi and direct damage, so even if you don’t take Ancient Seeds, you can still do alot with Torch #4, Torch #5, Axe #2 (at close range) and the traited bleeds from skirmishing. Throw on a sun spirit and frost spirit, and you can dish condi quite well, while still providing alot of support to everyone else in the process.

Krysard.1364:

bearshaman.3421:

dzeRnumbrd.6129:

Calling it a l2p issue is just childish.

It may suit your particular gimmick build but it doesn’t suit most builds.

I’m not dumb enough to waste putrid mark on a 4 second blind in WvW when I know an immobilise is coming soon.

I have to eat that blind (dps drop for me) and vulnerability (dps increase for my enemy) every time I heal.

I have to eat that poison and bleed every time I plague.

It’s a trait that pigeon holes you into a gimmick condi build. L2P indeed.

I don’t feel pigeon-holed at all. If you are doing a condi build and you don’t take the Curses traitline, you are doing it really really weird (I won’t say wrong, maybe you’ve figured out something I missed).

If you are using the Curses traitline, what else are you gonna use at that level? a trait that causes fear to do damage (while we have it, it’s not on enough skills to make this worth it without specifically make a “Run away from me!” build), and one that makes ONE shroud skill do boon corruption, and it’s not the AA. MoC gives you more conditions to transfer to the enemy. It’s a condition build, so that’s what you want to do anyway.

How is that pigeon-holed or gimmicky? The other two traits fit that description way more than MoC…

Spite builds were totally viable when chill did damage, now they dont offer enough dmg to be worth without an ele supporting you 24/7, but curses isnt a must have. Path of corruption offers you RS utility, condi pressure while camping shroud, and the cleave that you lack when dropping spite, while MoC either forces you to use condi transfers (dunno how anyone can consider this good) or Carrion amulet, cause good luck using traited Corrupt Boon with anything that doesnt give you vitalilty.

And even if the other two traits were considered more gimmicky than MoC, this doesnt mean that MoC isnt bad. Deathly chill is bad even tho the other two options are worse, so…

Well we definitely have some differences of opinion. Deathly Chill needed to be brought back in line because damage on a condition that stacked duration not intensity is stupid. Not to mention that chill is an amazing condition already, and that just made it broken. The fix made that trait not overpowered for pvp, and not underpowered for pve (where if someone else was also using chill, the damage never happened anyway). But as your post indicates you’re a pvp player, I’m not gonna bother arguing that with you. I did that with others when the change first happened, and after people started using it more, my opinion was pretty well vindicated, at least among those who played pve primarily. I’ve been arguing for a split between pve and pvp for reasons like this.

In any case, condition transfer is ridiculously easy. Most weapons have at least one ability to do it. There are several utilities that do it. There are traits in multiple trait lines that do it. Condi transfer is cake.

A master trait that effects one skill in shroud and nothing else? That’s about as niche as you get. If you are making a build that camps shroud, sure, but most condi builds hope in to use #5 and then leave immediately (on DS, not RS). MoC gives a condi build more ammunition. If you use your skills in the right order, vitality isn’t an issue. And worst comes to worst, you can use Consume Conditions while you’re getting used to the build, but you really don’t need it unless you screw up and have conditions on you after the target dies.

Edit: All that said, if you don’t want to use it, don’t use it. There is plenty of other ways to do a condi build, and if you are primarily pvp, then the fear does damage trait might be a better choice for you, doing some damage with an interrupt. A condi pvp build probably has enough to have fun with corrupting all the boons people rely on.

I would use malice over bursting personally… or the sigil for poison duration. I’m not sure how you are at 100% Bleed and 84.73 chill now, but most condi builds use 4 nightmare/2 trapper runes when using multiple conditions in a build. I would look at using that and malice and see how you get better options in place of whatever you are currently using.

If you are using exotic gear, go for viper. If you are using ascended, getting viper is a pain (involves raiding). Up to you.

anduriell.6280:

bearshaman.3421:

I like most of this, though I am not sure how well received the idea of pet traits will be.

I think most of the rangers would love this. A way to enhance the pet (and only the pet).
Traits that affects only the pet could go here (many traits from BM could be used here) while the Beast Mastery trait line should be used for traits that enhance the ranger and the pet, the trait Zephyr’s Speed is a good example of BM trait.

Apologies, I meant by Anet, not by the players. Im not sure how they’d feel about it.

FriendlyInvader.3126:

This seems pretty contradictory to what most people picked up a ranger for pre-HoT(except for some unique snowflakes), I too never expected this kind of elite spec, and if I had known, I would have never invested so much time in this profession pre-HoT ;_; .

I guess because I’ve played a lot of rpgs I’m not surprised by druid being our elite spec. It fits perfectly with our class thematically. Ranger and Druid are the archetypal nature-based classes in so many games (console/PC/tabletop/etc) I don’t see how anyone who has been a gamer for a long time (25 years for me) was caught off-guard by this.

Druid allows a wide range of playstyles. I have heard alot of people complain that druid is a healbot. Well if you play it that way, sure, but that’s not the only way to go with it. It is also in every solid condi damage build we have, and some people use it for power builds as well. It adds a class mechanic w/o taking away from any other class mechanic, and most of the builds I’ve seen don’t even having healing power in their gear, unless they want to be healbots!

I advocate Rabid. You have a trait that converts part of your precision to condi damage, and another trait that transfers conditions on you to the enemy upon acquiring 3 of them on a crit. Also, since you are gonna be good at giving away your conditions, toughness helps to deal with the other type of damage in the game.

Viper is also really good, but only cause of expertise. You lose some condi damage and precision to get that, so which is preferable depends on build and playstyle.

dzeRnumbrd.6129:

Calling it a l2p issue is just childish.

It may suit your particular gimmick build but it doesn’t suit most builds.

I’m not dumb enough to waste putrid mark on a 4 second blind in WvW when I know an immobilise is coming soon.

I have to eat that blind (dps drop for me) and vulnerability (dps increase for my enemy) every time I heal.

I have to eat that poison and bleed every time I plague.

It’s a trait that pigeon holes you into a gimmick condi build. L2P indeed.

I don’t feel pigeon-holed at all. If you are doing a condi build and you don’t take the Curses traitline, you are doing it really really weird (I won’t say wrong, maybe you’ve figured out something I missed).

If you are using the Curses traitline, what else are you gonna use at that level? a trait that causes fear to do damage (while we have it, it’s not on enough skills to make this worth it without specifically make a “Run away from me!” build), and one that makes ONE shroud skill do boon corruption, and it’s not the AA. MoC gives you more conditions to transfer to the enemy. It’s a condition build, so that’s what you want to do anyway.

How is that pigeon-holed or gimmicky? The other two traits fit that description way more than MoC…

AllNightPlayer.1286:

I know a good shoulder-waist-ratio on men is considered sexy, but I still think they overdid it on my Sylvari. XD

Omg that is awful!!!

Oh… yeah… and down with butt capes. XD

Me too, I was seriously about to flip my computer desk…

Ryouzanpaku.1273:

FrostDraco.8306:

I’m sorry but this is just wrong. With a zerk staff/GS and valk armor+rune of wurm+valk/zerk trinkets (on every peice), my crit chance is 30%. I get 50% crit chance in shroud, and fury in shroud, and GS 3 can apply 12 stack of vuln (24% crit) instantly. Therefore you always have 100% crit chance in shroud. So berzerker gear is a waste of stats that you can use on survivability. And probably should, as there is no where else to put it. On top of the fact if you use rune of wurm, and toxic crystals, you can turn that extra vit, into more power dps. Which means your power damage will be high period. Zerker gear is in fact not optimal for reaper, because of traits.

Saying it’s ‘not worth it’ when the crit chance stats are going to be wasted anyway is extremely foolish.

As I understand he is stating Valkyrie armor set has very low usability aside from this one necro build. On the other side Zerker set is optimal for both other light classes.

As for the necro traits and waste of stats in Zerker – it is not completely true – you just cannot use same traits
- you will take Decimate Defences as 25stacks of vuln is auto in group and even solo you have 15+
- you do NOT take Death Perception though as you would be wasting stats indeed – you take Dhuumfire instead for nice 1000+ fire ticks while still heaving 80%-100% crit chance all the time

ie answer for OP of this thread:
- if you would be asking “I am crafting my 4th ascended set – is it good idea to get Valkyria set for my necro” answer would be definitely yes.
- if the question is though “I am crafting my first ascended set – which stats should I get” answer is 100% Zerker – all 3 light classes can use it as optimal or 90% optimal set.

That’s what he was saying in his initial post, and that I agreed with. If you are looking for a set of armor to use with multiple classes, Valk isn’kitten However, if he is just looking to use it for Reaper, it’s definitely the better choice, as several people pointed out. And while I know everyone tends to this “go zerk or go home” mentality towards PVE, I feel that’s just some elitist sentiment, and people can play what they want, and as several people have pointed out for you (you included), Valk is very viable for necro, between those two traits for a good number of builds. You still get high, even 100% crit, and you gain an even larger life pool to boot.

And the Plague Sending adept trait also transfers them to the enemy on crits. And makes this build a hard counter to conditions as well, since all you’re doing is fueling their attack.

I am using Zeal instead of Honor for mine. More burning in that tree, and more synergy with your weapons/burning. If you are worried about survivability, could mix a couple Dire trinkets. Agreed on the runes with Swimsasa.

I am using greatsword on mine. Lot more cleave, and the #5 skill is more burning.

Zilvereen.2091:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rjp9HKb-SM

Is it just me, or is it annoying when people leave a link, and not even a sentence explaining what the link is there for so we know whether we would want to look at it or not? I don’t think I’ve ever clicked on a naked link before.

Shiyo.3578:

Valks armor is silly. You’re not always going to be hitting things with 25 vuln stacks and having a super specialized armor stat combination on ascended can mess up you potentially being able to play ele/mesmer as well.

Berserker is a much better choice overall.

Not silly just not your playstyle. I use it with berserker weapon and valk/zerk trinkets. With decimate defenses and rage runes I crit almost constantly, and can do that regardless of what zone I’m in (precision gets lowered, taking your crit chance with it, but not with this build!)

And that’s without camping shroud. I have a separate build for that using the SR line to get death perception, and i use staff to maximize my lifeforce production. Reaper Shroud almost constant.

What’s good depends on your playstyle. Berserker isn’t the only valid stat set.

Edit: I will say that berserker works with other classes better, as does viper, as almost every class has good options for both of those. Valkyrie is specific to a power reaper, reaper shroud, or death shroud build because of the massive boost those get to crit chance. (No idea if other classes have a good build for Valk.)

Yeah Metabattle isn’t very good for OW builds.

Edit: have you checked the class guide on dulfy.net? those tend to stay updated…

My suggestion is to have D/P as your other weapon set. that way you can switch between them, using #3 to gap close or gap open with your target, D#5 to stealth followed by stealth pistol attack, etc. Deadly arts and Daredevil, with either SA or Trickery depending on playstyle.

Shriketalon.1937:

Phantasms could easily work, however, as a specialization. If they were removed completely from the default mesmer and a future specialization focused on living hexes, both playstyles would improve.

That’s what I mean. In order to fix this, an introduction of an elite spec doesn’t fix the base mesmer. You would still have to do something to the base class. That’s all I’m saying. Even if the rework is part of introducing a new e-spec, it’s still a rework of the base class that’s needed.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

*shrugs

I like the scepter. I like that I can keep 18-22 stacks of might up at all times w/o runes and sigils.

Also, Orb does home slightly. I agree that more would be nice.

But, you’re talking PvP, and I’m PvE, so most of my points are inapplicable to your concerns.

~EW

So scepter works fine in PVE? That’s good to know, was considering it for a ranged option on my guard.

I admit surprise that you aren’t feeling the engi, given similar complexity and tactical thinking required to that of the elementalist. Maybe it’s more a thematic issue? If so, I would recommend trying either ranger, necro, or mesmer.

Another possibility is Reaper/Necro, though I hear the Condi builds are the way to go for raids, and do pretty well at highend pvp/pve content. You could go with Rabid gear if you want to be tanky while dishing out conditions, or Viper/Sinister if you want to leave the tanking to others. Depending on how you build it, it will be very magicky, very tanky, very supporty (with the blood magic traitline giving lifesteal), and you can corrupt the enemies’ boons into conditions pretty easily.

I also support the ranger/druid and the Mesmer/Chrono ideas. Guard and Rev can sometimes feel magic-based, but usually it feels more like a beat-face character that happens to use a little magic imo.

I like most of this, though I am not sure how well received the idea of pet traits will be.

I’m weird. I’ve never been a fan of DH. Stuck with core guard for mine. I like the tomes as utility skill idea, with each tome replacing weapon skills, and each tome focused on a different aspect. (This idea has been hashed out in many places, I won’t repeat it here.) As for a weapon, no idea, at least not among the current existing ones.

I am working on a condi build that uses P/D and D/P. Great mobility with the #3 skill on the sets, and the D/P (whose #3 skill shadowsteps to the target) has the stealth on 5 followed by 5 stacks of bleed on pistol stealth. DA and DD, currently using SA, but may consider Trickery. It’s flexible.

Silverkey.2078:

I will ask you something that I thought was an interesting question in the necromancer forum:
Is there any trait or mechanics that you think offers strong limitations for future elite specs? Since all core traits and skills should work for the elite specs, some may create difficult interactions and prevent some good mechanics change.

My personal feeling on this is that it is indeed difficult, and I suspect this is one of the reason why the chronomancer did not affect the F1-F4 shatters. For example, if I take the previous post by Unterkiefer, we see that the traits (mental anguish for example) prevents removing damage from shatters to change them into buffs.
When I tried to imagine a sustained damage elite spec for mesmer, I also tried to change shatters to be passive buffs or others, but the interaction with traits made this near-impossible (or rather, I didn’t find any satisfying solution).

What traits/mechanics limit us and how could we change them to help new interesting elite specs?

I get what you’re saying, and to be honest, while this may seem like me being QQ, I feel like it’s the entire class. Everything in the mesmer is like a delicate spiderweb, each mechanic/skill/trait linked with at least two of the others in such a way that any meaningful change would require a rework of the entire class. If you mess with clones, you have to change every 2H and MH weapon, and a ton of traits. If you mess with phantasms, same thing. If you mess with shatters, well you already pointed that out. The easiest thing in the class to change is the F6-F10 skills, and that’s what gets changed almost every time.

Also, someone early said something I will disagree with heartily. Chrono didn’t fix anything with base mesmer. No elite spec has that capability. It might allow you to not use a broken traitline, but it doesn’t FIX anything. Unless you wanted build diversity fixed by removing any diversity at all.

But I mention that to say this: Elite specs won’t fix the class. And it needs fixing. I don’t know what it should be fixed into, but I hope they give some serious thought to it. Smarter people than I can figure that out.

Druid works fine for OW. You can build druid many different ways, just depends on situation. Condi Druid works pretty well, and is a hybrid build so your power is really good also.