Guild Wars 2

I’m okay with auras getting nerfed if that means people stop asking Karl to make Auramancer Tempest into a viable build. Auras are not good, stop fetishizing them, forum Eles.

Are you surprised? The devs do not understand the Ele class. The dev in charge of balancing Ele and designing Tempest isn’t even a Champion Magus.

Beat you to it, mate. But yeah, the changes are worthless, and further proof that that devs just don’t given a kitten about Ele. Tempest + massive nerfs + no meaningful buffs to anything else = the great Ele purge of 2015.

Really, ANet? A worthless 33% damage increase on one of the worst auto-attacks in the game? A completely meaningless 10% damage buff to Shatterstone? Other than the Dragon’s Tooth change, that’s all you offer to Scepter?

Get out. The, “D-don’t worry guys, we’ll buff Scepter to make up for killing D/D!” was total BS meant to distract from the huge nerfs to Eles today.

Starfall.6425:

Can only repeat myself time and time again. MM isn’t perfect at this moment, but it isn’t completely broken either. With HoT we will get the new leagues-system which will completely change the MM so it really makes no sense complaining 4 weeks before the change.

Those 70-500 matches aren’t broken MM?

Serious Thought.5394:

So get a group of friends together?

You’d think that MM would match solo queue against solo queue, not organized groups vs. randoms. That should be a basic part of whatever algorithm they use.

Matched up against the same group queue multiple times, get stomped every match.

How do you excuse that, ever?

This has been discussed in great detail, yes. As it stands, “Auramancer” Tempest is an awful build. The traits are spread between too many trees, and auras in general are not particularly useful.

I’m okay with Warhorn being trash if Tempest is still viable (which it is not, of course). I’m willing to settle for that; that is how low my expectations for Tempest are at this point.

Irenio and Roy really threw you a bone with that Frost Bow nerf, Karl. With such a huge part of meta Ele damage nerfed into uselessness, people may now have a reason to run Tempest over Water or Air (I’m looking at you, Tempest Defense) for Staff PvE. Warhorn is still trash, though.

Clever, very clever. When your specialization turns out to be garbage, nerf the alternatives until it’s on par with what’s left.

All of the Ele haters coming out of the woodwork it seems.

Is there a consensus, or at least some math, on how much celestial is “optimal” for a D/D elementalist in WvW? I’ve been told that full celestial is inferior to mixed celestial, but I’ve never read any sort of justification for this.

Thanks!

People still talk trash when they beat you when a man up, sadly. That’s my favorite part.

If you don’t have a team, you won’t have much fun. The devs managing the matchmaking experience here are in way over their heads, and the result is No Fun Allowed solo queue.

When can we expect to see >50% matches with <200 pt final score gaps? Because balanced matches seem to be the exception, not the rule.

This is a solid build against most of the things you’ll run up against in sPvP and WvW in 1v1 situations. Thieves, Rangers, Mesmers, most Warriors, and other Eles are easy kills for this sort of build. Necros and DPS Guardians are pretty nasty (as is any build with good condition removal that doesn’t rely on critical damage), but they are typically bunkering and can be ignored.

My question is, why isn’t this build more popular? The fact that it’s not on Metabattle? It’s easily better than any other condition damage build for Ele I’ve tried thus far. While it lacks the versatility of D/D Ele, it crushes Thieves, and who doesn’t love that?

So D/D is great in sPvP, but in typical WvW roaming engages, especially after the cele nerf, D/D no longer has teeth. I respect the build, as it has great support, utility, and mobility, but its killing potential, and in duels with other common roaming classes, it falls short. As such, I’d love to have a discussion of alternative builds for roaming in WvW.

One build I admire is Diva’s condi signet Earth ele. My issues with this build are the lack of viability in all but the smallest of engagements (no real group support; this build is entirely a duelist), and terrible mobility. However, it absolutely crushes nearly every roamer build out there, and the Thief tears are wonderful.

I’ve experimented with S/F Fresh Air, and found that somewhat lacking in WvW. Poor mobility, glass cannon, and difficulty landing necessary skills make this burst damage build fun but limited in application.

Has anyone else experimented with, and found great success, in using non-D/D builds for roaming in WvW?

Cheers.

Thanks for the input, all. In that case, if I were to go D/D, what would synergize well with Berserker trinkets? I know that ‘zerker trinkets aren’t the best for D/D roamer, but I have them for PvE and haven’t the resources for getting different ascended items. Is there a particular armor set and weapon set that would offset that squishiness while still providing for the firepower I need?

I know there’s been a lot of debate on this, but is ascended gear necessary to excel in WvW? My issue is that I keep going through build changes, and it is impractical (and a massive time sink) for me to get new ascended items whenever my guild wants me to run a different build, or when the meta shifts. Thanks!

So I’m looking to roam with a friend of mine who runs a shatter Mesmer. Is there any particular build that might synergize well with that? I’m considering S/F for the burst, so that any target of our choosing can be killed instantaneously. Otherwise, D/D? Any input would be appreciated.