Guild Wars 2

MonkeyGG.4801:

I am loving this matchup, the only thing i dont like about GH is that you guys looooovvvveeeeee to place siege weapons, in towers, siege weapons, in open field, siege weapons, everywhere, siegeweapons! xD
Besides that, good luck to GH and i hope you guys are enjoyin the figths Underworld is giving you guys

When we went after Mendon this morning at 4:30 AM we’ve found 1 Treb, 3 ACs, 4 Sup ACs inside it.
Inside ONE SINGLE TOWER.
And you tell us we place too many siege lol.

When jumped in WvW 3 hours ago, it was all completely covered in UW colors. Then we started gathering the few players we had and took back a considerable amount of EB, SM included (honorable mention to the people who took back our BL though).

Of course when we started to siege UW’s T3 keep with only 4 men you guys had to rely to guards, cannons, mortars, acs, and every other kind of weaponry to take us away. And we came there just to have a fight.
Fight that we managed to get after we fell back. It was one of the most entertaining 2v2s I had recently, 2 Thieves vs 2 Guardians. Too bad another UW’s thief had to come there and caught my mate by surprise, downing him when I had everything on CD.
Still, it was a good encounter. It lasted somewhat aroud 7-8 minutes (I used 2 Thieves Guild).
Grats to that Underworld Colonel (without a guild) and to that Underworld Legend (forgot the name of the guild). The former with a perma retailation build, the latter more support based. I still consider it a draw though
I was the Norn D/P Thief from TEO.

Post a screenshot, it would be better if you want insightful advice

male or female?

oZii.2864:

hihey.1075:

The only Celestial piece I always carry with me and which I find to be kind of OP is the headgear.
1% more critical damage than the berseker is enough for me to trade that power and small precision loss with toughness, vitality and, why not, healing. Condition Damage is a bonus.

Its kind of op because its 20 to all stats? heh. OP just gets thrown around these days it seems.

I bet a celestial headpiece is kind of OP in a condition build too because condition damage scales soooo well /sarcasm

I said “kinda OP”.

The chest and pants also have 1% more crit than zerker, by the way.

Yes, but you lose way more “main” attributes compared to the helm.
With the headpiece, assuming zerker gear, you lose 25 power and 12 precision, but gain 1% more Crit Dmg (which alone could compensate the lack in power), 20 toughness, 20 vit, 20 healing power, which are all good stats to an Ele.

Dave.1905:

Yeah I think precision food is necessary to bump up crit chance. Would you recommend stacking bloodlust for solo roaming or just going with a force sigil? I know there’s a point where force stops being better but I don’t know exactly where that is or if I’ll consistently come close to it while solo/small group roaming.

Food would be Plate of Truffle Steak and Master/Potent Master Maintenance Oil? Would that be overkill for precision?

Just bring two weapons with you, one with bloodlust or the +precision on kill stacks.
IMHO, the best thing would be a base 45-50% crit chance (that is, without Fury).

The only Celestial piece I always carry with me and which I find to be kind of OP is the headgear.
1% more critical damage than the berseker is enough for me to trade that power and small precision loss with toughness, vitality and, why not, healing. Condition Damage is a bonus.

Dave.1905:

Thanks for the quick response

I’m used to playing with 30 arcana and the elemental from sPvP but I can play around with FGS too. I’ve seen it in a few videos and it looks really fun in the right situations

What’s not working in Air Training? I was unaware it wasn’t working properly

With the condi meta atm do you think the crit chance is worth the HP loss? How expensive does the food get to be using it consistently in WvW?

I am positive there was a trait in Air which was not working and I believe it to be Air Training. Could be mistaken though, it has been a lot since I last played my Ele (had to level my Thief :])

The condi meta… is strange. I usually tend to roam alone or in small groups in WvW, and while I do this I rarely encounter Necros, let alone condi necros, at all. That’s because of the huge issues that class has in WvW, since it is terribly slow (and thus bores users to death) and it has almost no escaping utilities (which means that if you get caught by surprise you will most likely die).
More over, WvW is not like regular PvP: you don’t have to hold points, so you can move pretty much everywhere, which makes marks really difficult to land, provided your opponent is somewhat decent.
I, for one, have never “lost” to a Necro. If things get bad, I can always at least get away safely. And I usually run with 13k HP!
Also, keep in mind of the availability of food buffs which reduce incoming conditions duration by up to 40%!
So what I’m trying to tell you is don’t be concerned THAT much about conditions:
Oh, on a side note, I use Sigil of Generosity (not available on pvp) on my scepter, which, paired with a high natural crit chance, enables me to fear back a lot of necros.

WvW is really different from regular PvP. If you plan to solo roam, the hardest encounter you could face is a good stealth thief.

I would also suggest swapping Mist Form for Signet of Air: it gives you a handy AoE Blind+insta damage, which is never bad, and it is a far more reliable stun breaker than Mist Form. Basilisk Venom has kitten cooldown, you know. And the speed increase in combat is really important in order to control the battlefield if you can’t rely on a good Swiftness uptime

Dave.1905:

After many hours of theorycrafting and research I’ve come up with the following 0/30/0/10/30 build for WvW..

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYhMmKbzR5gjDIkCmg4hF4AcY5xMkD2AA-jkyAorASfApCAZvIm+GyaVrIas6HMlbk1wJVFDAA-w

Few things I’d like to point out:
The backpiece is as close to the yellow flower thing as I could get (which is what I’ll probably be using)
Crit chance is lower than other builds but I can live with that
I was trying to keep power high while keeping toughness as close to 1600 and hp as close to 16k as I could
Trying to see what I can do without using celestial pieces (it’s not like I can’t use them but I wanted to try to focus stats)

With that being said, please critique the build or give me any pointers. I’ve played S/D in tPvP for a while but the customization there is very limited compared to WvW and PvE

Thanks, Dave

IIRC, Air Training is not working at the moment, you might swap it for Zephyr’s Boon or Aeromancer’s Alacrity.
As a Burst DPS class, I would recommend using FGS instead than Glyph of Elementals, since the latter is more suited for sustained dps fights (at least IMHO), whereas FGS is really good for escaping, if the situation calls for that (and you never know what could happen in WvW).
Other than this, it looks pretty solid to me. The lack of Water 15 is quite noticeable though: EA could make up for it, but remember that you are wasting a dodge in order to use that “missing” heal.
Since Fresh Air builds rely on staying in air attunement for longer, you could sacrifice some points in Arcana and put them into Water (I’d say from 5 to 10 points), but it’s really up to you.
Still, your Crit Chance is quite low. I’d swap your Soldier’s Chestpiece for a Knight’s Chestpiece, giving you 37% base Crit Chance, which HAS to be improved with food and oils to reach at least 40%, since Fury uptime will be quite low.
My 2 cents.

Staff is a beast in WvW.
A Shatter Mesmer with Staff Mastery has a blink every 6 seconds due to Phase Retreat. It is insane in terms of fight controlling, most opponents will not even understand what you are doing.
That, and Chaos Storm is a fantastic defensive ability when Thieves go stealth: ever tried blinking inside a Shadow Refuge and casting Chaos Storm inside?
Terrific, really.
BUT remember to always carry a GS with you in WvW! You’ll need that during siege!

Air Dodge: AoE Blind?
lolwut?

Are items created by the Mystic Forge soulbound on acquire or soulbound on use?
Because I am interested in crafting “The Anomaly” for my new lv80 mesmer, but I only have 50 spare skill points on him. On the other hand, I have 500+ skill points available on my lv80 Ele.
So, I was planning to buy the Eldritch Scroll and all the skill point-based materials with my Ele, thus crafting the weapon with him, and THEN give it to my mesmer.
Is it ok to do so? Is the weapon soulbound on acquire (like the Eldritch Scroll) or is it Soulbound on Use?

Thanks in advance for your time

It’s quite easy with a zerker S/D Ele. Just bring AT LEAST one Elemental (2 is better) with you and it’s fine.
Target prioties and positioning are the basics of camp soloing, though: if you KNOW where you have to be in order to quickly kill what has to be killed, you’ll do fine with any class.

tetrodoxin.2134:

Scrolling through the huge amount of changes for other classes, then seeing the Mesmer changelog…

At least no nerf, eh?

Still better than Elementalists, who only received text corrections

I’ve been lurking the Elementalist forums for a while and I have always wondered why no one has ever taken into consideration these 2 Major traits of Arcana and Earth.
I mean, Arcane Shield & Armor of Earth are 2 of the best defensive spells we have, and we could get them for free (albeit not on demand).
Are they total crap? Maybe they are bugged (Final Shielding triggers at 10% Health, but still triggers)?
I seriously can’t understand why no one even talks about them. Sure there could be better choices, but I have lost count of all times these two spells have saved my life, both in PvE and in WvW. You could also forget taking a stun breaker with you, since they are both skills which break stun.
I would love to know your opinion on these tratis, because there has to be something I am missing.

For the record, I usually run a S/D build with 0/10/0/20/30, with the last 10 points either or Earth (for Earth’s Embrace, when I feel I need to be more tanky) or on Air.

Look, I’ve spent HOURS trying to choose among the best looking sets for female sylvaris.
I ended up with this:

Head: nothing
Shoulders: nothing
Chest: Inquest Vest
Gloves: Linen Gloves
Pants: Feathered Pants
Boots: Magician Boots

Everything in Purple, with details in Gold.
It should end up like this: http://i.imgur.com/PIhxkQu.jpg

Some nice alternatives I have found are using the T1 Sylvari Chest & Gloves, since they are really cool. Unfortunately, I cannot find a single leg-piece which satisfies me when paired with those components. Maybe only the Winged Pants would do, but I already have my Ele with those… Not to mention that the T1 Sylvari Chest makes my toon’s breast quite smaller :/

Blackhat.4016:

Thank you very much!

I have a few more questions now:

I heard there is a way to give Mesmers good ooc mobility by using certain runes and food? Is that true? And is it worth using instead of the other runes and food?

Are rangers good for roaming? I know Thiefs are pretty good at that but a friend told me a ranger can do it as well (not as effective though) but has an easier time taking small camps solo. Is that true?

Thanks again for helping a new WvW player out!

Rangers are better at taking camps because their pets allow you to deal with more enemies at once. Thieves, on the other hand, have a difficult time at soloing camps because they have to take the enemies one by one.

You can give your Mesmer a full set of Centaur runes and use the Mirror Healing ability in order to have near perma swiftness (which will become perma-swiftness if you use a Focus on your offhand). Outside of swiftness, mesmers lack the skills which provide ooc mobility, the only one being their Blink.

TRON.1085:

Then of course after forever fighting them if they start losing just ride the lighting, mist away….no risk…

.

You are right. They should change the RTL cooldown to 60 seconds even if it hits.
EDIT: typo

Evasive Arcana is one of our best traits. Water Dodge is a AoE heal+condition cleanse. Churning Earth is a Blast finisher.
Anyway, I have rarely encountered the issue you are speaking of – Mostly because the spell it triggers is insta-cast: by the time you recover from the dodging animation, the spell is already “completed”.
I too tend to spam 6 when in low health and dodging, but I never had to blame Evasive Arcana for dying because the Heal did not trigger :/

Immolator.5640:

So the proposed solution, to a problem that isn’t really all that bad, is ‘run for the nearest pool of water’? o.O Is this fo serious?

I am dead serious, yes.
If you are good at countering thieves on land, please, do so.

My “guide” is for those who have problems against perma stealth thieves. Shift the fight into water, and watch as your enemy melts.
Thieves are the worst class when it comes to water combat. Crappy range, no defense, no condition cleaning.

Roaming thieves can be a pain to deal with, right, so you must avoid fights in the open.
If you spot a thief coming at you, start running towards the nearest water pool. In order to do that, i usually roam with a build like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYhImebuxywjFAkCmEKQwoQIiCWUegzM2A

Pay attention to the traits “Final Shielding” from Arcane 10 and “Earth’s Embrace” from Earth 10: with those 2 traits, you WILL be able to cast FGS to quickly escape the fight. I use FGS ONLY to run away. You could also use RTL (the nerf was huge, but remember that you can cast it on ambient animals too, which are killed in one shot and do not draw aggro, halving the cooldown).
If you get stunlocked, use Signet of Air. If you are incapacitated, switch to water attunement. If you get incapacitated again just evade (Evasive Arcana will cast Cleansing Wave automatically, curing a condition). If immobilized WHEN in Water attunement, use Cleansing Wave.
If FGS is in cooldown and the water pool is far away, odds are against you. The best way to escape if the thief is running at you, though, would be a quick RTL (hopefully to an ambient animal) (remember to ALWAYS stay in Air Attunement when roaming) then pop Earth #2 for extra protection and, if he manages to shorten the distance between you, pop to water, Evade, Heal, Water #4, then go to fire and cast a Phoenix (which grants extra Vigor). Unfortunately, as an Elementalist, there is very little you can do against a SKILLED thief (I have won many fights against weak ones, but recently I have been starting to avoid any sort of combat with thieves.

If the thief is so greedy as to follow you in the water, then nuke him down. If he doesn’t then you are alive (at least).
They say that Thieves are always in a win-win situation, because either they kill their opponents or they escape the fight through stealth.
I’d say that, as an Ele, we too are always in a win-win situation, because either we escape the fight (through FGS) or we kill the thief underwater.

So, yes: if you see a thief, start running, either towards water (in which you could kill the thief) or towards one of your outposts or comrades (if you have any).
The worst case scenario would be if you are near the north-eastern corner of each Borderlands or EB, which is far from water, in a location which is completely controlled by the enemy. But in this situation, if you get killed, you are the only one to blame, since it is not safe to wander carelessly in enemy territory in WvW.

TL;DR: if you are an Ele and see a thief, start running towards the nearest water pool. If the thief follows you, he is dead. If he doesn’t you are still alive.

Hope it helps you guys. I still believe stealth is really powerful in this game, especially in 1v1-1v2 fights, but don’t forget that thieves still have many weaknesses which you can exploit by fighting them underwater. I have never EVER lost a fight underwater against a thief, whereas I have a hard time in sPvP when I have to kill someone underwater when I am using my thief alt.

I have been lurking on the forums for a few days, and it looks like almost everyone who does not main a Thief is asking for a nerf of the so-called “perma stealth thief”.
Now, I main an Ele and have just started a Thief whom I use in sPvP mostly, just to learn the basics of the class.
I would like to share my thought (and my experience) with you, so that every Elementalist could learn how to approach an encounter with a thief in WvWvW correctly. Not only that: what I am about to write will be of help to many people, not only Eles.

Now, why do thieves annoy other classes so much?
Easily answered: because of stealth.
Stealth removes conditions.
Stealth grants regen.
Stealth enables the thief to reset the fight whenever he wants.
Stealth makes the opponent to lose the lock on the thief.
Stealth enables the average thief to backstab enemies, dealing a huge amount of damage.
Stealth enables the thief to perform the finisher without worrying much about the downed player actions.
Stealth enables the thief to resurrect its allies (to an extent).

To cut it short, stealth is OP.
Correct. To me, at least: an average/good perma-stealth thief IS able to take down small groups of 3+ people, provided he doesn’t make mistakes and makes good use of their stealth/disables during takedowns.

So, in order to increase the chances of beating a thief, you should put him in a position when he cannot use stealth.
Stealth traps are NOT the way to go: they are too expensive and they do not assure your kill, since a good thief could still get away after activating a trap.
My solution is Water. Water combat, to be precise.

Some of the best weapons an Elementalist has, are his Trident skills.
As an Elementalist, you can kill almost every class during water combat, because you have some of the best single target CC skills in the entire game when it comes to water combat.
Use Arcane Shield as soon as the enemy touches water, so that you won’t be killed if you are close to death.
Air #4 combined with Earth #4 are amazing at rendering the enemy target incapacitated for 2-3 seconds. You could also add Air #5 for 2 more seconds of stun. In the meantime, nuke your target down with Air #2, Fire #2 and Fire #4. And if the enemies tries to run away, just use Earth #3 to close your distance, paired with a quick Earth #5 to blind him for a few seconds. You could also use your elite after Earth #3, to finish him in a cool way.
And guess what? In water, thieves cannot use stealth. So they will not be able to cleanse their conditions, they will not be able to escape and they will not be able to counter your combos.

It could be expensive, but why don’t you go for Divinity Runes?
+60 Power, +60 Precision, +60 Condition Damage, +12% Crit Damage (along with +60 Toughness, +60Vitality, +60 Healing Power).

To me, they seem the best all around choice, assuming that you can afford them.
Going full Orbs “should” be better in terms of raw spike damage, but I am currently using a full zerker gear with 6x Superior Divinities and everything melts before me quite fast, be it WvW Players or PvE content.

This morning, a FSP zerg came in our (WSR) Borderlands and started steamrolling everything, with just 3 of us defending what couldn’t be defended.
It was fun when I, along with 2 guildies (level 12 and 21) and 2 other reliable guys, took almost every camp & came close to 3 towers in their Borderlands with a 5 men team.