Guild Wars 2

Syn Sity.5826:

In high level fractals, not only will healing power not be optimal but it will be close to useless. A tiny bit more healing won’t help when you’re getting downed in 1-2 hits anyways.

For this reason, Restorative Mantras (which I think OP means instead of “healing mantras”) is also close to useless.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

I don’t know. I just didn’t know that the cof room was an exploit. It makes me fearful of what else they might consider an exploit, because I really don’t wanna get hurt if they decide next time to swing the ban hammer or something at people for unknowingly exploiting.

Like there’s, I think, a very clear difference between going into a room that is textured and decorated and swimming beneath a map to skip bosses. I thought there was a line, but now I’m not so sure where it’s drawn.

They’re not going to ban every person which stepped into CoF. They might decide to change how we run dungeons (which might slow us down a bit in a few places), but hell, they don’t even ban Arah swimmers. I’ll start worrying once we see any evidence of a ban related to dungeon running.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Rednik.3809:

Redball.7236:

Well, I don’t even know what to say to this.

Who cares, there is at least 3 more spots in the room.

That’s not actually why we’re reacting the way we are. The reaction is stemming from the lack of understanding why they thought that this was necessary to fix but so many other things were not. Also, I doubt many people even recognized that that room was not intended, given how it looked and the way it was mapped. It’s just odd, and is throwing some of us for a loop.

For me, I’m just wondering what else is next?

Bug/exploit fixing is a continuous process. They clearly made efforts in Arah as well (skips in p3/p4) even if they were not successful. It’s clear that some exploits/bugs (like Arah) are harder to fix, and some are easier. They decided to start trying on the hard stuff, while also doing something about the low-hanging fruit. This seems like a completely reasonable strategy for me.

kyubi.3620:

Soon they will also make it so that lupicus falcon punch player in melee range for a ten thousand damage and that the move cant be dodged but has a fairly good tell yet is somewhat quick because they looking for random ways of making stuff harder.

Also pls make it so that king adelbern foefire cover 6 area instead of one so that we can keep standing right on him and take more no damaging attack :P

Hey id like you to make tequatl slightly harder so that i can keep NOT DOING IT more.

Since we at it why is there a fight in arah all we got to do is get reflector and watch the boss kill himself

Please nerf more possible unknown exploit in dredge fractal so that we keep not using imaginary jump puzzle to skip half the dungeon wich btway isnt actualy a real skip anyway or hiding behind a pipe to force the boss to fight us alone

Please make it so we can no longuer exploit cliffside mobs unability to mass respawn when you ignore the X we need this part to be totaly impossible for a team wich doesnt run two suicidal fool at both seal to serve as meat shield while a third runs the hammer and has to be switched every now and then cuz of stacking 8D

Wethospu.6437:

Good change. Definitely a step to the right direction. You guys should be happy.

I really hate to see how you guys complain about every little change. Why would they bother with any changes after this?

A++ attitude

They gotta start somewhere…

MastaNeenja.1537:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

MastaNeenja.1537:

Is that where I think it is?

… really? this was the biggest glaring issue that had to be resolved in all of dungeondom?

And stealth patched no less, where is he? Where is the guy that’s doing stuff like this? What’s the point? How about you actually fix something that’s broken like when Bjarl stands in the middle of his room twirling his sword like moron? Because when you PUG it he always targets the player that doesn’t want to get anywhere near him.

Anyone else have some bugs/problems that actually need attention?

How about the WP in Arah P2 or is that working as intended? We’ll never know because we didn’t get patch notes on that either….

That’s the thing. I can’t understand why, of all things, that needed to be patched. Like, why?

Either they have a crack dungeon team that’s determined to make dungeons more annoying and less fun, or someone has loosed a bag of cats upon Anet HQ and keyboards were sat upon. That’s all I got….

Some Arah paths did get fixed, apparently. There might be hope yet~

LOL

Can you still hide behind the braziers? I’ve always preferred those anyway.

Does fixing completion for level 50 mean people will also get reward chests for doing level 50? (Granted, I haven’t experienced this myself but I have heard from other players that the daily chest doesn’t pop for some people completing level 50)

This was in the patch notes at least.

Yay sticky!

/15char

I understand you are trying to be productive, Witch~ People can, admittedly, be a bit snippy in here (but in my opinion, it is still 100x more pleasant than even taking a look into the PvP forum, for example). But please keep in mind that the problems with dev interaction are very serious. Take, for example, the Fractured! update, which screwed over the progress of a significant number of people (the PR80 folks) with zero compensation. The update proceeded to introduce new bugs, make Dredge even worse, and implemented literally zero of the promised improvements (weapon skin boxes, leaderboard, etc.).

Nike, Lilith, and others, posted very constructive and thoughtful posts about these shortcomings in the Fractured! forum, and here— in fact, they were instructed to post them to the Fractured! forum by the CC folks. And there were exactly zero responses, and then the forum became archived. If the devs cannot respond once, even in a living story forum dedicated to feedback on fractals, can we really expect them to listen to feedback here? If annotated videos and bug reports about serious Arah/AC/whatever else exploits are sent to them months ago and the exploits persist, what does that say about their priorities?

So yes, the feeling is a little bit on the “lol” side here whenever people discuss how the game “should” be. We see posts here every week on stacking, skipping, selling paths, the zerker meta (ok, at least that has moved to Profession Balance now), and people seem very interested in spinning their wheels describing how they would like the game to play. Sometimes these posts can make good points about potential improvements that could make the game more interesting for everyone, but in the end…

All is vain. And people get tired copying/pasting the same response, to the same thread, for month on month. You will notice, though, that when people ask about how the game actually is instead of dreaming dreams we have seen to be impossible, the forum is incredibly helpful. The many, many threads about Dungeon Mentors, Lupi how-to’s, tips for newbies coming for help, demonstrate this very well, I think.

I just noticed the OP Hounds of Balthazar. No wonder it was so easy for you.

Neko.9021:

maxinion.8396:

I don’t think you need to say that only DnT can run the meta speed builds, that’s very silly. I am by no means pro but I play my 30/10/10/20/0 s/f LH build in pugs all the time. It’s a matter of knowing content and practicing (as well as getting non-terrible groups, so I usually look for zerker only).

I listed quite a few guilds >.>

I think you’re a very good player if you can run 30/10/10/20/0 S/F in a PUG. Truly, I do.

Thanks!

Wrt your earlier point: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a build like you mentioned in PUGs or while learning content. I know all the dungeons because I ran my Mesmer through them, so my ele has an easier time now. My point was only that it’s possible, not that it’s possible from the start. Something like Zelhyn’s fresh air build can also be very useful for learning content, since you have so much more defense actually available compared to a LH spamming build.

And part 2:

Q: Stacking is awful! Isn’t this an exploit? Why doesn’t ANet fix this? What can I do so I don’t have to use this mechanic?

A: Many of the stacking strategies people employ have been common practice for more than a year. As best as we can tell, ANet does not consider this an exploit, as they have been notified of it many times since the game has been released and have not done anything to change it. Keep in mind also that stacking was a common strategy in GW1 and was also accepted by ANet there. In that game, mobs even tended to walk out of AoE’s, but people would simply pull them in again to continue the stacking damage. It is likely that even if ANet, for example, changed the AI to not clump as much, players would simply use more control skills to force mobs to gather together just like in GW1.

Keep in mind that calling stacking “bad” is in the eye of the beholder. The use of active defenses and team support that stacking promotes is fun for many players. However, if you do not want to use these strategies for whatever reason, you have two main options:

1) Make your own groups, and look for like minded individuals. You can put in your LFG something like “Read first: NO STACKING!!! AC P1” and people who do not want to stack will join you. The group will take longer to fill than a normal group, but you will almost certainly be able to find a full party. Since you started the party with the intention of not stacking, feel free to kick people who did not read your description and insist on doing so.

In time, you may even form a network of friends that like to run dungeons without stacking. Running with friends is the best way to play dungeons anyway, and this way you can guarantee that everyone has the same expectations for your run.

2) Play content that does not reward stacking. Most of the normal dungeons do encourage stacking through their design, and so you will see most runs through them involve this strategy. However, Fractals of the Mist are a good example of content where stacking rarely helps. With the exception of some of the trash fights, most battles are done in the open field (and importantly, I believe that none of the bosses has an effective stacking strategy). You won’t be able to avoid stacking entirely, but at least you will be able to play most fights without it.

Note that starting a thread in the dungeon forum about stacking is very unlikely to help you. Some people will agree with you, others will disagree, lots of typing will happen, but nothing will change. Taking the positive steps mentioned above is the best way to make sure you can get the GW2 experience that you want.

Hokay, let’s try it.

Q: I just ran a dungeon, and everyone just bunched up on top of each other in a few corners to fight the mobs. What gives?

A: What you saw is a combination of two strategies: LoS’ing (Line of Sight’ing) and stacking. There are a few reasons why people use these tactics.

1) With LoS’ing, groups often hide behind a door or crack in the wall or corner after getting aggro from a mob: the mobs will then all follow and turn around that corner at the same spot. If the entire group is standing together in one spot— stacking— then the group can use their AoE burst skills and the cleaves from auto-attacks to very quickly destroy all the mobs. Often, classes with pulls and pushes (mesmer focus 4 in particular) use those skills to further help bunch up enemies and make the AoE skills more effective.

2) Bunching up your party means that you and your fellow players are better able to support each other. Small-radius party buffs like might stacking from blast finishers on fire fields are guaranteed to go off on the entire party when everyone is together, dramatically raising the damage your party is capable of. Relatively “small” area skills, like Feedback or Wall of Reflection, are able to protect the entire team. AoE blinds affect all the mobs at once, since they are in the same location. If one person goes down, the other four are able to immediately pick them up.

3) Some stacking locations, in particular for bosses or encounters with environmental effects, provide some protection from the mechanics of the fight. Some force bosses to use weaker attacks (AC spider queen); others are outright safe spots from some of the mechanics (AC P3 boss, Molten Facility weapons testing boss).

The combination of these three points means that for many fights in the normal dungeons of GW2, stacking on top of each other is the optimal strategy. Note that stacking does not mean you simply stand in the corner and press your auto-attack: you must still have situational awareness of your enemies to avoid their damage, especially since you are not moving! This means using active defenses when you see an attack coming (Aegis, blocks, evades), dodging into the wall for evade frames, chaining projectile reflection and/or blinds, etc. This requires skill to pull off!

Subject Alpha in Crucible of Eternity is a good example of a boss most people will fight by stacking against a wall. Naively, this seems like a bad strategy, since you will not be able to walk/blink out of his very deadly AoEs. However, intelligent use of blocks and evades means that people can avoid all of the damage, even without moving. At the same time, the party is doing more damage because everyone is at melee range and providing buffs for each other— therefore Alpha goes down faster, and you need to do less dodging in the end.

Remember that stacking is simply a strategy that tries to reduce the time it takes to kill mobs so that your chance of dying goes down and your gold per hour goes up. Many PUGs are going to use at least some stacking/LoS’ing to make encounters easier, and in most groups that do not otherwise specify you will be expected to stack along with the team.

I don’t think you need to say that only DnT can run the meta speed builds, that’s very silly. I am by no means pro but I play my 30/10/10/20/0 s/f LH build in pugs all the time. It’s a matter of knowing content and practicing (as well as getting non-terrible groups, so I usually look for zerker only).

puts on flame-resistant suit

Can we put an entry in about stacking? I’ll write one when my plane lands.

For people who don’t like stacking, I (once again) suggest taking a longer look at fractals. Trash mobs might sometimes be dealt with by stacking (looking at you, aquatic and cliffside), but most bosses are simply not stackable.

I find it very, very unlikely that Anet is going to, at this stage, change the AI and boss mechanics of all dungeon bosses to be more similar to fractals. That battle is not just lost, it’s lost before it started. Instead of complaining (over and over again), I suggest playing the content which maximizes your enjoyment by removing this mechanic as much as possible.

You’ll notice the same people on this forum who are experts in stacking are also fractal experts. You do what the content requires.

Iris Ng.9845:

In COE, it is pretty much killing everything :’>

I bet you still skip the abom after the laser cannon defense!

Frye.4608:

If I had a new ele and wanted to play d/d in dungeons with some friends, I would :

-go to Orr and grab 5 soldier items from the temples for karma (power/vit/toughness).
-get zerker AND clerics trinkets so you can find a balance/role you are comfortable with.
-spec into cookie-cutter 0/10/0/30/30
-And still bring a staff.

No offense, but this is very bad advice for pve, since this build has zero DPS. OP was asking for dps pve builds.

Increasing the power of support would be nice. Increasing the necessity of toughness encourages lazy play. Active defenses, and thereby players skill, should always be superior to passive defense in an action MMO. That’s the beauty of the GW2 combat system: you get rewarded for being good, not just bringing the right amount of toughness to the fight.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Why is PvE tagged in the title? Mesmer PvE meta is still phantasmway and that hasn’t been changed at all apart from the overall zerk nerf.

Shatter in pve was nerfed to death long ago. The vigor change will be sad, but it’s not killer. Pve is not going to be affected at all, agreed with Guanglai.

In terms of raw damage it is probably a little worse, since the burst in d/d is slightly better. Focus off hand has much better utility and easier might stacking. You can almost certainly use the d/f builds, and replace the off hand dagger, and get most of the same results. In higher difficulty content, the focus does become useful though.

Kratos.6293:

oZii.2864:

Kratos.6293:

I wanna try out the elementalist class and i want to know a good pve build.
My preferred weapons are dual dagger.

Thank you

inb4 Anierna

For meta PvE it is not dual daggers. For play how you want PvE with like minded people that don’t care that you aren’t running a optimal set then I would look at the stickies of zelyhn and neko up top those can give you some idea.

For meta accepted top speed clear PvE builds look at these threads:

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

These thread will do if you aren’t running with speed clearers that know what you “Should” be running.

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

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Neko-s-Comp-Guide-to-the-Dungeon-Ele

These are not law if you really want to run D/D then by all means run D/D and though these guides don’t cover D/D they can give you a idea of trait selection and rotations.

Also you can search for Harmatia V’s guide on Reddit it is S/D. To get some ideas of offhand dagger.

Offhand dagger isn’t really a dps weapon so many PvE focused guides don’t have off hand dagger.

Remember though that just because it isn’t optimal isn’t bad. I don’t want to give that impression.

Which is the best dps weapon ?

The best DPS is probably just dropping fire 2 spam with the staff. A proper might-stacking scepter build, using Lightning Hammer conjures auto attack, is comparable or slightly better. A proper fresh air dagger-focus build, use lightning auto attack, is not too far behind either.

The nice thing about elementalist, compared to other classes, is that you have quite a few options with respect to “good DPS builds.”

oZii.2864:

Zelyhn.8069:

From the twitch stream yesterday (balance preview):

- burning speed evades
- frozen burst is a blast finisher

I am trying to not get back to this game but when I see buffs like this, buffs I have asked for long time ago, I cannot help but thinking that the devs want me back

You know you want to come back Zelyhn!!

We miss you~

Sola.7250:

The design flaw definitively isn’t skipping, it’s the fact that dungeons are the same each time you play it! Anet’s design seems to be kill Boss 1,2,3 or just make the Boss harder with gimmicks.

Anet developers need to go play some of the original RPG’s where every you never knew what awaited you on the other side of a door; treasure, trap, or enemies.

Dungeons need randomness, hidden areas, random traps in different places, random trash mops, hidden treasure, NPC’s, etc. Add a few new paths with hidden areas to each dungeon and then let the paths be random! Make players search for treasure and not just a chest at the end. How about dungeon skills for finding treasure/trap & disarming traps & opening trapped chests?

Just adding multiple random doors to each path, where each one may be a trap, fight, or treasure. You can stop players from running through dungeons today by adding a few floor traps that drop players back to the starting area.

Dungeons need better treasure, how about rescuing random NPC in dungeons that give you a discount from a vendor, code/discount from the trading post! There’s not a lot of randomness in the stuff you get today.

CoF p1 has a number of random events. AC has troll.

I have never seen anyone ever do any of the events, or kill the troll. The rewards are just too kittenty.

Sure thing. It is a shame that this persists, but what can you do~

This is still a problem, and there is no indication a fix will ever be in the works. If you are the instance creator, never ever leave the party, and never ever change characters, or you will kick everyone and lose all progress.

frifox.5283:

guanlongwucaii.3162:

triple ele best comp

a healer, a tank, and dps ele?

Two staff and one scepter/LH.

kny.3789:

when i pug i normally avoid partys that imply that they intend to skip. when i cant avoid them i cooperate and follow directions to the best of my ability without complaint because even is its less fun for me to skip mobs its still way more fun to work together than not. when i join a pug and that doesnt mention skipping till we’re mid run or not at all the best i can do is say something like “i prefer to kill stuff.” and hope enough of the pug knows what they are doing. truth is im a small minority. a non skipping group fundamentally exists as a premade. you will rarely if ever find a pug that insists on killing mobs in their path. the dungeon community IS speed runners its the only thing about dungeons thats note worthy. the dugeons are not hard enough that simply beating them is bragging rights. so the only thing left is to do them faster.

im afraid that if people dont opt not to skip for noobs and pugs then Anet will force people not to skip by changing the way dungeons work thus killing the dungeon community as it is now and possibly killing the game. or put in more skip friendly content that i dislike and possibly killing the game for me and the few who agree.

and to the people who keep saying “full clear” and “kill every single mob” you guys are being ridiculous on purpose right? no one has EVER killed every single last mob in any dungeon path (not counting fractals and story intances.). seems important that i state that people who like clearing only clear stuff that is in the direct path of the party drops loot and doesnt despawn when completing and objective.

spending hours killing every mob is supposed to sound stupid but what sounds stupid to me is watching a pug group die over and over using speed run tactics that the group cant execute properly. ive seen dozens of such groups. i havent seen many full clear groups though. let alone ones that take hours to complete a path.

Make your own LFG, and put “no skipping, full clear” in the title. There are plenty of like-minded folks like you, and you can find them in PUGs if you are clear about your expectations. The default of the community is to skip, so you should expect groups that do not specify anything to skip.

spoj.9672:

I do think we should start referring the meta builds as support guard, support warrior etc. Maybe people will start to understand slowly.

That banner, such OP support!

I will add that the PUG community is usually ~6 months behind the current meta which is developed in this forum and in others, so it’s no surprise that silly PUGs still request “ZERKER WARRIOR ONLYYYY.” That’s their problem, as the expert community has moved wayyy past that.

the noobiniser.7465:

notabot.3497:

Error.6290:

dmg > tactic/communcation/teamplay = boring

.

I guess all the stacking, boons and buffs, moving through trash as a group with proper skills ready aren’t tactics, team play, or communication.

I guess I better reroll a GS mesmer or bearbow ranger and learn to play support better. Or perhaps I’ll get a healing staff/mace+sheild guardian up and running so I can be healer when needed. Then I will stand in my spot determined by my class role. If I’m a mesmer, in staff/GS range, if ranger, the next room over. If guardian, standing behind the tank casting heals on cooldown. Better tactics, more skill required… Got to get good at kiting mobs so the tank doesn’t get overwhelmed too, managing the aggro building mechanics is an important thing to learn as well.

Or I could just play GW2 and not WoW.

ok, this is quite the weird argument to make against my thread, have you read the original post? Some people like playing support, I’d play my guardian more if it’d mean my support build would get appreciated. Just so you know I’ve played wow a coupla years. My main was a warlock, but i liked playing a healing paladin on the side, it kept it fresh. The thing with guildwars 2 is that basically any class can be played as a support, tanky, condition damage, direct damage, or hybrid build. that’s what makes gw2 awesome. Ok making all the classes viable in all of those roles in virtually impossible. but what people mainly want(50% put this as required in their lfg) in speed runs these daysis :

3 zerker warriors, a guardian and a mesmer. Be honest the only thing you want in your speed run group ATM is a warrior. done. sure, you can do variations on this. But my point is, this thing is killing their BRILLIANT build system. Players are dropping their favorite proffesion to play a “better” (see why it’s in brackets? They should be considered to be all equal) proffesion. I REFUSE to play a warrior or a mesmer because it’s supposed to be better then my necro. GW2 promoted you could play the way you want to, I’ll play it the way I want to. I won’t pick idiotic builds, I’ll make sure I’m viable, which makes the game more fun, but promoting only the top builds is NOT any different then WoW.

I’m not sure why people still think warriors are the meta for DPS speedrun builds. Ele, thief, guard are all better DPS, and ideal compositions even include rangers these days. Agreed that necro needs love, but really— watch some of the modern speedclear videos. There’s a lot of creativity out there that you’re neglecting in your rush to cast speedrunners as cookie-cutter warrior spammers, and almost all of the classes bring something important to the table.

One interesting thing is the possibility of main-stat Ferocity gear. I like the current mix of Assassin’s and Berserker that is optimal for many builds. Having a combination of the three as the “new meta” would be neat.

Zerker is still going to be the meta, PTV and condi is still bad. Rune changes may raise/lower things a bit more in the end, but this is not going to be a very large change for most people.

LittleLepton.8915:

I wish I had watched it. Did anyone get any good questions answered?

lollllll

Cries Of Sorrow.5864:

they aren’t nerfing JUST 10% critical damage, wait of the “rune changes” they made. they’re being WAYYYY too unspecific.

It’s entirely unspecific here, yes. We’ll have to see~

Not so bad, it seems, especially if 2h weapons are getting the extra sigil. The extra night / force sigil will make up partly for the loss in 10% crit damage.

Anierna.6918:

he hasnt included which game mode it is hes referring to. if its PvE, forget celestial altigether. its worthless. go zerk/assassins. although id be hesitant of making any ascended armor until the devs enlighten us on exactly how they will f*** up the game; there are rumors of a crit dmg nerf. coincidentally, I also would steer clear of celestial because its biggest advantage is higher crit dmg than zerk, and the next update might eliminate that.

sent from my phone

I hadn’t even considered the effect of such a nerf on celestial. How amusing~

What kind of content are you looking to play? I guess celestial is fine for WvW. For PvE, you want Berserker.

Lucey.1452:

Twilight on mesmers is replaced by bolt. They are informed via mail to buy a focus/pistol/sword offhand.

Ahahahahaaha.

Please share~

/15 chare

me me plz

/15 chars

Runs will be a little slower, but potentially easier if they buff vitality as they are likely to. Conditions might sneak into the meta in a few classes (necro is an obvious candidate). Most other things will stay the same.

All is vain.

ReesesPBC.4603:

maxinion.8396:

Sorry I did not specify this earlier. Yes: this is a standard phantasm berserker build. You should be using berserker everything with scholar runes (ruby orbs if you cannot afford scholar). You summon phantasms (preferably swordsmen when you’re fighting one target, preferably wardens when fighting many) as rapidly as you can, and otherwise melee with your autoattack, using dodges, sword 2, sword 4 to keep yourself alive.

Thanks to PyroAtheist for the clarification on how empowered mantras works! I was not aware the bonus here was multiplicative (thought it was additive). Neat!

I’m interested in mantra builds as well. I thought I read somewhere about scholar runes not affecting your phantasms, might need clarification on this. If that is the case, as it is a phantasm build as well, wouldn’t another rune set be better than scholars or is it that much more beneficial for your own dps over your phantasms?

The damage breaks down as:

“Scholar runes do 7.5% more damage than ruby orbs when your health is above 90%.
Scholar runes do 2.5% less damage than ruby orbs when your health is below 90%.
If you are above 90% health 25% of the time, you will deal more damage with scholar runes than ruby orbs.” (sorry I do not know who to cite for this )

So it’s a personal 7.5% increase (no phant) when above 90% health, compared to 2.5% increase for everyone. Some things to consider here:

1) Are you stacking perception? If so (and this is usually the best thing), and your phants already have fury and your group is providing fury to you, the extra “damage” from ruby orbs will be 0 because it comes in the form of extra precision which you do not need because your crit chance is already max’ed. This means that scholar is more than 7.5% better in those situations.
2) The 10% increase applies to your reflect damage. Depending on what you’re running, reflect damage can be a significant portion of your total DPS. CM paths, ACp2, Arah, Fractals, etc— everywhere that is reflect heavy— will see that 10% increase from scholar.

Keep in mind that if you’re running mantras, you’re taking 2-3 utilities to get that 8%-12% extra personal and reflect damage. The scholar bonus is like taking another Empowering Mantras for free.

Is it a ~huge~ deal either way? Probably not— zerk with ruby is still wayyy better than anything else you could possibly run. But in my opinion it’s worth the extra 15 gp to go for scholar.

Xyonon.3987:

Btw try not to create etheral combo fields. They just disturb your group if you have somone who benefits from fields like an engineer, a thief or an ele or any “20% projectile” class. The chaosarmor is pathetic compared to might and heal. For example as engineer I put down a fire bomb and rush the combo finishers for 9-15 stacks might for everyone for 25 sec. If there is a etheral field it sux terrible … :P Chaos armor … It requires a buff in PvE.

True fact. Nothing worse than a mesmer dropping unnecessary null fields and feedbacks and ruining the fire fields out there.

Turns out one of my guildies had a spotter + frost spirit ranger and took him with us on a couple of runs, so I finally got to experience the mythical “good ranger”. Smoothest, easiest runs I’ve done in a while— the damage was just so good, and it was such a pleasant experience. A++ would definitely recommend ranger again.

Thanks to all the regulars who have already made all the right suggestions. There are plenty of easy ways to learn to how to do dungeons in game, Wrath, so please do not be afraid of it. Be open with your groups that this is the first time doing your given path, and they will almost certainly be ok with it (or else, ask you to leave at the start before you waste time with them). The Dungeons Mentor thread is in particular a great resource, filled with people who are willing to use their time to help you learn what to do. Please don’t be afraid to ask them

Xyonon.3987:

Valarauka.2719:

Scholar runes are generally considered to be the best.

They are shifting some damage from your phantasms to yourself compared to the ruby orbs. All the ruby orb stats are working 1:1 for the phantasms. In the end none of them are better just that:

• ruby orbs are way cheaper
• in case of broken armor they still work
• unterwater you don’t need the 7th rune to work instead of your helmet gear
• since new signet phantasms are pretty much 50% of our damage; defenitly more when fighting a boss mob.
• they still work 100% even if you are struck once

Valarauka.2719:

Having two swords is still good because you can run S/S that way which I often prefer over S/P.

Also you automaticly trait main an offhand wich won’t happen with a pistol.

maxinion.8396:

If you want the single most efficient build, the above builds are slightly wrong.
10/30/0/20/10 and 0/30/0/25/15 are better. The 30 in inspiration does not give you anything worth taking.

“The single most efficient build” – shows 2 builds what are definitly weaker. Seems legit.

• 10 in dominion are a must have. +17.25% phantasm damage is not ignoreable for any other trait.
• 10 in illusions is a waste of points in any case. You choose +3% per illusion for yourself over +17.25% for your illusions? Really? Also illusion 5 is useless but inspiration 30 isn’t °
• 15 in illusions is understandable, however 10/20/0/25/15 is far better than the 0/30 unless you play with 4 mantras all the time wich I doubt.

In my eyes both of those builds are bad in general, however they may be good in arah only, wich I guess is where you are refering to. The best 2 builds for an allrounder are definitly 10/30/0/30/0 or 10/20/0/25/15 or if you are totally new to the game 20/20/0/30/0 (gs newb).

° Inspiration 30 is useless? I don’t know why you play a mesmer then. The best utility comes from that traitline. Reflection on ress (even NPC), cdr + duration of glamour, condition cleanse on heal, mantra heal, focus trait, or sometimes even 20% phant hp. There are enough reasons to go 30 there over let’s say 10 in illusions, especially if you are sacrificing 25 too …

Even with the benefits you list, the benefits from scholar, as discussed above, are much larger. Ruby orbs, even without the 10% benefit from scholar, are still basically comparable to scholar in performance, so the 10% really is just icing on the cake.

Wrt the 30 in inspiration: I mostly meant that the last major there is useless for dps. I’ll have to think about this a bit before I comment further, but it is true that the two builds I suggested are very oriented to reflect damage compared to the ones you suggested, which are oriented to pure phantasm DPS. The benefit of the 0/30/0/25/15 is not just personal DPS, I will add, but also significantly shorter cooldown times on phantasms, which is very helpful for new players.

Anyway, thanks for pointing out the 10/30/0/30/0 build in more detail— I will certainly give it another look.

Physical scientists represent, woo woo

Sorry Enaretos! I guess you can mine the TP with your econ skillz.

LordByron.8369:

Valarauka.2719:

Scholar runes are generally considered to be the best.

Not for mesmer….at least not for phant mesmer since the bonus dps doesn t transfer to phantasms…
Ruby orbs are cheap and nice…there maybe something other better, but consider Always what can be transfered to phantasms

As util i use:
Blink and feedback almost Always…
I use mirror image in fractal (for Emergency 3 seconds of distortion) or signet of illusion or again mantra of resolve…

Scholar is still better. In particular, the 10% bonus applies to reflect damage, and personal damage— and a 10% boost to both of those is still significant. Keep in mind that reflects are some of the biggest damage sources in the game, and a 10% bonus to those can be enormous. This is one of the reasons why Empowered Mantras is also so highly recommended, even if 8-12% doesn’t seem like such a big deal.