Guild Wars 2

Hmm Lord, that might be a bug you’ve finding them. Can you time for how long they do last with a stopwatch? Not that I know anything about how to fix it, but it’ll help when you bug report it

Pets don’t disappear when you leave combat. They only leave after a minute or, as others have noted, when you die.

In general, I agree with you: wrong is wrong. And I feel Anet is doing what they can at the pace they can, just as others have in the past. There’s a lot of dimensions here, most notably that banning accounts doesn’t actually prevent new accounts from being created quickly.

But in general, I am actually curious how much illegal gold buying is going on. Every MMO that has launched since DAoC has become replete with early days gold farmers peddling their spam. Of course, the practice goes back to even before UO; however, the introduction of zone and global chat channels in later games has made it more aware.

During the first month of a new MMO, there is an assumed market for gold farming. This implied market drives the botting and spam. But it takes a few months to really know if there is an actual market. And that was true even for subs-based games that frowned on RMT.

For newer MMOs built around MTX though, the game itself takes care of a chunk of what previously was considered illegal (or optimistically: emergent) behavior: small purchases including vanity and currency.

• So on the one hand, GW2 is suffering from the “new MMO” effect of gold farmers bringing their traditional behavior to every new MMO.
• But on the other, GW2 already facilitates the transactions that these farmers are peddling.

Which makes me wonder while there’s a volume of sellers, is there a volume of buyers that aren’t using Anet’s system?

Hmm, so both my Lesser Elemental and Elite Elemental last for 60 seconds as of last night anyway. When you say “elite one”, do you by chance mean Balzathar’s Hounds? Reason I ask is because those only last 30 seconds.

Yea, my experience has been similar on MacBooks with any graphic or processor intense game. Aside from the fun with the fans, one thing I’ve realized is what Chobiko noted: while well designed, there just isn’t a lot of airflow.

A desktop PC relies on proper airflow through the case. But MacBooks really rely on proper airflow around the case. I generally have my MacBook elevated a few inches, on blocks I place under all four corners. Harkens back to audiophile days But what I’ve found is that alone will allow airflow to draw the heat away from the case, so much so that the fans turn off within a minute or so even if I don’t change anything else that I’m doing.

I saw this was reported on 9/24 in a Compilation Thread; however, given the time lag, I am guessing this is a new bug post 10/1 build:

- Skill Point
- Caledon Forest
- Bugged skill challenge NPC – Swift Arrow
- Server: Gates of Madness

Also reported in /bug in game.

My experience is similar to nifty. I kinda backed by accident into the stacking Mights from the S/D skills alone. And then there was some post here about Elemental Attunement that made me take a new look at the Trait. Once you correlate each attunement to their primary benefit in the Traits window, then it’s just a question of how fast you can hit buttons

I’m still learning it, and for now I’m watching icons much more closely than I am watching the battle on screen. But in a way, it reminds me of the EQ1 Bard class song twisting. As long as you have the sequence down right, and don’t get hit with lag spikes, it becomes intuitive.

But, and this is important, it’ll never work exactly the same way twice in a row. This is predominantly because the cooldown timers are all different, but also because each encounter might have different variables, compelling you to switch weaponsets, switch Traits, switch skills.

So I recommend focusing on just one playstyle for now. If you can get down combos and stacks in solo PvE by using a rotation between Air and Fire skills, then it’s easy to add in Air to Fire to Earth, and then it’s easier to figure out how to do similar with a Staff in DEs/Reknowns. And so on.

Personally, it’s the Story mode for me, less about PUGs for Dungeons. I think it’d be a lot easier if there was a cross-server chat channel (or custom chat channels that became established), and of course an LFD window would be the ultimate.

But for now I think players have self organized around the older school convention of /map’ing while in the same zone as the dungeon. Kinda reminds me of Oasis Docks or Windmill in way-old-EQ1

Yea I’d like them to focus just on making certain skills work as advertised. We can optimize around that as long as we know it’s working. Then it becomes a question of balance.

And on balance, I assume is this is more problematic in PvP than PvE. I feel fairly WTFBBQ in most PvE, and when I get shot down, I generally realize I did something stupid (like pulled too much aggro or missed a rotation).

In general though the feel of the class feels right to me. I want more action/position/evasion/real-time-ness than I had on casters in earlier MMOs. The bandwidth is there, so let’s utilize it

TinyHowie.3946:

I wish there is at least some kind of passive benefits while switching between elements. Like the virtues for Guardians.

Never played a Guardian, so need to ask this newb question: how does the virtues work for Guardians and how does it differ from the boons we can get from certain Traits when switching attunements (i.e., Arcane Power V)?

It’d also allow for some crazy +Might stacking with Spell Singer

I can’t disagree or agree with your suggestion though, since I don’t know enough about how the decision was made.

I can see what you’re saying Xaler, but I don’t think attunement swapping is fundamentally flawed nor makes the class unbalanceable. They knew that going in, and have said that they right now are not focused on class balancing until a number of other things calm down.

Attunement switching to me is just another key press. I could wish for a WoW-style UI where all my accessible abilities are right there on the desktop and a mere #/ALT#/SHF# away, but that’d radically change the UI for the whole game and take away the context switching which I think is fundamental to the professions in general, and the skill/trait/situation choices specifically.

But then, I mostly PvE solo whether hunting, exploring or DEing. I can’t speak for any PvP or dungeons. Opinion of one and all that

Totally yes. I’d gladly pay a monthly fee too if they went that way instead of Gems/microtransactions (which they won’t, just sayin’ ).

I’m a relative newb, but would add:

5b. As a build on #5 above. Play how you like. Eles are just that versatile. There’s no one perfect way to play that will work equally well in soloing, DEs, Dungeons, sPvP nor WvWvW. So focus on mastery the Ele around your own playstyle. That will then make it easier to hone in on which weapons, upgrades, traits and skills you’ll prefer.

7. Learn your Combo Fields and Finishers. Elementalists get quite a few that are useful both solo and in groups.

At the same time, I am with Burrid. I prefer needing to click the ground for targeting. I never know where my mouse is gonna be when I spaz out against six targets

When I’m writing down skill chains on the pad beside the bed after inspiration hits me around 3am.

The story modes (Vigil) are killing me. Most are AOE which is ok except I’m relegated to heal bot if the “helpful” NPCs aren’t completely useless. On occasion I get some damage in there, but it’s rarely enough.

And then when there’s only a single mob, that’s when things get stupid. No matter what I’ve done, no matter how many helpful NPCs are along for the ride, I invariably have to cheese it in some way (use the environment, keep dying/respawning faster than it regens).

It’s a shame. I’m really enjoying the PvE and all the stuff with the map. And I absolutely love the class and all the abilities and roles I can play in groups. But the story quests are just not balanced.

Messed a lot with this last session and yea, this isn’t a normal-use rotation I was amazed that it almost didn’t matter what amount of targets there were. 1, 5, 8, whether my level or plus 1/plus 2, they all died at roughly the same point in the rotation. But I did get caught a few times with fast respawns. Luckily the pet could handle that.

For normal running around few-target PvE I’ve found Fire 432+Arcane Wave very adequate and refreshes quickly enough. But against larger or tougher waves, this new rotation is fantastic.

Force.5861:

A few notes:
-Elemental attunement only gives 1 (you said 3 at one point by mistake)
-While in air and doing RTL at your target, you might as well slap your 2 and 3 in there because they can be cast while doing RTL.
-There are 2 chains to use in S/D fire – 432 or 234. They have different uses, so i’ll explain:
In pvp your target will move and avoid some hits. This is where you use ‘234’.
…
‘432’ is for pve.

Great points and thanks for the correction Force!

Wow, and here I thought I was all l33t with the 9 stack I get from Ring, DT, Phoenix and Wave.

Can’t wait to try this all later. But just so I understand, based on the above notes, does the below work out? Assume this is all PvE only for me, and Scepter/Dagger.

Trait: Fire Magic IV- Spell Singer (gain 3 Might when a Cantrip is used)
Trait: Arcane Power V- Elemental Attunement (gain boon when switching to attunement)

Air

1. Air4: Ride the Lightning
2. Air5: Updraft

Switch to Fire- Elemental Attunement grants 3 Might

1. Utility: Armor of Earth (Spell Singer grants 3 Might)
2. Fire4: Ring of Fire
3. Utility: Arcane Wave
4. Fire2: Dragon’s Tooth
5. Fire3: Phoenix
6. Utility: Cleansing Fire (Spell Singer grants 3 Might, plus I’ve probably gotten hit with effects by now)

Switch to Earth- Elemental Attunement grants Protection

1. Earth4: Earthquake
2. Earth5: Churning Earth

Also, where do I get a Sigil of Battle, or is that PvP only?

Submitted for Micka Thickblood skill challenge in Plains of Ashford. The event says he’s up, but he’s either floating in the sky or fell through the world. I first noticed on Saturday, but it was still there Sunday.

Also a Fight Life-Stealing Minions in Hellion Forest in Hellion Forest in Iron Marches is busted. None of the required elements spawn.

Finally, Bria’s Manor, same as Micka. Says she’s there to be killed, but there’s only black smoke in the doorway.

Huh you use Earth for DoT stacks? I need to try that. So far I’ve been almost exclusively Fire, only trying on the other ones in DEs/groups and then generally just with Staff.

I like Scepter/Dagger. I’ve actually only just started posting here but feel like I’ve said that in every post today, so apologies if you’ve seen it

I’d like Focus more if Flame Wall was much wider. It’s pretty narrow and I don’t think Earth projectiles are strong enough to have a build around that combo (fire field, projectile finisher). Instead I use Ring of Fire, Dragon Tooth and Phoenix (and then Ring of Fire, Dragon Tooth and Arcane Wave) for the +Might stacking duration.

Also, Scepter is more mid-range than Dagger so you’re not getting beat down as much. And because a few of the abilities are either AOE (Ring of Fire, Earthquake, some of the Ice and Airs) a cone-type effect (Phoenix, Dust, some Air) or splash damage (Dragon Tooth), you’ve got a mini-Staff effect there.

I don’t solo much with Staff though because I prefer not to have the battle get too outta control. What AOEing does happen (bandits, risen, centaurs) are usually 2-3 unless I’m in a DE, which then I’m Staff anyway to swap from Fire AOE to CC and Heal.

But I’m only at 57.

You can, just don’t get hit, and work those evasions like an FPS game

I also agree with Dynamite above: Scepter/Dagger for solo leveling provides a nice well rounded set of medium-range skills. It has a nice +Might combo in there (Ring of Fire + Phoenix + Dragon’s Tooth), and what survivability you need you can get from the other Utility slots.

But keep your Staff as close to level appropriate as possible though for DEs that have swarms (like Centaurs or Bandits) because Staff is the king of combos and AOE.

I like Dagger/Dagger for those occasions when I just to beat something down. But the range is too close, as you have found out

My only ask: fix all the bugs so that the abilities do what they state they are doing (i.e. proper Crit counts).

This thread is one of the reasons I love this class so much. One class, but so many different ways to play it.

One person mentioned hating Scepter. And yet, for soloing, I’ve been Scepter Dagger for almost all 56 levels. Ring of Fire, Dragon’s Tooth and Arcane Wave for long duration +Might and then everything else as needed to take the targets down. Doesn’t really matter whether it’s one target or four. If there’s five, I’ll drag out the Fire or Air pets.

Staffs for groups of course. So far I’ve only done DEs. Haven’t yet stepped into a Dungeon or PvP. I’d likely get rolled in both cases because I’m mostly Power/Precision with a smattering of Tough/Vit when I remember I probably should slot some gems with it. I play GW2 like an addict, but really only have gotten as far as a casual-level thinker. To be able to do that is one of the reason I love the game so much. Even with my probably-kitten thinking, I’m generally Gold level on DEs, sometimes higher.

One thing I haven’t really gotten good at is Attunement switching while soloing. In groups I’ll switch but mostly just to shift roles from CC to Heal to DMG. But the whole Arcane line where you get boons to durations and benefits to switching, it makes my head heard But as I near 60 and the Tier 3 trait slots, I’ll be studying that more.

For leveling up, will you be soloing or grouping?

For soloing I rather like Scepter and Dagger with Fire (damage, burns, crits) and Earth (protection) with Arcane Shield, Elemental Pet and that one which removes effects (which I swap out for Mist if I’m exploring). I get the stacking Mights from dropping a Ring of Fire and then casting Dragon’s Tooth and Phoenix. I

For grouping, that’s Staff all day long and all the various Static and Water fields and finishers. Very different playstyle though.

Which of course is why I love this profession