Guild Wars 2

DJRiful.3749:

High DPS / Hybrid

10 / 30 / 0 / 20 / 10

I think youd gain a good increased dps with 25 in air and water

LususNaturae.4503:

Combo field auras you get are not shared.
In addition, combofield auras doN’tgrant fury, swiftness, or protection.
S/D is ok, you have 2 auras.

I would really like to test your statement about field aura not shared. If you are talking about Fire + Leap they do give prot/fury/swiftness, Im 100% positive, Im not very sure they share.

As for Frost Armor from blast in Ice zones you dont care they share, they are already group auras, and they do give boons if the finisher player has traits.

S/D is bad because /D has a longish recharge aura and Scepter has none, the only reason to play S/D as auramancer is if someone else provides Ice Fields.

Play him in sPvP, its a fast class to learn.

Sekai.2987:

they srsly need a buff..

Ahem…

GS/SB tanky rangers are the new fotm in sPvP pugs.

There is no smart way to play it. You will have to clean a lot and try not to heal under poison debuff.
In S/F you can outlast him because of multiple condition cleanse, ranged protection and binds but with D/D or Staff he should kill you just spamming stuff. If you have the luck to fight against an actually skilled one you dont stand a chance, no matter how good you are.

Besides, Sekai is right, you should create a ranger and play the spec to check what to dodge and what are the weak spots. Even tho you may probably end up just playing the character because its awesome

Since noone cares, I’ll reply to myself!

1st thing: If played as staff using Arcane Wave instead of a 30 signet is actually an improvement to buff groups. Signet will give Fire Shield and Wave in Frozen Ground will give Frost Aura for the same cooldown.

As for D/D VS Staff,
Staff :
Magnetic Aura 30 sec. – 1 aura
Frozen Ground 32 sec. – 2 auras (Eruption/Wave)
I’ll ignore Signet of Fire and Air since D/D has them anyways.

So thats roughly 3 auras every 30 sec if paying attention.

D/D:
Frost Aura 32 sec – 1 Aura
Shocking Aura 25 sec – 1 Aura
Signet of Earth or Water 30 sec – 1 Aura

Slightly more than 3 auras every 30 sec. However leap in fire field gives a serious edge.

The more I thinking about it the more I am wondering if the best group buff uptime isnt 0/10/10/20/30 since blast in Frozen Ground give group aura anyways and 30 arcane offers interesting boon duration and utility.
For stricly Protection uptime D/D+Signet seems to be better but staff/arcane build frees 2 utility slots, and a lot more group support.

I am talking about Signet Sacrifice auramancer build based on :
Fire’s Embrace + Powerfull Auras

Weapons :
Is the best aura uptime a D/D (or D/F) setup or Staff + Blast in Frozen ground?

I have to take 2 of:
- Zephyr’s Boon (Fury + Swifness but Swifness is “sort of” useless)
- Elemental Shielding
- Elemental Attunement (that not only gives group boons on attunement but also some boon duration and intelligence)

Kodan staff looks heavy but its blue, really doesnt match my armor. Melandru’s Gaze is pretty but way too druidish. I went for Final Rest (like everyone?), on my Norn its quite big and can almost be an Axe. Still not 100% satisfied but well… I’m looking for a shield looking forcus now

isendel.5049:

That’s weird..are you using the lvl 80 transmutation stone?

Yes, I have skin option, stat option but rune option is empty

Scepter does high damage.

I have corrupted and ghosty, they fit with other gear set up but I’m looking for something more crude, brutal on this one. Deathwish isnt bad but its abit too “emo”.

It doesnt let me have the rune

I stoped watching after you used focus air#4 against melee. What the hell is your point?

Porblem!!

Starting head peice do not have rune slots so you wont be able to mix them with a high level item (unless you give up the rune).

I am looking for the heaviest staff possible, something massive, big, looking possibly like a hammer or a sword.

Forstbow is better than lightning flash imo. Just a hint.

Was the guy said is mostly bollocks, he has a point about Rally however but the feat itself has to go away.

Rayya.2591:

stuff

Rally is the most stupid mecanism I saw in a PvP game. They WILL have to get rid of it at some point.
But that wasnt my point.

As for AoEs and strategy, DAoC wasnt the best game ever and had many flaws. However with smart use of Crowd Control, AoE damage and structure 8 men could take down a 80 men zerg pack. GW2 lacks that completely, even if at low scale its a tightly balanced and skill based game.

What is the most ironic in AoE 5 targets limit is that the more outnumbered you are, the more you have to pay attention to AoE.

If 7 people face 70, not only they are grossly outnumbered but also they do have to watch out for AoE while the zerg can just shrug through.

Area Effect in Guildwars2 actually favors big groups packed up together. Amazing.

D/D Elem are mostly good at avoiding attacks and flee. They are hard to kill but they wont kill anyone with a resilient build or a brain. But if you like to fly solo and be able to take down low level clothies and run away its good.

Parktou.4263:

I think a better way of putting it would be that zerging is too viable an option, one that works too well perhaps, and removing the aoe cap would severely hinder the “zerg” strategy. Could you imagine 2 people wiping 30 simply because of smart play? why wouldn’t you want that? Unless your just a PvEer grinding for badges, in which case go away.

Exactly my point. Actually “winning” the WvW matters and not only zergs that that. But succeding in interesting skirkmishes is pretty much distroyed by zerg effect.

Commander tag is fine, it is actually an interesting factor and a strategic point.
Its the double effect of all stick together AND commander tag that is not good. If zerg HAD to spread out sometimes (like in DAoC to avoid a strike mez) than commander tag wouldnt be a problem at all.

I dont think Anet is ABLE to remove AoE limit (some AoE like walls already ignores limit), I dont think the servers can handle it. But increasing from 5 to 30 would be a huge step and punish zergs.

As for everyone rolling staff Elem, I highly doupt it.
Staff AoE are very avoidable and do quite poor damage. Actually most Elems (non lame roarming solo heroes) already are stuck with staff because of AoE limit (and Air#5).
Scepter in the other hand would become amazing, as IngeNade, GS Warriors, AH Guardians…

Knight GW + Sigil of Rage
Knight Hammer + Sigil of Rage
Cleric Staff + Sigil of Battle (Bloodlust?)

Is that good?

Increase (remove?) AoE target limit. Sticking 80 ppl together as only viable stategy is ridiculous.

Dead stuff doesnt hit back theory. I like.

You spent 3 times the time needed to unlock all elem weapon skills while writing this post.

Chaosky.5276:

• Flamestrike is about as “meh” as attacks get.
• Dragon’s Tooth won’t hit anyone without a 3 second CC of some sort.
• Phoenix travels so slowly that it can be outrun with swiftness – good luck hitting anyone with that at 900 range. (It also won’t hit targets on elevated platforms due to some sort of bug, it just disappears into said platforms.)
• Shatterstone is useless – it does less damage than Ice Shards, locks you out of your non-instant skills for far too long, and is easy to dodge.
• I don’t know why Water Trident even has a damage component – you have to cast it at your feet to get the heal. (Minor gripe.)
• The earth attunement lacks offense – the only real damage comes from Stone Shards, and it’s absolutely terrible without condition damage. Building for condition damage leaves your other attunements weaker vs. power and crit, so that’s not very helpful, either.

Flamestrike is 100% burn uptime, it should animate faster tho.

Dragon Tooth is an INCREDIBLE AoE burst, it hits like a truck, and applies burn. Yes, you need a CC to land it but Tooth+Phoenix is death sentence on many people.
Its easely avoidable but so it should be.

Pheonix gives vigor and cleans condition (on a 20sec CD, seriously, this is like a supercantrip)… and does loads of damage, yeah, its slow but it is how you damage yith scepter fire : wait for you time than unleash hell.

Shatterstone is bad, it should be a blast finisher again like it was on beta.

Water trident takes a good chunk of +healing power.

Stone Shards are our highest theorical single target dps (Ravager build with burn proc and poison field). Toughness buff is bad’ish and non instent blind (cast + travel time!) isnt reliable.

ProxyDamage.9826:

That’s your call.

Well I read a lot that +healing is worthless on a guardian. But also heal is a defensive stat so it will increase player’s survivability.

The other point is of course armor vs hitpoint. Versus MASSISVE zergs I’m afraid even a very hight armor character will melt away in a couple of seconds, but high healing scales better with high mitigation than high hitpoint pool.

Most AH Guardian run Knight armor for the damage, how bad would Magi be for about the same amount of crit rating but more healing power for Selfless Daring? I’v read it takes 100% healing bonus. Not to mention hammer blast in water fields.

I am not sure how AH is actually that usefull against really huge zergs. On the other hand, only doing hammer and staff consecrations with ground targeting and cooldown reduction make guardians the best prof in the game in wvw.

Only Air#5 and Earth#4 affect all targets that enter/leave/go though the wall. They are the only usefull things an Elem can go in WvW. And thats staff.

covenn.7165:

If you go all zerker in WvW

If you go D/D in WvW you are an idiot or a solo loser.

Staff in WvW is the only weapon to use (expect focus vs Siege weapons) since its the only one that has 2 attacks that ignores target limit. Its a bit weak to compare to Mesmer/Necro/Guadian but still.

When it comes to high Fractals your job is pretty much to supply water field when your group cant find a ranger. D/D dies, Scepter is occasionally fine (Shaman shield).

In sPvP you have good option with Blind Builds with S/D or S/F and Focus + Cantrip builds are tough point holders.

Where D/D shines its for 1v4 (2 are low level, 1 is afk and the last one is trying Bob’s character on a laptop with the Airport’s free wifi) heroes, ninja-survival kiting or other “gamer-ego-trip-to-put-on-a-vid-with-neometal-junk” material.

If they remove AoE target limit all weapons suddenly become fine, actually many professions too, and it punishes huge zergs and the “lets pack up together” on-way brainless strategy.

As for staff in PvE (and anywhere else) at least hastening water #1 travel time (channeling?) and Eruption’s blast (so you can actually cast a field BEFORE Eruption, like reactive playing, you know, not just “hey lets throw a healing blast on this guy in case he loses hitpoints and doesn’t have his heal up and also doesn’t die before and doesn’t walk 3 steps away!”)

My brother is looking for a Guardian build for WvW. We play in a 20ish people team focusing objective and we often come accross HUGE zergs.

I thought a tanky Consecration build would be good but I really have no knowledge of the profession. I know many Guardians use heavy prec/tough build with might on crit and selfheal on boons + 3 Shouts.

How btw would a Cleric geared Guardian impact a 20man group when heals only affect 5 people?

tadhogue.4736:

I personally feel removing the AOE target limit is the only way to effectively nerf the zerg and increase small man viability vs said zerg.

And there goes the server down again.
I dont think its a technically a viable option, however we should pray for increasing.

Some changes are asked since launch :
1- Make Eruption (staff 2) “erupt” faster (because staff is so heavily based on blast finisher)

2- Make Water jet travel/animate faster or a channeling so you can actually heal someone you want to heal.

3- Let us use utility/heal skills while in Tornado

4- Let us swap in and out conjured weapon without having to waste them away.

5- Change intelligence and give a reduced cooldown to specific attunement when you invest trait points into the specific line (ie if I put more points into fire I can go back to fire faster)

Let us switch in and out summoned weapons instead of “use or drop”.

Please!

I am a D/D lover since beta, I rolled Elem because you could be melee. However I have the exact opposite experience: I feel pingeonholed into staff in RvR and PvE (high level fractals) because of how important combo fields and range when you play in minmaxed groups.

Anyone has a list of AoE without target limit?

5 targets seems very low when facing 70ppl masses.

Moleless.1462:

Does the downed mechanic have a place in WvW?

It has. Downed state in an important (and somehow interesting) mecanism in GW2.
Rally however is complete bullkitten. Counter produtive in PvP/RvR, trivialasing a lot of PvE content, sort of useless soloing.

Looking like that so far

I want to try to look the most “armored” wearing light armor. So far I used cultural tier2 + hotw shoulders. Any ideas?

If you know a shield looking focus I’m also interested.

HeNnAz.8913:

I don’t know if I created this build but it is amazing for going full ZERK

30/10/0/10/20

run any traits abilities but use this build with full zerk and you’ll be surprised. I recommend using it so that cantrips give you might and regeneration/vigour and every fire spell you cast gives you might. also this build works very nicely in WvW just stay away from those pesky little thieves haha

only 10 in Air for a direct damage oriented build sounds strange. Your crit damage will be quite low.

Lavadiel.6231:

I agree basicaly with all you said with the exception of “pretty much every weapon/spec/profession can do that with a tankish build/gear.”

What I was trying to suggest here is that in the very particular situation in the video a lot of other professions or weapon setups (S/F Elem, Staff necro, staff or focus mesmer, wall guardian, etc…) would have been as effective. Heck, 2 D/D Elems can drive 30+ guys crazy.

For Lavadiel.6231:

4 guys run away and “hold” a zerg on a chocke point for several seconds before the zerg commander tell them not to chase and stick to objectives. Yay… pretty much every weapon/spec/profession can do that with a tankish build/gear.

The Elem recording is playing what we use to call “staff bunker build”, basically stacking healing stat and blasting in water fields. It used to be good (nearly broken) with blasts on every attunement on Evasive Arcana, now you have to swap to Earth, abit annoying but it is still fine.

As for the detail Sigil of Energy is a no brainer when you play with EA, Glyph of Storms (in Earth attunement) is widely supperior to Arcane Blast in few VS zerg situations and I would use Quick Glyph if I’m on a Dwayna+Elemental Harmony+Cleansing Water setup.

If the team had 2 staff necros, a ranger and a +heal thief it would have been very much more impressive.

For the op:
Staff gives an incredible edge on indirect damage. Perma Fire Field is crazy on +condition necros and rangers. Even if it doesnt mean you HAVE to stack +heal, you have to understand staff Elems are support characters. You wont shine or do crazy damage, you are not the wizard or mage you can see in other games but you are far from useless.

If you like to be a damage hero and stick to ranged weapons as an Elem, S/F realy does a very good job both as bleed/burn heavy condition build or AoE Burst.

Greatsword guardian is great for Staff/Scepter with AoE immob/grip/KD. Ranger and necro built as +condition are great with staff or D/D due to multiple fire fields.

Shortbow Thief + Staff Elem can give pretty incredible blast combo (group healing, might stacks, switness…).

So if your friend is the Elem go for Guardian if you want him to enjoy AoE fest, necro/ranger if you want him to be you buff slave or thief if you want maximum combo buff utilities.

ArenaNet said: Will not happend.

Tho I’d personnally like a “gear swap” tool in the interface like the town clothes thing but for another gear setup. Locked in combat, usable by all professions, cost Gems? Mucho $$$!

Fire Elemental: Deals more damage and cast AoE Might

Andovar Edoras.2143:

What makes me cringe though is the fact that he uses fire 99,99% of the time…. Just spamming fire 1 and sometimes fire 2 and 3. He only switches to air only while travelling for the speed buff..

Actually in some groups and some situation it is the best way to play.
1- Its the best dmg as staff
2- Its the best indirect dps with almost perma fire combo field
3- Its the best sustain AoE
4- With heavy glyph spec and Might on fire attacks it is close to the hightest thoerical dps (which is spam 1 in earth with high cond and prec + Burn on crit and a perma poison field, not very sexy gameplay neither) an Elementalist can do.

Bow rangers (mostly longbow) and Rifle Warriors are a general low skillcap issue due to very classic mmo straight foreward Target And Hit gameplay. Its frustrating for both the enemy and the player because they can achieve the best possible damage facerolling their keyboard. To be very honest I almost wish Anet had gone the real active gameplay way (like TERA) and not somewhere in the middle but Elem, Ingies and most melees (maybe less on thieves) are interesting enough to play.

I did the “Finish/rez” job for a while in my old team in WvW. D/F 0/0/30/30/10 is great. But it is sincerely quite a niche.

Situation 1: You play a build without Cantrips (Signet Spec, Glyph heavy spec…).
/F is good because it sorts of makes of for not having def utilities. It almost only pairs with Focus since both are ranged and you dont really want to get too close with low def specs.

Situation 2: You play a build with many Cantrips.
/D has so much more damage, I mean so MUCH more. And mobility.

Fire:
- RoF is widely superior to Flamewall
- Fire Grab is so much damage it wouldnt even match an extra aura.

Water:
- Freezing Gust is a ranged Chill, nice. Matches Frost Aura (if it wasnt an Aura…).
- Comet takes so much time to drop for such a short daze duration and low damage. It wouldnt be even comparable to Cleansing Wave even if it had no cond remove component.

Air:
- Swirling Air is, situationaly, fine to protect rezing, siege machines (from other machines). But I’d chose RTL anytime for general purpose, even (even more?) in WvW when getting in and out fast is critical.
- Gale is a KD, not a KB. It is ranged but has more CD than Updraft and isnt AoE. The duration doesn’t even let you throw Phoenix/Tooth (Updraft does if the target doesnt dodge right away).

Earth:
- Magnetic Wave is very good. Refect, cure condition and actually does a good chunk of damage. I wouldnt trade Earthquake for it tho, AoE KD + Blast finisher is that good.
- I would however, even if Churning Earth is great damage, trade it for Obsidian Flash. 4 sec absolute invulnerability is amazing. Sadly it doesnt make up for all the rest.

If it was a “fix it!” topic I would say:
- Make Flame Wall deal the same amount of damage as RoF on trigger.
- Make Comet seriously INSTENT hit.
- Make Gale KD duration match Updraft.
Then, even if I would personally still use /D because of RTL, we’r fine.