Guild Wars 2

You can also group with these folks here, they also don’t like stacking and are happy to play without it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Players-Against-Stacking-Skipping-Stuff/first

We have a handy FAQ for this topic!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Dungeon-Forum-FAQ/first#post3472009

Cat Has Ducks.1982:

Guardian Homeboy

http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af105/ChuckPicsnStuff/gw108_zpsb4c512b2.jpg

This pro pic is for lilith: My lady friend and I happen to get our characters slapped by lupi to fall like this.

http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af105/ChuckPicsnStuff/Mobile%20Uploads/gw041_zpsc13bd613.jpg

also how do you show the preview thumbnail?

Attach the image instead of embedding a link. Or use exclamation points around your image link.

Cotser.7015:

Warrior is a snoozefest, think I’m up for a bit of a challenge of guardian, thanks ^w^

Make sure to check out Obal’s guides

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/DnT-Fractal-Video-Guide-Guardian

Warrior is easier and more consistent. Guardian is better damage and support, but harder to play right.

So do you want less challenge and less reward, or more challenge and more reward?

Thingol the Sindar.9361:

Ok thanks but what would you suggest as a good compromise, having one ranged and one melee option?

This is a decent compromise. Preferably, you run one of the above builds and use sword/sword + sword/focus, and switch to greatsword or scepter only when you really have to (for example, I range on molten duo and grawl shaman. I’ve tried and cannot melee them for the life of me). Especially if you have an eye for improvement, melee challenges you more and gives better damage.

Ayrilana.1396:

maxinion.8396:

I’m not sure what your point is. The conclusions of the calculation is that it’s never best to re-roll, because on average it will take longer. Everything you bring up is calculated by the paper and contributes to re-roll length.

No.

This is literally the difference between strategy 2 and 3 in the paper. Strategy 2 resets every time they hit dredge, and calculates the expected time from the infinite series which this generates (since you can get dredge again. This is explicitly dealt with on pages 3-4). Strategy 3 allows for only n resets, and studies this for general n. So you can use their results to just allow for n = 1 (one reset), and compare the time to a full run through without resets and a full run with always reset.

No matter what, running through without resetting is the fastest.

Anywho, it seems we’re just talking past each other, so I’m going to stop derailing the thread.

Saturn.6591:

maxinion.8396:

10/20/0/25/15 is also nice, but does less reflect damage at the benefit of more phantasm DPS. It’s also a nice choice.

Yeah well, I personally find reflects to be highly situational. Wherever you can not reflect, phantasm dps will be where the damage is at. And I personally don’t really find that many opportunities to reflect anyway. I know there are some, but I’ve never really managed to get them to work reliably (well, except for young Karkas, they always open the fight the same way lol). The timing has to be perfect, and that’s not possible unless you EXACTLY know what to look out for and when to push the button. And yes, I’ve read that thread about it, but it didn’t really help much. “You can reflect this and this attack”… yeah okay, but how do I know the mob is going to use this attack next? And how do I reflect if Feedback is on cooldown, iWarden spawns on a random location around the mob (sometimes even doesn’t attack at all) and Temporal Curtain doesn’t reflect unless you’re really lucky? Looks kinda like RNG to me.

This is why 10/20/0/25/15 is an easier build. Learning the tells for reflect opportunities is not easy, and I certainly don’t have them all memorized, but I try.

Warden reflect is most bugged when the ground is sloped. You can usually predict when it won’t go off, and in flat areas where bosses are out, it will usually work. Far too much “usually” in this sentence, but what can you do. #gogoanetbugs

Temporal curtain depends on the height of the incoming mob. It will often not work on mobs that are taller than you, since the projectiles come in “over” your curtain.

Again these things take some time to learn, but they’re mostly not RNG, and end up helping your damage at the end of the day since there are so many reflect opportunities. If you feel more comfortable learning the reflect timings with a build that’s less dependent on them, that’s probably fine too~

But anyway we’re getting way off topic.

I’m not sure what your point is. The conclusions of the calculation is that it’s never best to re-roll, because on average it will take longer. Everything you bring up is calculated by the paper and contributes to re-roll length.

Thedenofsin.7340:

The Mesmer one is inferior to Ether Feast in every build.

Signet of Ether is situational, like most mesmer utilities. There are some bosses (like Alphard or Old Tom or Ghost Eater) where having two iWardens up can give you close to 100% reflect uptime, almost immediately, and this can be critical for group success. The active of the Signet is awesome for that reason, so I find myself switching to it fairly regularly. It’s definitely not useful as a heal, or in all encounters, though.

10/20/0/25/15 is also nice, but does less reflect damage at the benefit of more phantasm DPS. It’s also a nice choice.

Catalyst.4862:

guys i decided to play zerker mesmer for PvE and cant decide which runes should i take: Scholar Runes or Eagle Runes?

Scholar is the best for dungeons if you can afford it. Ruby orbs otherwise.

Open world? Probably travelers or even centaur, just to make up of our horrible movement.

Pyroatheist.9031:

maxinion.8396:

Magi.8643:

I was under the impression that % don’t effect reflections as the damage is based of the creatures damage however the crit chances/damage on the reflect is determined by your own stats.

% damage from Empowering Mantras definitely counts (this is why almost all reflect based builds use it). I am 99% certain that % damage from force sigils, etc. also count, but would appreciate clarification from Pyroatheist or the other Mesmer forum gods

Reflects are calculated as if you had used the attack with the same power, but all outgoing modifiers are yours. This means you won’t be reflecting any 20k kill shots, but you can stack up on modifiers for reflecting boss attacks.

I knew I could count on you. <3

Magi.8643:

I was under the impression that % don’t effect reflections as the damage is based of the creatures damage however the crit chances/damage on the reflect is determined by your own stats.

% damage from Empowering Mantras definitely counts (this is why almost all reflect based builds use it). I am 99% certain that % damage from force sigils, etc. also count, but would appreciate clarification from Pyroatheist or the other Mesmer forum gods

There is a very good reason to go for Empowering Mantras, and force/night sigils (the ones that give % damage): these all increase your reflect damage. As a mesmer, basically the most significant contribution you can make to your party is with your massive reflect damage. That’s why people will go for 0/30/0/25/15, stack perception, and use force sigils: all these things help massively with reflect damage (and since usually reflect damage is already huge… 10% of huge = even more huge).

For stacking weapons, you want perception, as this will increase your reflect damage (bloodlust doesn’t). It also helps your personal/phantasm DPS just as much as bloodlust, and the sigils are 1/7th the cost, so hey, might as well.

Signet of the Ether is best for situations you need two iWardens for reflects ASAP. For example, Old Tom, Alphard, the Ghost Eater, are all bosses where you want reflects going constantly, and the active of Signet of Ether lets you get that out asap. Otherwise, the healing isn’t actually so great— Ether Feast is probably best for that. For normal DPS/reflect situations, Mantra of Recovery is best (because again, mantra).

Unless you’re skipping or running, don’t keep decoy around (though for skips/runs, you’re absolutely encouraged to use it. It’s particularly useful in a few places in Arah). As Magi said, utilities should be swapped out as you need it. Sometimes you need lots of condition cleanse— then you should have Mantra of Resolve and Null Field. Sometimes you need boon strip— iDisenchanter and Arcane Thievery and Null Field. Often you need reflects— keep a bunch of mantras and Feedback ready.

Another build worth considering is 10/30/0/20/10. This has 4% or so higher personal damage (non-reflect, because it comes from power) compared to the 0/30/0/25/15 build. The price is longer cooldowns on phantasms, so I prefer the 0/30 combination these days.

Guard, warrior, or thief are probably the most indispensable/useful. I main a mesmer and those are always appreciated as well.

I don’t think there exists a good staff build for PvE. The one you link is particularly bad; torch is an awful weapon and 30 points in chaos is useless in PvE.

For PvE, and that’s fractals included, you want maximum DPS and reflects. So that means something like 10/30/0/20/10 or 0/30/0/25/15 with sword+focus and sword+sword. The wardens are critical for reflect uptime. You should be using zerker gear + ruby orbs or scholar runes for maximum damage.

Staff’s iWarlock is actually fairly good DPS, but the autoattack on staff is such trash that you will be hurting your group with it. If you must range, use greatsword or scepter/pistol, or scepter/focus.

Things hit so hard in 30/40 fractals that toughness, vitality, healing power, all don’t matter anymore. Groups will expect zerker gear from your mesmer, and mostly melee.

Ayrilana.1396:

Mystic.5934:

zMajc.4659:

Do any devs actually play fractals above lvl 10?

At igher levels Dredge fractal is so long compared to other fractals that it’s better to just exit and start fractals from the start that go troug all the pain of doing it.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8xrv7IFopOqVGRpQ1JmMnZuaWs/edit?pli=1
TLDR: It is faster to restart fractals than play dredge fractal only if dredge takes more than ~2.3 times the time of the other possibilities. If the others take you 30 min, dredge would need to take 69+ minutes to merit restarting the run.

You forgot the chance of getting dredge again.

No, that’s taken into account by the calculations above.

notabot.3497:

Casmurro.9046:

I noticed that SE p3 now has invisible walls on that skip on the barricades before the boss who inflicts burning on you, where you need to cleanse it at the fontains. Did they really added invisible walls there or its just me that suck at jumping those barricades?

I found that you can still jump over on the right side but the left side you can’t.

Yeah, we just jump on the right now.

ReesesPBC.4603:

Mochann.5298:

I remember a dev stating that Eles are aggroed more often any other class. It was programmed that day.

If that’s the case they are pidgeon-holing ele’s by design to spec more into survival and play more cautious than other classes.

That’s certainly not true, as the meta builds for staff and scepter involve literally zero active defenses and no vigor. People can survive in Arah, CoE, etc. even with the aggro.

Cries Of Sorrow.5864:

You sound like you’re one of those arah p2 exploit sellers and or lupi skippers.

This.

Just don’t glitch outside of maps. That is 99% of the problem with exploits in the game. ANet’s policy is not to discuss possible exploits, so they’re not going to say this. But it’s obvious they mean business now, and that’s great (except for those caught in the crossfire… )

Btw— I haven’t heard anything about buyers being punished, only sellers.

Preeeeetty sure that everyone knows that glitching outside of a map is a bug/exploit. That seems to be the cause of most of the recent bannings. Don’t glitch outside of maps is a good start.

Please fix wardens! They were such lovely creatures before the bug.

Zelyhn.8069:

Maxinion I like how you keep not mentionning D/F or my guide everywhere you mention other’s

Nothing personal, it’s just funny.

Sorry Zelhyn: I mentioned " and d/f fresh air lightning auto-attack spam " above as a reference to your build (which may not be the most accurate description, but hey). I didn’t link your guide because I thought it hadn’t been updated, and DEKeyz has a great section on d/f as well which I have been using. I finally checked your guide again and realized you did update it recently, sorry for not noticing that earlier!

(https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Zelyhn-s-Advanced-D-F-PvE-Guide/first)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/The-Ele-Meta-Dungeon-Speed-Clears

and

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-DPS-Elementalist-Builds-for-PvE

have all the discussion you could ever need. Your main options are s/d or s/f and might stacking and then bringing down lightning hammer; fire staff 2 spam; and d/f fresh air lightning auto-attack spam. Any of these options will do great in dungeons. I personally run s/f for the very high levels of team support.

Velimere.7685:

I received a Fractal Harpoon skin last week and a Fractal Warhorn skin this week. I don’t know if Magic Find affects the rate of getting these things, but I do keep a Birthday Booster active on the character I run FotM with.

The point is that it’s not a box. The box was promised to let you choose the skin. But we have no box

Just sayin…

Stormfell.9405:

Maybe I’m just being dumb or something, but why bother with empowered mantras when you run with no mantras?

There’s no reason to. Which is why I’m suggesting he start using a bunch of mantras

Iris Ng.9845:

I’m okay with Colesy turning down my gorgeous bearbow and request me rolling something else. But he did not :P

Who is that and what has he done with Colesy!

Thanks Nike for the nicer formula than what I provided

Amazing. I wouldn’t have believed it was possible unless I had seen it!

SirLeJosh.7263:

Thanks a lot for the advice,

I think the build is slowly starting to make more sense for me,
I’ll also be carrying a GS for those few bosses where melee isn’t the best choice, and for world bosses.

Sure thing~

Try out scepter for bosses at range as well. The scepter autoattack isn’t great, but the offhand phantasms (swordsmen and warden) are really great, so people often prefer scepter just so they can continue to summon those phantasms. Honestly I just use greatsword myself most of the time when I need range, but try it out and see what you think.

Congrats on monthly champion slayer!!11!!!

But rly, very nice.

This is exactly the meta build run by many folks these days (myself included). The rune choice is the only thing I’m a bit mreh about. I suppose Traveler is useful for open world (and WvW), but it is fairly useless in dungeons. You’ll want scholar there, or ruby orbs if you want a cheap option (though the extra reflect damage from scholar really makes it worth it).

With regards to utilities: change them up as you go. There’s no reason to use Portal on your slot in CoF1 until after the acolytes are all dead— up to that point, you should be slotting 3-4 mantras to get the extra 12-16% DPS.

My “generic” utility loadout is usually Mantra of Recovery, Mantra of Concentration, Mantra of Resolve, and Feedback. This allows you to get the extra damage from Empowering Mantras as much as possible. But again, this should be dynamic. In some places (Alphard, Old Tom, etc.) you want double wardens up ASAP, so Signet of the Ether is better than Recovery. Sometimes you need blink (Lupi, runs, etc.). Sometimes you need boon strip, so null field + disenchanter. Think on your feet

J Eberle.9312:

Never gonna happen I’m afraid.

To be fair, we got a handful of new fractals a few months ago, and Aetherpath before that.

The content is slow in coming, and it’s often not what the community wants (see: Aetherpath) but it’s not all bad. The Reactor fractal is one of my favorites, for example.

Wethospu.6437:

maxinion.8396:

Generally people are calculating effective power, something like:

(attack + critical immersion) * (critical chance + 50%) * (2 * toughness + vitality – 5) + (healing shouts/scholar runes + 0.41)^2

This gives you a number that allows you to compare damage, assuming you aren’t elitist.

Fixed.

Sorry, typo. The keys are like, right next to each other.

spoj.9672:

Just check effective power on buildcraft. No need to calc it manually yourself. If some traits and modifiers dont work properly on buildcraft it allows you to input extra modifiers and stats if needed.

That works too

Generally people are calculating effective power, something like:

AddedPower + 916 + (AddedPower+916) * (.5 + WeightedCriticalDamage/[100*Weight]) * (.04 + AddedPrecision/2100)

This gives you a number that allows you to compare damage, assuming that traits and weapons are constant.

Noooooooooooooooooooo

Player: “Sensible reasonable suggestion to prevent problems”

ANET: “No”

Ryn.6459:

@max, that is not what I found to be the meta.

@Axial, dungeons and fractals.

The meta is described in the stickies above.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/The-Ele-Meta-Dungeon-Speed-Clears

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-DPS-Elementalist-Builds-for-PvE

Both list 30/10/10/20/0 as a good general-application LH build. You can also do 30/30/10/0/0 to stack vuln yourself, but I prefer the few points in water.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Just as a quick note about alpha. If you’re stacking properly, the vast majority of alpha’s aoes will not damage your phantasms. Alpha is actually one of the few bosses where you can truly maintain a full 3 phantasms of damage output.

I’ll have to see if I can figure that out! I didn’t manage it a few times, and then just switched to ele (since FGS >>> all). But if 3 phantasms can stick around indefinitely, that and timewarp can be quite nice.

Anyway, my point is that it’s based on the fights of the dungeon. Mesmer is never bad, that we can all agree on~

There are some places the mesmer just can’t do that though. For example, Subject Alpha: your phantasms are going to die every time he AoE’s, and there’s little you can do about that. If you use Signet of the Ether, you might be able to get 2 out again just as he launches his next set of AoE’s, wiping them again… and all the while you’re summoning instead of attacking, and your DPS is tanking. Meanwhile, the ele is spamming LH aa’s or fire staff 2 and doing full damage the entire time, with no wind-up.

Mesmer DPS is god-tier when the phantasms can stay alive. But every time there’s a lot of AoE’s which conspire to take them out… game over man.

Ryn.6459:

Hello.

I am a new ele wondering about LH builds.
I dont understand the meta. So I guess I am missing something.
Conjurer is a must so you can have LH on cooldown. Other than, shouldnt w be picking as much damage modifiers as possible?

That’s exactly what the 30/10/10/20/0 build does. That, plus a focus on might + fury stacking, which are both just more +damage buffs.

Dee Jay.2460:

The irony is that the Ferocity change might actually be a DPS INCREASE for most low-level dungeons due to how down-scaling works.

Currently Crit-Damage, despite being a fixed percentage, is down-scaled in low-level content. So where you might have 110% normal Crit-damage, you only have 40% in Ascalonian Catacombs.

Your effective crit-chance however remains roughly the same.

Assuming now that Ferocity will use a similar down-scaling formula to Precision it could mean that your effective crit-damage isn’t down-scaled nearly as much as it is currently. So your 110% crit-damage at level 80 would still be about 110% crit-damage at level 35.

Ergo you’ll have yourself a DPS increase in every non-80 dungeon.

Will giggle myself silly if this is how it ends up, and I fully expect it to.

Brutal Arts.6307:

Don’t rock the boat there. I for one enjoy coming to the dungeon section and picturing all the sweet milky tears of people crying about being kicked. If you take that away from me all I’ll have is the sweet milky tears of the PvP section.

Also delicious tears from pubbies complaining about Marionette. Mmmm.

Nope.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Surely there’s an option when creating an LFG that allows you to prevent party merging? Like a checkbox or something?

You’d think so! But…

Search for Lazy Kai (on phone or I would do it for you).

This has been reported for eons. You can report the character in game— that’s probably the easiest thing to do. Individuals have been banned, but the practice continues. Keep reporting in game, but it’s an uphill battle.