Guild Wars 2

Emdrix.6124:

ThatNAESLGuard.6238:

Emdrix.6124:

The only class in the game that dosent require dodging and can just spam cooldowns like blocks and invul while standing still and dropping AoE damage. Despite how easy it is to play this class it also too rewarding for the amount of effort required. It also hard counters thief, mes , warrior , necro and invo rev and the other match ups it can stalemate so basically Dh dosent even lose to any class 1v1 ( unless you use some useless build made for 1v1 )

Combine that with the fact that normal games dont have proper class distribution system and even if 2 builds out of dozens are good vs DH you will most likely not have them in your solo Q to counter a stacked Dh trapper team.

Just give me a reason to play any other classs than DH in a normal ranked or unranked game. if I can just stand still and spam AoE damage while blocking half of the time and the other half being invul.

Something needs to be done about DH . Either cut the block duration in half or make it at least weak to condis.

The fact of the matter is a stacked Dh trapper team in solo Q is nearly impossible to beat with pugs so the pro league balance dosent matter to 99% of the player base. DH trapper is very OP in normal games that are not team vs team or the pro league games. Because you cant have an optimal comp and team coordination to take this build down especially when stacked together.

Its also the only class that I see stacked the most. teams with 3 warriors, 3 thieves, 3 mesmers, 3 eles or whatever dosent happen very often compared to teams with 3 DHs. I wonder why so many people play it well I think I know why…

do you think its fair my class will be utterly unusable in the highest tier of gameplay simply because you were too bad to dodge a single trap?

1% of players play at the highest tier. Im not sure why people would care. Guard still hard counters more than half of the classes in the game and that’s not a l2p issue. Guard is OP in solo Q and there is no doubt about it

You both gave good points… It wouldn’t be fair to lower the skill floor even more for people who lose through human error…. And Guard does hard stomp pub games due to lots of human error. There are already options available to deal with DH effectively.

The only true invulnerability DH can use has no point contribution and the rest of the blocks can be bypassed with unblockable attacks…

BG= Don’t believe what JQ say, we are the kings of T1, we were just having a break.
FA= “Why would we blob T1 when we can blob T2 and win every week?”
DB= What sort of condition build was that?
JQ= Don’t believe what BG say, we are the kings of T1, we were just having a break.
YB= Siege
SBI= Zombie Apocalypse.
AR= The Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail but effective like the Rabbit.
GoM= “We won WvW 22 times in a row” and “Follow the RISE tag”
SoR= Who? (after the first WvW exodus)

Refer to sig if it’s confusing.

Boxing Gloves.

At this point I think it’s impossible for the Devs to do though.

AuTomA.2459:

Abelisk.4527:

If you think you’re the only one flipping, boy you are wrong. Very wrong.

i won’t even answer to your poor comment.

You just did though?

Crinn.7864:

sephiroth.4217:

Since HoT power creep

Spirit weapons where not viable before HoT……

And honestly they shouldn’t be viable anyways. NPC gameplay is dumb and is archaic design from launch that rightfully died off.

I never said they were?

Don’t get delusional on me now mate :P

+1 to Aura Wardrobe….

Nightfury shoulders (or lack of) look horrible on most armor pieces… Would be nice to get a full appearance from my character on top of having Nightfury effect.

Would also look extremely nice with some outfits too, say Mad Kings or Lich.

I got one of these things yesterday, not all that useful to a PvP/WvW player.

It’s a shame I can’t even sell it on the Trading Post, hopefully Anet can change this fact so players like myself who do get one can sen sell it to players who want/need it.

(it works in the mists, took my level 2 character in white gear strait to the new map.)

I think the map is bugged, a little.

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

Mesmer is broken as kitten and Revenant is still very strong. A lot of the changes to those classes made them harder to play without actually making them overall weaker.

Yea see I’m way down in the MMR

Just a flesh wound.3589:

sephiroth.4217:

I learnt not to invest any real time or money into the game.

Perspective is purely from 2 things.

1. I had a fully upgraded Guild before HoT that I paid for with Cash. All that money spent for nothing.

2. I have 20+ characters and I still only have 7 toons Elites unlocked. Again, wasted money on the rest of my character slots. Elite should have been Account bound or support should have been open to cases like mine where I’ve spent a lot of money on the game and requested to only complete the elite tracks once. I actually sent in a ticket for this one because of work and family restrictions it’s become a very grueling task to get my characters back to being fully geared for WvW.
In terms to Elites, I was a little salty on the delivery… Buy HoT to get Elite specs, so I did. Then I had to grind them? If I buy a TV I don’t need to do 20 backflips before I can leave the store with it.

I don’t see how it’s different than any other game. Elite specs and Mastery lines is this games version of leveling (Mastery Lines) and gearing up for that higher level (elite specs). Other games, when an expansion arrives you have to level each char individually to the new max level and then because now your old gear is trash you must do whatever the game requires to re-gear each char. Which may mean running dungeons over and over for a chance of a gear drop to upgrade one piece of gear, then repeatedly run more dungeons over and over for another chance for another piece of gear. Why in this game is playing the content to do the equivalent of gearing up such a problem when it’s considered playing the game in other games?

You could get on one of the numerous, player initiated Hero point trains. One train will get you enough hero points to get that char’s elite spec in one play period. They even changed it so you can get elite specs in WvW for one char while playing on another char. How is this so bad?

Elite should have been Account bound or support should have been open to cases like mine where I’ve spent a lot of money on the game

Again, other games you have to play the content if you want to bring your army of alts to the new max levels and to re-gear. Saying you spent money and therefore you should be allowed to bypass playing the game is not a valid argument. We all spent money to play this expansion and many of us have multiple alts.

I’m a bit older than most players, I have a partner and child. To me this marketing is new. I literally went from playing Total Annihilation to this because my partner said I needed a new game. I have the mentality that I play games for fun, grinding is not fun. Reminds me of work, grind work, come home to grind a game? I don’t think so. I don’t regret the $5000 or more I put into this game to save grinding either, I just regret investing so much time and money into so many characters that are now rendered useless to me being a WvW/PvP focused player. I still like all the skins and useless junk like dyes and pets but those characters are now useless. I’m not saying to exempt me from the “rules” just because I’ve spent money on the game, I’m asking to have more reasons to spend more money, to make more characters and keep playing the game to it’s full potential.

I get people enjoy levelling a DH 5 times, immersion and all that. I don’t want to take that away from them which is why I tried to open a personal support ticket for only myself to unlock the elites once. I would still have to earn it like everyone else, I just wouldn’t have to unlock the same class 4x or more for 9 classes.

As for the marketing on Elites, to me during beta weekends it was advertised that purchasing the expansion would come with New Elites and some new content exclusive to those who purchased the expansion, so the advertising was “give us your money and we will give you some skills to explore our new maps you purchased”. I don’t remember it ever stating during beta weekends that our skills would be locked behind a grind wall, what I do remember is playing beta weekend with all of our skills, that’s what they advertised we would have if we purchased the expansion and that’s what they didn’t deliver on upon purchasing the expansion, instead they put it behind a hidden secondary investment.

Again, I’m a bit older so my perspective is somewhat cavelike and simple and this thread is asking what I learned, and what I originally posted is what I learnt. Not to invest any real time or money into the game, so no real loss to Anet. That just means I buy 800 gems a fortnight instead of the 4-8k worth of gems I used too.

Can’t deny Anet have made some choices that have turned some of it’s playerbase away or hindered future sales, keyword being “some” so you may not be effected as much as others or have a different opinion to others, which is natural.

JustTrogdor.7892:

According to Gaile these acts are “pretty rare” and “many if not most are accidental.” If people are doing it to grief you should, “just move on and let it go.”

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Can-you-please-fix-spawned-items/first#post6332219

Good advice when playing a video game… Probably good life advice too.

I don’t do world bosses or leave the mists really but it does happen quite a bit at the banker. 2 steps to the left or right fixes it though, no longer than 5s so nothing worth getting mad about.

I use to buy them a lot but they removed boosters from the drops.

Mr Godlike.6098:

sephiroth.4217:

A 5 man Ele premade team can beat another premade team who tried to play with actual builds and correct class comps… Ours played with 2 Menders, a Sage a Marauder and a Paladin.

It’s good to see other people catching on to Ele potential. Takes a bit of skill to play Ele effectively at the moment which is why not many people believe ele has any place in current PvP, no Celestial/Cleric AMMY to carry the mistakes.

End of the day though if you play what you find fun and you win with it, doesn’t matter what others think. At least you’re not waiting for the next ESL to find out what your next build is going to be.

If there will be no new balance patch before next ESL thing or new amulet ele will stay as healbot…or be kicked if somebody finds better team comp and rotations…ele is in meta literally because there is no stacking rule in Tournaments…class is not mandatory like mes, rev or even necro .

Ele is a lot more than a healbot in my hands but I’ve also come to realize through teaching others ele that I look at the class differently to others, to me it’s purely utilities that get utilized such as water fields, blasts, cc and so on and not “heals” or “DPS” orientated, I’ll triple blast my own Icefield just for 3x AoE condi removals for the team before dropping healing rain to clear the rest without even thinking about how much DPS/Heals was being output….. The 5 man ele team I referenced was purely just for fun, we also did 5 man thief teams and a few others. Oddly, we lost our first game when we stacked DH’s….

Mes and Rev are still viable? I must be way lower in the MMR, my games are filled with Druids, Ele, Thief, War, Necro and occasional DH. Condi mes is useless down in my tier and every Rev get’s pooped on by the first condi bomb from the Nec. Of course, this is all unranked, can’t say what the new season will bring.

I’d like the selectable maps to have allocated slots for certain maps so we don’t end up with the choice of:
Beta Eternal
Spirit Watch
Skyhammer
Capricorn.

None of those maps are even ranked worthy material. Of those 4 maps when they pop up I don’t even choose one. Would be nice if say one of those panels only displayed ranked arena maps only, the other 3 can be beta/randomized.

Off topic: I hate attempting clicking Dismiss on que pop and accidently selecting Capricorn.

A 5 man Ele premade team can beat another premade team who tried to play with actual builds and correct class comps… Ours played with 2 Menders, a Sage a Marauder and a Paladin.

It’s good to see other people catching on to Ele potential. Takes a bit of skill to play Ele effectively at the moment which is why not many people believe ele has any place in current PvP, no Celestial/Cleric AMMY to carry the mistakes.

End of the day though if you play what you find fun and you win with it, doesn’t matter what others think. At least you’re not waiting for the next ESL to find out what your next build is going to be.

I learnt not to invest any real time or money into the game.

Perspective is purely from 2 things.

1. I had a fully upgraded Guild before HoT that I paid for with Cash. All that money spent for nothing.

2. I have 20+ characters and I still only have 7 toons Elites unlocked. Again, wasted money on the rest of my character slots. Elite should have been Account bound or support should have been open to cases like mine where I’ve spent a lot of money on the game and requested to only complete the elite tracks once. I actually sent in a ticket for this one because of work and family restrictions it’s become a very grueling task to get my characters back to being fully geared for WvW.
In terms to Elites, I was a little salty on the delivery… Buy HoT to get Elite specs, so I did. Then I had to grind them? If I buy a TV I don’t need to do 20 backflips before I can leave the store with it.

Kuya.6495:

Did something changed recently or something? Few months ago the boards were a full on dh whine a thon and now everything is being complained about. Especially thf now. I don’t remember thf getting buffs though.

I think people played the game and learnt how to deal with most DH. Now it’s probably reversed and the DH’s whine about everything else….

Seriously though, who are most of the ragers in PvP atm? From what I’ve seen it’s the DH players who run traps and still can’t get a kill.

Caedmon.6798:

sephiroth.4217:

Mea.5491:

Wait, why are they blocking countries? O.o

I don’t know but I hope Australia doesn’t end up on the list.

Well look at the list of countrys and it becomes pretty clear why.

I’m from Australia I don’t understand your country and politics. My guess is Trump? Even Russia was on the list.

Edit: Just read Haishaos post.

Mea.5491:

Wait, why are they blocking countries? O.o

I don’t know but I hope Australia doesn’t end up on the list.

LSD.4673:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Randulf.7614:

How is it a massive update affecting gameplay? You get a 3 hour window to log off at your convenience and you are no longer forced out when you zone or switch character.

Given it took just a few mins to fully update and it was listed as a maintenance build (common in any MMO), I’m not entirely understanding what the issue is. I went to make a cuppa and it was done on return.

Thank you for the clear voice of reason, Randulf.

As to the update, it was, as the notes said, a maintenance update. It didn’t change anything within the game, although yes, the download was large. But I believe it was maintenance on the update system itself. The update really was exactly what the notes explained, and any changes to the game would have been mentioned within the notes.

Yes, thank the person pandering and ignore the people’s complaints.
A big unannounced update that downloads at a snail’s pace (5-10kb/s on a 100Mb line) isn’t very reasonable. In fact, the main problem here really is how long it took to download. 30 minutes is ridiculous.

Mine took 8 minutes so it didn’t waste much of my time to waste time? I dunno….

Inculpatus cedo.9234 posted in another thread recently this which is interesting.
Reports this morning that players in various former Soviet countries, among others, had been unceremoniously barred from accessing NCsoft MMORPGs WildStar and Guild Wars 2 appear to have been confirmed by an NCsoft community rep, though Guild Wars 2’s block seems to have been in error. – Might have something to do with that.
http://massivelyop.com/2016/11/15/ncsoft-appears-to-be-blocking-former-soviet-states-from-wildstar/ if you want to read more.

ThatNAESLGuard.6238:

dude when you come into spvp forum people are talking about pvp

@op
guard loses nothing so thats #1
followed by mes which beats most things
scrapper
druid
thief
rev

No offense. Was only tryin to say to play what he enjoys most and get good at it.

(because people on the forum need a disclaimer: I’m not a pro, just an average player who plays all classes, mostly ele and I assume I’m replying to OP who is not a pro league player)

1v1 depends on your own skill level with builds on classes….. SO probably best to stick to what you like most.

I can 1v1, sometimes 1v2 on staff Ele, most people will tell you that’s stupid. It probably is but doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

Take this Fireworks thief for example, spams fire works which means he is weaponless but he still kicks peoples kitten.

Fireworks were removed from WvW shortly after this video. The guy Bandito has some wicked videos, not sure if he still plays though.\

When people tell you strait up certain classes, they are just reflecting on their own skills. The point is you can duel on any class.

Mesmer is a go to choice for thieves… Wasn’t during the Bunker meta but it’s back it now with the removal of toughness from most builds.

I’m not a thief main but I still understand the importance from stealing off a Mesmer/Warrior in a fight and focusing down the “squishies” first.

Kamara.4187:

I purchased gems last night in the middle of all the chaos happening (which was no fault of anet being the one getting attacked) and support brought their A-game as always and fixed me right up! I love Anets support team! If I could buy them all a pizza I would!

Anet support team is fantastic.

UltraViolent.4296:

sephiroth.4217:

Def/Str/Bers – Berserker ammy – Hoelbrak Fire/Air.

Or there is the condi versions that some people play. I wouldn’t recommend it, useless against competent players.

why are you using healing signet? , To the limit (shout) dosent help more to survive in a fight? Tryed to play with signet but i couldn’t stay alive on a team fight .

It combines well with some traits in defense, nearly 1k health regen a second after you use Burst skills depending on who gave you regen.

I’m not afraid of raids, it’s raiders afraid of me. (being a pug that’s never entered a raid, experienced raiders only)

Def/Str/Bers – Berserker ammy – Hoelbrak Fire/Air.

Or there is the condi versions that some people play. I wouldn’t recommend it, useless against competent players.

Yes to Open World PvP / Duels. Obviously limits would be needed so no world bosses are effected nor are any players, maybe an Arena in a map somewhere or a flagging system.

Yes to skin Inspections. I see no harm in this at all

Yes to a Charrcar and more travel toys. I see no harm in this either, essentially they are just skins anyway

I don’t think people are asking for TDM/CTF/Stronghold to replace ranked games, just the options to play those modes on their own would be refreshing enough.

At the end of the day, if they add separate ques then it doesn’t effect anyone except the people who want to play TDM. People like OP who aren’t interested for what ever reason aren’t forced into playing nor should have any concern.

Melona.9217:

I really hope, it will comes back on next PvP season. Many people still want it

Weren’t the Wings a limited time thing?

Josh Davis.6015:

Would you want to see any changes to Courtyard before it came back? A new mechanic, perhaps?

NO MECHANICS!!!!

Courtyard was fun because it was pure PvP… Player vs Player. Yes it could steam roll but that’s not the maps problem, it was the Matchmaking. Players who didn’t keep charging 1 by 1 to their death could stop the steam roll.

kdaddy.5431:

Octaslash.9437:

sephiroth.4217:

ResJudicator.7916:

sephiroth.4217:

Nearly 1 million damage in the first photo… A lot more than those “OP DPS BUILDS”… pretty good for “support only” no?

Second Photo has me at 37k damage received using a staff. (due to evades and dodging instead of tank n spank playstyle)

3rd photo is a hybrid build.

4th photo is marauder staff arcane mixture. 1v1 a thief for that point too.

5th photo is a 5 man ele team I was in for a few games, as you can see I’m clearly not the best Ele. That should be a testament to what people can achieve, I could probably do better myself if my fingers didn’t have arthritis or if I had a pc that didn’t sit at an avg ping of 300 with fps of 17-22.

I could post heaps of these builds/photos because I print screen every match stats to cross compare the stats between builds. Back to the point, it’s easier to spam aura menders heals than it is to actually play any other build. Don’t give the “team and TS” argument either because when I’m on TS or playing with a team I’m running a Paladin Ele simply because there is already a Mender Druid. What I bring as an Ele is mass condition removal, I let the real healers like Druid do the healing while I mass cleanse condi and apply hard and soft CC to a target. We fill in each others weak spots so to speak. Also playing with a Rev on our team, my mass condi removal is very much needed. (not pro teams, I just fill in for guild teams here and there)

There’s build diversity if players can handle high risk builds. Learning those builds takes patience and practice, you will wipe lots of times trying to learn them but the pay off is worth it. (its also the closest feeling you’ll get to the original pvp before HoT where timing and watching enemy skills actually mattered, before the HoT spray n pray builds)

Don’t mean to knock your builds (more power to you), but post-match damage stats is not the sign of a high-damage build. In fact, it can mean the opposite. Here’s an illustrative example:

If you instagib a rev with a perfectly timed burst 5 times in a row, your damage stat will be about 100k.

On the other hand, if you spend 10 minutes fighting a rev on point without killing him because he keeps healing up in between your burst attempts, your damage stat will be like 500k+.

The more effective build/player ends up with a much lower damage stat at the end of the match.

Yea I’m aware of this factor, I use the stats, timer and total damage and reflect on the match to see what it is I’m looking to boost. That first match with a Million damage it was a full length match which rarely happens for my games, I was mostly trying to tell someone that build diversity exists across a wide range of builds. I got plenty of those lower stat ones but they only happen in ranked/team play and not solo/duo pubstomps. Either way I’m having fun on lots of builds, shame to see other gamers feel they are restricted to what esl players play.

Like someone else said though that makes a lot more sense: People are comparing ESL guild team builds as no diversity to that of solo q. My perspective is purely playing solo/duo and with guild teams, not pros.

You post pictures, yet I see no one in the enemy team that is a highly skilled player. In higher elo, your build would have been pretty useless. Unranked matches are matches where people tend to troll with builds, who’s to say that the opponents were running meta builds?

Good thieves would pretty much instagib you, revenants would apply pressure, so that your staff dps will be useless. A rev pressuring you means that you can’t kill kitten, because staff inherently, is a bad 1v1 tool, which means that you wouldn’t be able to kill rev’s 1v1 with it. You could perhaps hold him, but what’s the point of that build then, when its purpose is to dps? All those pictures show me is, that you haven’t been pressured at all.

this is what i was saying but i think you made a clearer point

I did say my perspective is solo/duo and guild teams, not Pros. But thank you for elaborating on this further. Almost feels like I triggered people with those pics.

I’m starting to think you guys are the pro’s by the way you speak for the pros. I just assumed like most people who post on the forums that they are just the average player base like everyone else, sorry for the confusion. I’ll let you Pro ESL players talk about ESL level of gameplay while I go use my bad builds against the other 99.9% of the playerbase.

I’ve got nothing to argue, I was only trying to help fellow gamers enjoy the game a little more if they feel build diversity really is that bad when it comes to non esl games but it appears I haven’t helped at all so I won’t even be looking in this thread again. I do not want to partake in a discussion on the behalf of others.

I’m not talking about completely removing the 9 second cooldown on Attunement swapping, I was referring to the 2 second cooldown between the switches. So on a D/D build you Ring Of Fire > Water 3 blast > Earth 4 + 5 Blast then to Air = minimum 6s before reaching Air due to 2s cooldowns on attunement swaps. Could do rotation in less than 2 seconds so game is holding players back from getting faster at rotations.

I’ll edit original post to remove confusion. Thankyou to Mem for posting suggestions too, especially about Staff Air AA.

@Silv: Also a very good suggestion for Overloads, my perspective was giving players a choice to waste evades getting onto point or to use evades getting off point after overloading but shorter durations would also prove to be quite the improvement for overload gameplay. In terms to buffing Air, it was mostly just give it some condition cleansing. If Air had condi cleanse, I could probably drop water for fire and have fire/air/tempest build that was a bit more viable in PvP.

ResJudicator.7916:

sephiroth.4217:

Nearly 1 million damage in the first photo… A lot more than those “OP DPS BUILDS”… pretty good for “support only” no?

Second Photo has me at 37k damage received using a staff. (due to evades and dodging instead of tank n spank playstyle)

3rd photo is a hybrid build.

4th photo is marauder staff arcane mixture. 1v1 a thief for that point too.

5th photo is a 5 man ele team I was in for a few games, as you can see I’m clearly not the best Ele. That should be a testament to what people can achieve, I could probably do better myself if my fingers didn’t have arthritis or if I had a pc that didn’t sit at an avg ping of 300 with fps of 17-22.

I could post heaps of these builds/photos because I print screen every match stats to cross compare the stats between builds. Back to the point, it’s easier to spam aura menders heals than it is to actually play any other build. Don’t give the “team and TS” argument either because when I’m on TS or playing with a team I’m running a Paladin Ele simply because there is already a Mender Druid. What I bring as an Ele is mass condition removal, I let the real healers like Druid do the healing while I mass cleanse condi and apply hard and soft CC to a target. We fill in each others weak spots so to speak. Also playing with a Rev on our team, my mass condi removal is very much needed. (not pro teams, I just fill in for guild teams here and there)

There’s build diversity if players can handle high risk builds. Learning those builds takes patience and practice, you will wipe lots of times trying to learn them but the pay off is worth it. (its also the closest feeling you’ll get to the original pvp before HoT where timing and watching enemy skills actually mattered, before the HoT spray n pray builds)

Don’t mean to knock your builds (more power to you), but post-match damage stats is not the sign of a high-damage build. In fact, it can mean the opposite. Here’s an illustrative example:

If you instagib a rev with a perfectly timed burst 5 times in a row, your damage stat will be about 100k.

On the other hand, if you spend 10 minutes fighting a rev on point without killing him because he keeps healing up in between your burst attempts, your damage stat will be like 500k+.

The more effective build/player ends up with a much lower damage stat at the end of the match.

Yea I’m aware of this factor, I use the stats, timer and total damage and reflect on the match to see what it is I’m looking to boost. That first match with a Million damage it was a full length match which rarely happens for my games, I was mostly trying to tell someone that build diversity exists across a wide range of builds. I got plenty of those lower stat ones but they only happen in ranked/team play and not solo/duo pubstomps. Either way I’m having fun on lots of builds, shame to see other gamers feel they are restricted to what esl players play.

Like someone else said though that makes a lot more sense: People are comparing ESL guild team builds as no diversity to that of solo q. My perspective is purely playing solo/duo and with guild teams, not pros.

kdaddy.5431:

Lymphy.1276:

kdaddy.5431:

LOL i will bring my warrior and you can bring for marauder ele, i say good luck to you

GW2 doesn’t have 1v1 ranked pvp. Suggesting that some builds are stronger in 1v1 situations doesn’t make them any more viable in 5v5.

Ele is a support character since HOT. Currently a ele will lose to multiple professions in 1 vs 1 with any build if they builds are played right.

It is only viable threw the support of other classes giving healing.

Take away other players heals, the lack of sustain or stability, (the nerf which gives 40% protection on overloads which means only earth overloads) and couple that with you need to run shouts or weapon sets with multiple auras.

Take away 1-2 things from the meta and try running it against good players. You will crumble hard. Im not talking unranked where you can run P/P thief or full trap ranger and have success. Im talking where people will play there best class with the best builds and you are sitting there running a glass ele.

I didnt say because he couldnt win a 1 vs 1 that it is less viable. But if you want to break it down ele does almost everything to the least amount except support. You could bring a dps DH, warrior, necro and it would have better team dps. You could trade a dps thief to play the outsides and that would be better then a glass ele.

You can run terrible builds when you are far superior in skill then the other players but when facing equally skilled player where classes/comp and rotations matter. Running marauder ele is not useful in almost every aspect.

Nearly 1 million damage in the first photo… A lot more than those “OP DPS BUILDS”… pretty good for “support only” no?

Second Photo has me at 37k damage received using a staff. (due to evades and dodging instead of tank n spank playstyle)

3rd photo is a hybrid build.

4th photo is marauder staff arcane mixture. 1v1 a thief for that point too.

5th photo is a 5 man ele team I was in for a few games, as you can see I’m clearly not the best Ele. That should be a testament to what people can achieve, I could probably do better myself if my fingers didn’t have arthritis or if I had a pc that didn’t sit at an avg ping of 300 with fps of 17-22.

I could post heaps of these builds/photos because I print screen every match stats to cross compare the stats between builds. Back to the point, it’s easier to spam aura menders heals than it is to actually play any other build. Don’t give the “team and TS” argument either because when I’m on TS or playing with a team I’m running a Paladin Ele simply because there is already a Mender Druid. What I bring as an Ele is mass condition removal, I let the real healers like Druid do the healing while I mass cleanse condi and apply hard and soft CC to a target. We fill in each others weak spots so to speak. Also playing with a Rev on our team, my mass condi removal is very much needed. (not pro teams, I just fill in for guild teams here and there)

There’s build diversity if players can handle high risk builds. Learning those builds takes patience and practice, you will wipe lots of times trying to learn them but the pay off is worth it. (its also the closest feeling you’ll get to the original pvp before HoT where timing and watching enemy skills actually mattered, before the HoT spray n pray builds)

kdaddy.5431:

sephiroth.4217:

Xillllix.3485:

Lymphy.1276:

Xillllix.3485:

If you played the game since launch you know there are way less build possibilities now than before the new trait system, specially on some classes like the elementalist that has become brain dead boring to play.

I don’t play elementalist enough to be qualified to discuss about their builds, but our of curiosity what builds did they have pre HoT vs now and where are you getting it from?

I was playing a custom power/celestial elementalist build that used condi-duration from the fire trait line, water and arcane.

It was amazing fun, it was a build made to maximize damage burst on an immobilized foe by controlling the quickness and intelligence sigil. It only used 1 specific combo for opening fights. At the same time it was really situational and needed personal investment to succeed.

Not all 3 lines were maxed but points 4 lines were possible in some variations.

The opening combo had a great burst potential.

Passive in air:
At 900 distance: Opening using Signet of Earth, started 4 sec immob – Triggered intelligence sigil
Switched to fire once in combat.

Under the intelligence sigil:
Burning Speed 100% Crit – Triggers rage sigil quickness

With quickness:
Ring of Fire
Fire Grab 100% Crit

Earthquake 100% crit (interrupt synchronized with the end of the first immob)
Magnetic Grasp (second immob)
Churning Earth+Lightning flash (still with quickness if pulled off perfectly)

While channeling churning earth:
Frost Aura

(There is no time for anything else in that chain if you wish to get your churning earth under quickness, I’ve tested it thoroughly.)

Then if somehow he’s still up the typical:
Frozen Burst
Updraft
Ride the Lightning
Lightning Whip

The extra condi duration really gave an edge to the elementalist class for a condi/power hybrid, since condi damage on the elementalist is mostly bad.

The meta just doesn’t support that type of gameplay anymore, and the trait system doesn’t either. Too many passive dazes and interrupts, too many condis, everyone is equipping stun breaks because of the damage creep, too many boons and immunities. Everything has cheesed up.

Before HoT was exactly like you said, Celestial.

Only Celestial. Then it was Clerics.

Now it’s Sage, Marauder, Paladin, Menders, Vipers and so on….

I find this build diversity thing to be limited by the players, not the game. It’s always Easier to spam Auras on a Menders build than it is to evade the damage on a Marauder Build.

LOL i will bring my warrior and you can bring for marauder ele, i say good luck to you

I didn’t realize we were talking about 1v1 situations, I apologize for my comment being outfield I must have read the thread wrong.

Can you perhaps add achievements for gaining certain achievements?

Specifically thinking “Master of the Mists” for obtaining all Champion Titles, something along those lines.

mrauls.6519:

Overloads are channelled abilities, so dodge on overload wouldn’t make sense

Maybe that should be looked at then, or even if they moved the passive stack of stability into the overload itself and raised the % damage from Harmonious Conduit. I don’t like adding more passives, would much rather be able to dodge BUT currently there is an issue with Melee Overloading competing with the amount of AoE dazes/stuns and CC.

Made a thread in the elementalist subforum but also wanted to post it here, feel free to remove it devs.

A few suggestions, I know these suggestions might not sit well with a lot but I feel it’s rather important for Elementalists. I’ll try to explain the suggestions a little.

-The ability to dodge while overloading.
Currently there is a lot of AoE, there is also a lot of dazes/stuns and generally hard CC with HoT builds especially in PvP. All Overloads are Melee range. The ability to dodge raises skill floor due to letting players enabling themselves instead of adding more passive stability stacks to Harmonious Conduit.

-Return Diamond Skin to it’s former glory.
The original complaint was that Diamond Skin and Celestial Amulet shut down all counterplay to condition builds. The removal of Celestial Amulet was a big enough hit to that combo that should have rendered Diamond Skin viable again. Diamond Skin kept a lot of condition builds in check for PvP, currently now there is that many condition builds running rampant through PvP to a point to where it’s almost sickening. Since this removal some Amulets have been added that should see no problems with the old Diamond Skin functionality, Vipers for example. Another point to bring into this is DH traps, due to those the Ele is pretty much forced into Stone Heart, returning Diamond Skin to it’s former glory means people could actually choose to counter the 2 DH or the 2 condi berserkers/Mesmers with a venom share thief.

-Remove CD on attunement swapping
I don’t mean Fire > Earth > Fire with no cooldowns, what I mean is currently on D/D build if you Ring Of Fire to Water for Blast then to Earth for more blasts there is a CD on attunement swapping between those attunements which means I cannot rotate my skills to my full potential, I’m held back by the game itself. This is the 2 second CD on attunement swaps, not the 9 second CD after leaving the attunement.

-Raise base health pool by at least 2k or implement a trait to raise base health.
Pretty much self explanatory, would allow much more builds to be viable too.

-Buff Fire/Air/Arcane trait lines for respective builds.
Buff Fire to be aimed at power/condition focused builds, Give Air some condition removal because it’s already a fantastic line for power builds and Give Arcane that much needed buff towards the potential it already has to be the Hybrid crit/condition that could synergise well with Fire if given the right love.

All in all I think this is a fantastic class, but a few tweaks could really help see this class being played to it’s full potential. Currently there is a bit of build diversity, but with Tempest/Water/Earth synergizing too well for certain reasons I don’t think many newer players will stray far from the Menders aura heal spam builds.

I posted it before and was surprised to receive mails and questions about it, but the class has a lot of potential. One of the tricks I posted about Elementalist utilities available to the class is the ability to drop an Air Overload that Pulsates Immobilize.
To do that you must have Arcane equipped, Elemental Surge trait. Equip Arcane Power.
Air Overload > Earth > Arcane Power. Rather easy combo, if you’re playing a Sage Amulet then Fire Overload would be suited better for fast burn stacks or immobilize people in the fire field, what ever combo works best for what ever situation you can think of. The class already has more potential than most to be played at a higher skill level, just a few things are holding it back.

If anyone has some simple suggestions to help improve Ele gameplay please make them

-I’m not the best player, just an Avid Ele player.

Mr Godlike.6098:

Always amazes me how some thief’s like to die in persisting flames…

When they’re waiting for your Mist Form to end…

A few suggestions, I know these suggestions might not sit well with a lot but I feel it’s rather important for Elementalists. I’ll try to explain the suggestions a little.

-The ability to dodge while overloading.
Currently there is a lot of AoE, there is also a lot of dazes/stuns and generally hard CC with HoT builds especially in PvP. All Overloads are Melee range. The ability to dodge raises skill floor due to letting players enabling themselves instead of adding more passive stability stacks to Harmonious Conduit.

-Return Diamond Skin to it’s former glory.
The original complaint was that Diamond Skin and Celestial Amulet shut down all counterplay to condition builds. The removal of Celestial Amulet was a big enough hit to that combo that should have rendered Diamond Skin viable again. Diamond Skin kept a lot of condition builds in check for PvP, currently now there is that many condition builds running rampant through PvP to a point to where it’s almost sickening. Since this removal some Amulets have been added that should see no problems with the old Diamond Skin functionality, Vipers for example. Another point to bring into this is DH traps, due to those the Ele is pretty much forced into Stone Heart, returning Diamond Skin to it’s former glory means people could actually choose to counter the 2 DH or the 2 condi berserkers/Mesmers with a venom share thief.

-Remove CD on attunement swapping
I don’t mean Fire > Earth > Fire with no cooldowns, what I mean is currently on D/D build if you Ring Of Fire to Water for Blast then to Earth for more blasts there is a CD on attunement swapping between those attunements which means I cannot rotate my skills to my full potential, I’m held back by the game itself.

-Raise base health pool by at least 2k or implement a trait to raise base health.
Pretty much self explanatory, would allow much more builds to be viable too.

-Buff Fire/Air/Arcane trait lines for respective builds.
Buff Fire to be aimed at power/condition focused builds, Give Air some condition removal because it’s already a fantastic line for power builds and Give Arcane that much needed buff towards the potential it already has to be the Hybrid crit/condition.

All in all I think this is a fantastic class, but a few tweaks could really help see this class being played to it’s full potential. Currently there is a bit of build diversity, but with Tempest/Water/Earth synergizing too well for certain reasons I don’t think many newer players will stray far from the Menders aura heal spam builds.

I posted it before and was surprised to receive mails and questions about it, but the class has a lot of potential. One of the tricks I posted about Elementalist utilities available to the class is the ability to drop an Air Overload that Pulsates Immobilize.
To do that you must have Arcane equipped, Elemental Surge trait. Equip Arcane Power.
Air Overload > Earth > Arcane Power. Rather easy combo, if you’re playing a Sage Amulet then Fire Overload would be suited better for fast burn stacks or immobilize people in the fire field, what ever combo works best for what ever situation you can think of. The class already has more potential than most to be played at a higher skill level, just a few things are holding it back.

If anyone has some simple suggestions to help improve Ele gameplay please make them

-I’m not the best player, just an Avid Ele player.

Xillllix.3485:

Lymphy.1276:

Xillllix.3485:

If you played the game since launch you know there are way less build possibilities now than before the new trait system, specially on some classes like the elementalist that has become brain dead boring to play.

I don’t play elementalist enough to be qualified to discuss about their builds, but our of curiosity what builds did they have pre HoT vs now and where are you getting it from?

I was playing a custom power/celestial elementalist build that used condi-duration from the fire trait line, water and arcane.

It was amazing fun, it was a build made to maximize damage burst on an immobilized foe by controlling the quickness and intelligence sigil. It only used 1 specific combo for opening fights. At the same time it was really situational and needed personal investment to succeed.

Not all 3 lines were maxed but points 4 lines were possible in some variations.

The opening combo had a great burst potential.

Passive in air:
At 900 distance: Opening using Signet of Earth, started 4 sec immob – Triggered intelligence sigil
Switched to fire once in combat.

Under the intelligence sigil:
Burning Speed 100% Crit – Triggers rage sigil quickness

With quickness:
Ring of Fire
Fire Grab 100% Crit

Earthquake 100% crit (interrupt synchronized with the end of the first immob)
Magnetic Grasp (second immob)
Churning Earth+Lightning flash (still with quickness if pulled off perfectly)

While channeling churning earth:
Frost Aura

(There is no time for anything else in that chain if you wish to get your churning earth under quickness, I’ve tested it thoroughly.)

Then if somehow he’s still up the typical:
Frozen Burst
Updraft
Ride the Lightning
Lightning Whip

The extra condi duration really gave an edge to the elementalist class for a condi/power hybrid, since condi damage on the elementalist is mostly bad.

The meta just doesn’t support that type of gameplay anymore, and the trait system doesn’t either. Too many passive dazes and interrupts, too many condis, everyone is equipping stun breaks because of the damage creep, too many boons and immunities. Everything has cheesed up.

Before HoT was exactly like you said, Celestial.

Only Celestial. Then it was Clerics.

Now it’s Sage, Marauder, Paladin, Menders, Vipers and so on….

I find this build diversity thing to be limited by the players, not the game. It’s always Easier to spam Auras on a Menders build than it is to evade the damage on a Marauder Build.

There was a Dredge Invasion Years ago when they first released Azurite Orbs, it was a dungeon that manifested itself in Wayfairer Foothills or something, the Norn starting Area. (pretty sure it was the very first Living story episode when they first released thier black lion weapons too, fused skins)

There was a story in that Dungeon that explained it, I just can’t remember it all that well, something to do with freak accident/magic while working on some weapon/machine that was meant to destroy Tyria. most people were there to farm Sentinel gear so lots of cut scenes skipped. (atleast me and my WvW guild was at the time)

Very long time ago, memory not what it used to be.

shagwell.1349:

“We moved for fights”. That’s why most guilds stacki in already full timezones. Biggest lie on gw2.
If you move for a fight your transfer target are heavily underpopulated servers, not tier 1 or tier 2, but at least you are honest about "Alot of us who transferred alot didn’t give a crap about the state of wvw "

The game would have died 2-3 years ago had people not transferred to keep the game alive, raiding guilds on dead servers only ever raiding empty towers were left with a choice, quit the game or transfer.

Guilds constantly moved for fights, down tiers and up tiers. Where ever the most guild groups would be to fight and organise guild v guilds, if you played WvW before HoT it was pretty common knowledge that WvW HAD consistent Guild vs Guild battles and the servers ran off these guilds.

I’m assuming you play in T1/T2 if you think the only place guilds go is T1/T2 and even if people are stacking the high tiers then it’s only logical that people look for active servers in a dying game mode.

Anywho… no use getting your knickers twisted over what other people do with thier life or money, especially in a video game that people want to play for fun.

Home is GoM.
Favourite server is Mag.
Least fav server is YB.

Transferred enough times to be on every server atleast once over the last 4 years, possibly transferring again into lowest tiers for a playable WvW soon or to these new “free worlds” I heard about.

Azukas.1426:

Stop trying to defend this. Macros are real and they are being used a lot in this game. I can create a macro to reproduce bursts on classes that are “high” skill level. I can do this at the push of one button. It’s not hard to set it up, and gives a distinct advantage to the person using them b/c they don’t have to worry about actually landing it.

Don’t post here like you can legitly reproduce the combo speeds on par with macros if you aren’t a pro, b/c you can’t. If you could you’d be competing for money and I don’t think a single person in this thread is currently doing that.

Thank You

Ok first of all no one is defending it, people here on this thread are trying to enlighten you with some knowledge to what you originally posted. Now you say “everyone” and change the topic of your own forum post AND removed your original video. If you posted that as the topic to begin with, people would have most likely agreed with you because it’s allowed to a certain extent.

Secondly, muscle memory can allow people to make rotations fast enough to appear they have a macro when they don’t, especially on a 19 button MMO gaming mouse. As someone else pointed out, Macros are usually Black Powder + Heartseeker or small moves like that.

Thank You.

Azukas.1426:

sephiroth.4217:

Azukas.1426:

Lord Hammer Hand.4815:

aslong as 1 button doesnt activate 2+ skills at the same time anet has no problem w/ it.

Let’s me clarify

They are using macros to activate more than one skill at a time. I will edit OP thx

How do you know this though?

Some people have gaming mouse with 19 buttons and have easy access to fast rotations.

Some abilities can be used in conjunction with other skills too depending on if they have a cast time.

b/c i use said mouse with 19 buttons in total

I’m not facing players from the pro league here when I say this. I’m facing players who are casual to semi casual gamers. This 600 APM isn’t what they can achieve, but they are hitting macros which do this. I think people are forgetting this

Everytime I watch the video, I can see he casts short cast time CD’s before activating his no cast time abilities which is why they appear to be used at the same time…

I main ele mostly, I can do rotations that fast. On D/D doing those rotations too quick for might stacking with Earth 4 > 5 too fast will cause it too bug out and not recognize any blast finishers.

Another thing about the video, it’s a short burst under no pressure against a stationary target. He probably tried that rotation for hours before posting the 2 successful ones.

Azukas.1426:

Lord Hammer Hand.4815:

aslong as 1 button doesnt activate 2+ skills at the same time anet has no problem w/ it.

Let’s me clarify

They are using macros to activate more than one skill at a time. I will edit OP thx

How do you know this though?

Some people have gaming mouse with 19 buttons and have easy access to fast rotations.

Some abilities can be used in conjunction with other skills too depending on if they have a cast time.

Syrius Gorn.5384:

we need some unique pvp stuff, some unique pvp title hard to get, some Ingame disctinction etc….

I think they should make some new titles, I’m specifically thinking of a title for earning all the class Champion titles like Champion Paragon, Champion Reaper and so on. “Master of the Mists” or something.

Most P/P thieves I see unload spam into a bunch of blocks, reflection walls, magnetic auras and so on….

If it works well for you, then keep doing it