Guild Wars 2

When fractals came out, I thought they were awsome(ascended gear and that whole debacle put aside). Now, I am just getting tired of it, frustrated with them, frustrated with my groups, and it feels like a chore again. I feel the need to grind out pristines to get that ascended ring. Feels like a chore, not fun.

So Im giving the middle finger to fractals for a while, continuing with my plan of leveling all of the classes to 80, picking 3 or 4 to deck out in exotics…then begin map completions/legendary crafting and wvw. Once that is done, maybe I’ll look at fractals again..if I can find a group because everyone will be lvl 100+ by then

Nothing in the game other than agony resist gear, aka ascended gear, mitigates agony.

Arenanet has yet to detail if that low level fractal player will be targeted for agony or not.

I think this is the biggest question to answer, and hope they answer soon.

Blaeys.3102:

I welcome these changes wholeheartedly. The people in my guild doing fractals are a pretty loyal bunch. We’ve been trying to schedule so that we all remain around the same level – so that no one is left out as we advance.

This change allows the more active players in the guild to advance without having to worry about leaving anyone behind.

It will also allow players with alts a way to bring their other characters without having to ask that the group repeat starting levels.

Outstanding change.

I agree. While it isnt exactly what I would have done, it is a step in the right direction. And your guild sounds pretty stellar, for waiting around for fractal levels. What server? PM me :p

alcopaul.2156:

cesmode.4257:

@nuke cola: You must be extremely lucky because I havent gotten a single ascended ring. Not one.

you can do level 10+ dailies and get the pristine fractal relics. 10 of those will get you a ring.

This I know, still requires 10 days to get one. I think the Nuke Cola is referring to drops and all, not the pristine relic acquisition which was recently introduced.

What is your magic find at? And when did the rings start pouring in?

@nuke cola: You must be extremely lucky because I havent gotten a single ascended ring. Not one.

I hope they wait another 3-6 months before adding more gear. Plus, I think Chris Whiteside said something to the effect of “No, we wont be adding new gear every 3 months or so”. This was in the AMA

@OP:
I run a life siphon/vampire build as well. Any way you make the build, you wont be doing more damage than say an elementalist, or “tanking” better than a guardian…but you’ll be middle of the road in both. You can take a few punches to the chin while everyone else needs a rez.

That said your build needs work:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQBYiY6B38m4gK8+oHEbZDD

Try that.

I have Knights gear primarily(pvt) but Im going to mix in some berserker gear since I am not really tanking.

The benefits I provide to a group are:
-I can stand in melee and tank more hits than most of the others in the group, including a warrior/guardian.
-My HP is almost always slowly going UP, not down.
-Well of power: besides the combo field it provides, is an AOE condition removal
-Well of suffering: vulnerability and combo field
-Well of darkness: combo field

I LOVE this build.
Its the only reason I play a necro right now.

Before I left for the day, I was running D/D…liking that. Sticking with it, going to stack pvt I think.

I WAS thikning about some sort of +crit damage build that works off of the arcane abilities that gauruntee crits. are there builds that work this?

Id sign this. Kind of..dumb to see a legendary for 1500-3000 gold, or whatever they are going for. Who has that much money? Im against legendaries being sold on the market.

All servers are pretty heavily invested in WvW buddy. Im on SBI which was #1 WvW server for about the first three months…now its slipping quite a bit. Either way, my PVE experience has never dwindled.

Genesis.5169:

cesmode.4257:

Gosh this whole thread makes it sound like a level 2 fractal player is a complete and utter noob. Remember, most likely that player has played, obviously, to 80 and probably has a full set of exotics. He/she isnt a noob.

Relax.

You seem to think its wrong to have to prove your self to the group before you can join. Will you pay for my repair bills? Will give me all the time i wasted because some newbie/scrub failed to pull his weight?

If not please stop with this OH i have exotics im pro crap.
I’ve seen people in LEGENDARIES fail at arah why? Because they either A sucked or B had no experience.

Let us see fotm levels and all is fine anet.

How about stop with this “Oh I am a high fractal level player, Im OP” crap. Hm?

All I am saying is that if they allow displaying the fractal level of the player, that completely negates the purpose of this change. Right now, if you are fractal level 10 you cant get into that lvl 25 group that is spamming LFG. After the change, if you are able to see the fractal level, that lvl 25 group will take one look at your fractal level and boot you to the curb. Theres absolutely NO point to it. What dont you people see about this? Displaying the fractal level undoes the new system completely and Arenanet is not dumb enough to institute this new system with such an obvious freakin flaw.
Period.

Just get used to the fact that a low level player MIGHT join your “holier than though” level 40 group. Get used to it, going to happen unless people begin gear checks which will happen and cant be avoided.

If you want my opinion, the tier system was better: 1-10 together, 11-20 together, so on and so forth. No idea why this didnt happen. Chris Whiteside even alluded to this as a possible option and I thought it was a fantastic idea.

Roll a ranger. Youll be critting everyones face off.

idragonladyi.8071:

Well EnMasse killed Tera by merging all the server into three, making us change our names/guild names, ruining the world PvP by having to many safe zone which also ruined the GvG system they had as well, making the nexus event 3 times a day everyday (basically u still thee and lag for an hour to go to a 15 min raid which MIGHT drop a piece of loot u want), making all the PvE gear BoE so it’s pointless to do the content just farm and buy it, Making the SINGLE battleground everyone zerg to each point, making most instance in the game have bugs to where u can avoid the actual fights completely, not listening to the community, and killing the economy with the vanity items. Waited on that game to come out in English for 2 years, I played on the Korean server, I should have stayed there. The community on Tera is just awful.

Sad what it sounds like they did to that game.

The Tera community is the absolute worst Ive ever experienced, I’ll definately agree there.

Still no getting around the hard to avoid fact that their combat system, in my opnion, is #1. I guess that, along with fantastic graphics/performance, are the only things it had going for it.

Burned out huh? Too much to do….in a game that people say theres nothing to do.. hmrmz

Gosh this whole thread makes it sound like a level 2 fractal player is a complete and utter noob. Remember, most likely that player has played, obviously, to 80 and probably has a full set of exotics. He/she isnt a noob.

Relax.

Grevender.9235:

cesmode.4257:

Start in Fire
Burning Speed > Ring of Fire
Switch to Earth
Magnetic Grasp(gives a protection aura, which is needed in a second)
Earthquake (combo field from fire gives you 3 stacks of might)
Crumbling Earth

Churning Earth xD
btw, why waste a combo field? (burning speed then ring of fire? nah)
you say later in your post that you have Arcane Wave, then use it wisely:
ring of fire – arcane wave – burning speed – THEN another finisher, which depends from the case, I would avoid using scripted patterns, they quickly show their limits when the scenario is different from the one you are used to.
Obviously this goes until you unlock all the traits, then your comboing will become way more complex and results will be juggernautish

(and here I didn’t even use the last finisher from EA in Earth)

I “waste” a combo field because It isnt necessarily needed when everything will be dead in a few seconds. Not to mention, I would have to reposition myself inside the blazing speed combo field to get a blast off, in the midst of multiple mobs. I use it as a gap closer and mobility. The fact that it provides a combo field, is just a benefit IMO.

I save Arcane wave if I do end up re-casting Ring of Fire, this blast wont be on cooldown.

Edit:
Unless the mob pack is going to be living with a decent amount of HP after all is said and done, I find it overkill to use every blast finish and acquire every aura. As it is right now, it seems the elementalist needs to work twice or three times as hard compared to most classes to achieve the same result. Not saying that I hate this aspect, but again why mash several more buttons to get that blast finish and aura when it really isnt needed. If the mobs are still alive after one or two blast finishers and one or two auras..I still have some abilities not on cooldown to use.

I havent been playing the elementalist a long time, but I can see many elementalists doing this(churning out all combo fields/blasts/auras) and left with most everything on cooldown. Overkill IMO.

Hey buddy, In the same boat as you..or maybe I was. Level 18 elementalist here(this will be my 5th toon to 80, and so far most complex). Ive been switching between S/D and D/D…

My findings are:
S/D has more in your face up front AOE damage via the amount of combos you can do in fire. But everything is on a fairly large CD and your mobility lacks. Plus, it makes more sense to start off fights in Air, making attunement swapping a b)tch if you dont like to swap a lot, or not good at it yet.

D/D has more mobility, about the same damage, and more survivability. Ill explain as I just annihilated about 20 mobs and a few vets in one pull.

Start in Fire
Burning Speed > Ring of Fire
Switch to Earth
Magnetic Grasp(gives a protection aura, which is needed in a second)
Earthquake (combo field from fire gives you 3 stacks of might)
Crumbling Earth (even though this wont go off before the combo field is gone, you still get the stacks for starting the animation when the combo field is still active). The aura you gave yourself from Magnetic grasp shields you from attacks for a few seconds so you can use Crumbling earth. Once crumbling earth goes off, with your stacks of might, most things should be dead bodies. Im sure this will get more difficult later, but so far this is how Im playing it.

I have Arcane Wave(a blast finisher) and Arcane Shield(a shield)…the blast finish I’ll use in the Ring of Fire combo field for another 3 stacks of might, but honestly if you follow the above rotation, you can save it. The shield is probably useful before you use Blazing Speed.

I just did all of this without using Arcane Wave, and annihilated all of these mobs in seconds. No HP lost, or very little. I was amazed.

Ive been stacking some more toughness…power/toughness is your friend right now.

So in terms of number mashing it would be:

Start in fire:
3,4
F4
3,4,5

Not too difficult, its like playing the piano!

I cannot decide what weaponset to use… D/D or S/D? For me, they play nearly the same. I think, though, D/D you want to stack more condition damage and S/D is more power. Am I correct? Or would they be interchangeable no matter what stats I stack?

You can do that now in dungeons. Put on magic find gear, with magic find upgrades…noone knows. Trivial issue since its been this way since launch and theres never been much chatter about it. Why start now?

Heinel.6548:

cesmode.4257:

alcopaul.2156:

i hope they show the true level of each persons in the party.

otherwise, if you played badly coz of reasons unknown, you will be suspected of being a low level in your party.

And if your fractal level is shown, and you are a low level, you will be booted without hesitation and this entire change is for nothing. No gear score, no inspections, nothing..is what I vote for. Keep everyone on “equal footing” in eachothers mind. If you stand in fire, thats your own kitten fault and they’ll boot you for standing in the fire, not for your fractal level. Id rather be booted because I screwed up, not because of a number next to my name.

If people boot then they have to wait longer to make a group. This puts choice in the player’s hands. You can’t make a choice without being informed.

Rephrased: They wont accept a low level player before starting.

I think a lot of people, those that did not dig the ascended gear and fractal system, like myself, are going to watch this very closely. If it isnt done properly to reduce player-gates, I can imagine some more people will either stop running fractals, or worse leave the game. Imagine how fun itll be with less people to group with.

alcopaul.2156:

i hope they show the true level of each persons in the party.

otherwise, if you played badly coz of reasons unknown, you will be suspected of being a low level in your party.

And if your fractal level is shown, and you are a low level, you will be booted without hesitation and this entire change is for nothing. No gear score, no inspections, nothing..is what I vote for. Keep everyone on “equal footing” in eachothers mind. If you stand in fire, thats your own kitten fault and they’ll boot you for standing in the fire, not for your fractal level. Id rather be booted because I screwed up, not because of a number next to my name.

To be honest, I think the players that welcomed ascended gear and whatever “gear treadmill” will be upset about this because this reduces their separation from the rest of the crowd. They can no longer sit atop of the fractal mountain at level 50, look down at the peon at level 5, folding his arms across his digital chest.

Me personally, I am not at a low level fractal myself, but I am certainly not at 40 or 50. I do not consider myself poorly skilled, or better skilled than the next guy. Im welcoming any change that reduces the wait time to get into fractals, and reduces the amount of player-gated content. I just hope this works they way they intend it to.

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

cesmode.4257:

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

cesmode.4257:

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

I hope they add a way for us to view others true fractal level as well as gear, especially agony resist.

Why? Whats the point of this change then? You’ll then be encouraging the current player gated content methodology which is terrible for fractals right now. Bad idea. If they allow people to view gear, fractal level, agony resist…might as well not change a kitten thing in the way levels are handled.

Because then you’d be forced to try to do level 30 fractals with people who haven’t gotten past level 4, have rare MF armor, no agony resist, and are trying to get carried.

I don’t want to have to deal with someone who doesn’t have the necessary gear, experience and player skill required for higher level fractals.

Still…If agony doesnt hit low level players, what changes? Youre not becoming a better player as your fractal level increases.

1. But it will hit low level players.

2. Yes you are. You learn more about fractals and difficult encounters. A pug whose highest level is 30 is going to be better in fractals than a pug whose highest level is 6, 9 times out of 10. The higher levels weed out lesser skilled players.

They said nothing about whether or not it will hit low level players. We have to wait and see.

And after a few fractal levels, its all the same BS. Honestly, Im no better at fractals now than when I was at lvl 5. Its the same. Youre not growing as a player. Thats just a load.

You guys seem to assume that a high fractal level = skill. It just means that you’ve had more time to run fractals than the next guy.

Right. So lets not jump to conclusions JUST yet until they give us more detail on how this will work.

alcopaul.2156:

no one will take the fractal 2 player since he has no agony resistance.

the system is good for people with alts that are fed with ascended stuff from their main with constant guild parties who want to level alts. still won’t do kitten for the true low level characters who are pugging.

i don’t see the point of this change apart from the karma bonus.

Again, assume agony does not hit that level 2. Now does your mindset change?

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

cesmode.4257:

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

I hope they add a way for us to view others true fractal level as well as gear, especially agony resist.

Why? Whats the point of this change then? You’ll then be encouraging the current player gated content methodology which is terrible for fractals right now. Bad idea. If they allow people to view gear, fractal level, agony resist…might as well not change a kitten thing in the way levels are handled.

Because then you’d be forced to try to do level 30 fractals with people who haven’t gotten past level 4, have rare MF armor, no agony resist, and are trying to get carried.

I don’t want to have to deal with someone who doesn’t have the necessary gear, experience and player skill required for higher level fractals.

Still…If agony doesnt hit low level players, what changes? Youre not becoming a better player as your fractal level increases.

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

I hope they add a way for us to view others true fractal level as well as gear, especially agony resist.

Why? Whats the point of this change then? You’ll then be encouraging the current player gated content methodology which is terrible for fractals right now. Bad idea. If they allow people to view gear, fractal level, agony resist…might as well not change a kitten thing in the way levels are handled.

Alloy: True but whats the incentive to run explorable when you can facepwn through story? The rewards are the same. I would just run Arah story, and never ever ever touch arah explorable.

I dont care about the timeline. Thrilled its being addressed.

I thought that the grouping(1-10, 11-20) was a better idea. But think of it this way: As a level 2 player, going into a lvl 20 fractal there really is no difference other than more being dished out, mob health increased maybe, a new mechanic here or there. Nothing changes on your end. You still would be completing that lvl 20 fractal in the same exotic set, with your same “skill” as you would a level 2 fractal.. So I guess its OK.

I just hope that the level 2 player in the level 20 fractal doesnt get hit with agony. AND, and I highly doubt arenanet has thought of this: If that level 2 player is not included in the list of players to be targeted for agony, is that extra agony application applied somewhere else? Basically, are the other 4 people going to bear the brunt of more agony because the 5th player, a level 2, cannot receive it? This may still create player gated content where high levels still dont want to run with low levels because they dont want more agony.

Food for thought.

I think Arah is less of an issue since people want to complete the story. Other story modes, forget it. When you can zone into an explorable if someone in your group has done it, why bother with story? The only reason is to unlock it for yourself so you can zone in for the group.

20-30 tokens is still no incentive to me. I dont think you can increase the lure of doing story mode without decreasing the lure of explorable. Just unlock story mode for us if we have completed the dungeon on explorable.

Hi, Isaiah Cartwright wrote about two upcoming fractal changes. See the post here:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/fractals-of-the-mists-dungeon-improvements/?utm_source=client

I had two questions about the second portion…
Suppose the group fractal level make up is as follows:

Player 1 (fractal level 2)
Player 2 (fractal level 21)
Player 3 (fractal level 21)
Player 4 (fractal level 21)
Player 5 (fractal level 53)

How is difficulty in the fractal scaled? Both in terms of boss hitpoints, damage done from the boss to the players, and agony? Will agony only be placed on the players above a certain fractal level, or will it have a chance to land on that level 2 player(he/she without agony resist)

2. And just to confirm: If we decided to do fractal level 54, will everyone including the lvl 53 player increase in level?

Thanks!

Currently, my biggest challenge is not boffing up the attunement switches. I have Z and X as straff keys, alt is my backstep. So my hands are far down on the KB, getting up to switch attunements sometimes is a pain. These keybinds are how I play other classes and how Ive played any computer game in the last 15 years so it wont change

I also have alt+f4 out of the game when backpedaling and trying to switch to Earth

Hi,
It is very fun. Like I said previously I am button mashing in a methodical order to get combo fields off, stacking might..but it feels just chaotic..ordered chaos of button mashing. Maybe I’ll get used to it.

I like the weapon loadout I have now, scepter dagger…wondering what stats? Im thinking that since if I go through the AOE rotation even on single target mobs, they drop real quick. Considering stacking Toughness, to be able to take a few punches while getting those combos off…

Thoughts?

Maybe: Toughness > Power > Vitality…a Knights set type of stat priority, but prioritizing toughness.

Hi, thanks for the reply. While there is a method to your madness, as well as mine, I cannot help but think that this is nothing more than spam all of the abilities in your attunement(within logical reason…i.e. trying to get combo fields and auras), and go to the next attunement. Its really saddening me to see that the elementalist does not truly shine unless he/she goes into two or three different attunements to kill one pack of mobs.

Tarvok: Leveling up, how would I trait, per 10 points..?

Hi there, just rolled an elementalist yesterday and she is level 15. This will be my 5th character to 80, I already have an 80 Thief Guardian Necromancer and Warrior.

Ive done a little bit of reading, watched some videos, but could use some first hand advice:
-What weapon set would you recommend?
-What leveling spec would you recommend, per 10 points?
-What stat priority would you recommend?

Given the above:
-What would your single target rotation be?
-What would your AOE rotation be?

-Currently I have been running a scepter/dagger build.
-I threw the first 5 points into Fire
-I have been stacking power

Single Target:
Air: 4, 5, 2,3, 2, all the while autoattacking. I might switch into earth if everything is on cooldown

AOE:
Air: 4, Fire: 2,4,3,Arcane blast. If needed, I switch into Earth: 4, 5.

Any advice? I feel as if single target is extremely weak, or I am not playing it correctly. AOE is VERY strong, but I sometimes get jarbled up in my rotation. I also feel that I am going down pretty quickly as well. I know I am squishy, but leveling 4 other toons to 80, I never stacked vitality or toughness when I could stack DPS stats…Not sure why my elementalist is getting two or three shotted at times.

Thanks,

Hi,
Yesterday I posted a thread about a wellmancer life siphon build that I use. I find it to be fairly good with keeping me up right, but the damage is a little low and I dont grab aggro easily.

Today I might try :
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBIhZakRrZvYTZjhPBM9gbvzGSRv2Gpg4lB

Stat Priority: Precision, Power, Vitality.
Weapon set: Dagger/WH and Staff

Pros:
-A bit higher in DPS going down the spite trait line, decreasing CD on signets and granting might when activating signets.
-Increased crit chance going down the curses trait line. I went down this for crit chance and the war horn trait which seems very synergetic with a minor traitin vampiric precision that you receive later(20 points in precision + decrease CD on warhorn + vampiric precision = more dmg and life siphoning)
-High +healing and vitality going full blood magic. Bloodthirst will effect most of the life siphoning abilities. I took Dagger mastery so that I can almost spam Dagger #2, life siphon. 10 second cooldown isn’t much, the ability does decent dps, and it heals for around 3500 when combined with bloodthirst and vampiric.

Cons:
-Signets are boring
-Signets provide little utility to the group other than Plague Signet
-Plague signet will transfer conditions from your allies to you, and you can send those to the target. Once you activate, the passive is turned off so youre not left continuing to grab conditions from your buddies. I am not sure how quickly it will grab conditions off friendlies, if anyone has info on this please share.

Alternative traits:
-Swap out either Dagger Mastery or Banshee’s wail for Staff mastery, since staff is going to be your ranged weapon of choice, and honestly, there are just way too many fights that require you to be ranged.
-Swap out Dagger Mastery for Transfusion for added group “utility”. Even though I believe the healing ticks from this is relatively low, every bit helps.

Note on this build: While you are heavily invested into vitality and life siphoning, this is no longer teetering on the brink of a tanky build(even though I strongly believe no such build exists in the game, or should exist). You are focused a bit more on dps, and near constant use of dagger #2 if you choose dagger mastery. I think you will be able to stay upright a bit longer than not, but you no longer necessarily want aggro all of the time. I have yet to see how this would perform in a dungeon, I havent tried it out yet but it all seems pretty synergetic and balanced between survivability and DPS.

Thoughts?

Hi,
No I wasnt an aggro magnet. Just the opposite. I think due to the relatively low DPS compared to the other possible glass cannons in the group, I had a tough time getting aggro.

Concerning big hits, I don’t think a life siphon build will ever make up for big hits that take 1/4 of your HP in a swing. More over, I do not think any builds in the game should be able to sit there and soak damage for an unlimited amount of time.

The purpose of this build is to hopefully take some aggro off teammates, take a few punches, life siphon a bit, take another punch and then dodge out. All the while, dropping wells providing combo fields for teammates.

It isnt meant to tank since I am a firm believer there is no such thing in this game…or rather there SHOULDN’T be such a thing.

Hi, the only playstyle that I have enjoyed for the necromancer thus far is a life siphon build, even though some mechanics are subpar with it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBIhZakRrTPTzSjhPBIVA7pHcPu4RPIe5hB

Weapons: Dagger/Warhorn and Staff
Heals/Utilities: Consume Conditions, Well of Power, Well of Corruption, Well of Suffering, Lich Form

Stat priority: Power or Precision, toughness, vitality

Logic behind trait choices:
Curses:
-#2, kind of useless for this build, but necessary to get to the other traits
-#8, reducing the CD on an interrupt, and a small-range aoe attack that life siphons for you which does benefit from healing power. The added swiftness is a bonus.
-#9, Having the flexibility to put down a well wherever I want has been nice. Not having to always be in melee range to put down the core of my abilities is a plus.

Death Magic:
-#4, 3seconds of protection when using a well. Since I have three wells in the build, this adds to my own survivability.

Blood Magic:
-#2, increases the life siphon of a lot of the abilities that I use while in combat. I think warhorn #4, dagger #3, and consume conditions are the only abilities that do not benefit.
-#8, faster well cooldowns = more damage and more life siphons.
-#12, life siphons per tick per target. Decent damage, and on a group of 4 or 5 mobs, the life siphon only goes up.

Some of the minor traits contribute to the effectiveness, such as vampiric…

Overall, I find this to be pretty solid in dungeons so far. I go down a lot less due to high vitality, high toughness, and some life siphoning, which translates into group members that do not need to stop what they are doing to rez me. I provide multiple combo fields. I provide an AOE condition removal. I provide 10 stacks of vulnerability via well of suffering, and I think 9 via lich form.

Con: The damage, imo, is sub par and is the only drawback for me. Along with other factors that go into aggro and hate, since the DPS is a bit low, it is hard to gain aggro on mobs at times. I would rather have the mobs focus on me a bit more and my group mates a bit less. No, I dont want to tank 100% of the time. If I can take some aggro off the group for a few seconds here and there, Id prefer that.

Alternatives:
I have been debating on subbing out one of the Well traits in Blood Magic to pick up vampiric precision, but I am not sure. It would almost defeat the purpose of using wells all together, thus crippling the build.

Thoughts on all of this?

One more thing to note: Using a staff with a life siphon build isnt exactly great. Its OK, because if you have any +healing gear, the staff #2 regen is benefited. The best weapon set for a life siphon build is dagger/wh or dagger/dagger. Im running dagger/wh.

Staff should only be used when you need to range, not any other time.
Why?

-4 hits and 4 possible crits within..2 seconds? This means heals per hit, and heals per crit.
-#2 dagger ability, which I believe IS benefited from healing gear, although you shouldn’t gear for it. Decent DPS and your best life siphon.
-#3 to immobilize a mob in a well, while you life siphon the hell out of him.
-Warhorn #4, for an interrupt…eh its ok.
-Warhorn #5, for a small aoe dps/cripple, and is great for map travel.

One trait I might want to reconsider building for is Life Transfer, the deathshroud #4 ability. Heals the group when you use it. Wonder if you could make a build and still include that for increased group utility.

sternenstaub.8763:

I actually like the life siphon as well.

Its not that bad, but you run all wells, and they have big cooldowns. Doesnt bring that much to the grp when compared to the Elementalist (who dyes a lot faster true). Same damage I guess, but a lot more grp utility on staff.
Lifesteal is nice, but when you stand in CoE 2 or 3 where you can not actually stand still nor melee, the wells are useless and you won’t do any damage, whilst condition is still usefull…
Thats what I mean. We can go different trait paths, but they are circumstancial, whereas condition is just always better. That should be fixed. We don’t realy need big buffs damage wise or so.

Hi, I have to disagree with the majority if your statement.

-Wells do have a large cooldown, unless you select Ritual Mastery(20% cd reduction), which I have. On a trash pull in most dungeons I can get two Wells of Suffering off normally. Thats not bad for the benefit it provides.
-You dont need to be standing in the well or standing still to receive the life siphon, if youve traited for it. Vampiric Rituals.
-I selected ground targeting so that I can cast a well on the move, or on a pack of mobs some place else other than where I am standing. I get the life siphon still.
-You dont need to stand still to use the #2 dagger ability life siphon.
-Most dungeons arent too melee friendly anyways. If everyone just went ranged because of this, then the game would be dull and I probably wouldn’t be playing anymore. You CAN be in melee on some or at least half of the fights that most people say to stay ranged. There are a few that you REALLY need to stay ranged.
-The utility I am providing to the group is an aoe condition removal, and combo fields for life steal. Not to mention, the mere fact that I am built semi-tank means that HOPEFULLY I am taking some of the aggro off the group, if even for a few seconds at a clip.

I think the life siphon builds are pretty good…

Concerning your last statement, I am realizing that condition builds are kind of…meh. Capping bleed stacks…means most of your effectiveness is capped. Increasing durations..You can increase the duration to however long you want, but if the mob dies 20 seconds before that poison duration drops, thats just wasted DPS imo.

Condition builds need to be fixed IMO.

Ill sign this. Up until now i didnt know why I saw threads like this one…but after trying Lupicus yesterday, I now know why. Either remove the minor and replace it with something else, make effects like the one on Lupicus not trigger on pets, including jade maw…

Something needs to be done.

Hey,
New to running Arah EXP, I have a few questions:
1. Im assuming path 3(forgotten) is the easiest? Is it also the quickest?
2. Which is the longest/hardest
3. Do people only run path 3?

Seems like farming out a complete arah set is going to take a long long time

Hi,
Ive completed the personal story twice now, and that ending song is great. Just wanted to say that.

Probably the best score Ive heard in a game in a long time.

Thanks,

tyvm for that.

Here is my current build:
Curses: 2, 8, 9 (hemophilia, focused rituals, banshee’s wail)
Death magic: 4 (Ritual of protection)
Blood Magic: 2, 5, 8 (Bloodthirst, Vampiric Precision, Ritual Mastery)

I run D/WH and Staff with sigil of blood on dagger.

Utilies:
Consume Conditions(I chose this over well of blood because it really keeps me upright in heavy condition fights)
Well of Power(Here is my contribution to the group via a skill. )
Well of Corruption
Well of Suffering

The wells heal me per tick, my auto attacks heal my per tick, Life Siphon heals me per tick, and crits heal me. While the healing stat doesnt scale with most of this, it seems, I still do not go down a lot.

I have 22.7k HP, 1547 toughness, 45% crit, unbuffed.

My contribution to the group is:
-Bosses that hate on high toughness and proximity might aggro to me a bit more
-I do not go down alot, if at all.
-AOE condition removal.

My damage isnt as high as say a thief, but again I go down a lot less than on my thief, therefor my group doesnt need to spend time rezzing me.

I know people dislike life stealing, but to me its the only build that has worked for me and that where I didnt get face pounded in Orr. I left the necromancer in Orr because I was getting owned via a scepter dagger condition build. Purely destroyed. Checked this out and I was taking on 4,5, sometimes 6 mobs at once in Orr without dying. And I wasn’t kiting. Not bad for a clothie.

Hi,
I know people have dim views on vampiric builds, but to be honest I really dont care if it is at the top of its game or not. I personally think it is fine, could use a boost.

Ive been focusing on Knight’s gear, with power precision toughness, however I was wondering what you guys would think about a full Nightmare set from Twilight Arbor..

Precision Vitality Healing Power.

Im trying to get Arah story done so I can have ease of access to exp, and the gear looks sick, but the TA gear set looks pretty good too.

Thoughts on farming that for a life-stealing well-heavy build?

Indeed…I could.

Yeah, I know I can craft..I dont really like the look of the crafted.

And as you said, Arah is the only other set that has the stats I want, and looks pretty good.

Are there any Kharma sets that have these stats?

Hi, does +healing gear effect life siphon, and other life siphon traits, sigils, and abilities?

If so, does it only effect the life transfer portion or the damage as well?

Hi,
Just curious where can I find gear with the stats that Knight’s gear has…
Power, Precision, Toughness?

I also wouldn’t mind some Power Precision Vitality as well.

Thanks,