Guild Wars 2

Hi everybody,

after playing my ele alt for a few weeks I’m back on my warrior main. I play WvW only with a Rifle build (10/25/0/20/15). Weapon set #2 is sword/ warhorn with Quick Breathing.

ATM I use Sigil of Fire for Rifle and 2x Sigil of Bloodlust for Sword + Warhorn. I’m thinking about buying another sword + warhorn with other sigils to switch when I reach 25 bloodlust. But I’m not sure which sigils to use.

Sigil of Battle + Sigil of Force would be great for the second sword/ warhorn weapon set. But the problem is that Sigil of Battle would be on the same internal cooldown as Sigil of Fire.

I’m thinking of using Sigil of Force for Rifle (instead of Sigil of Fire) and using Sigil of Battle + Sigil of Force for the second weapon set. Sigil of Battle would give 3 stacks of might for 24s (20s + 20%) every 9s after weapon swap. I’m able to switch weapons every 5s due to Fast Hands. So I could stack another 6-9 might with Sigil of Battle. That would give me up to a total of 17 might stacks self buffed (with SoF + FGJ).

On the other side Sigil of Fire is pretty nice (AOE damage, fire effect looks kitten).

What do you think? Whats better damage-wise for WvW?

Thanks, teg

“On Crit” and “On Swap” sigils share the same internal cooldown.

So e.g. with Fire on #1 and Energy on #2 when fire procs and you swap weapons, energy won’t proc.

I would go for 2x bloodlust for sword/warhorn + any “on crit” or “on swap” sigil for rifle (e.g. fire, ice, energy, hydro or strength). You can stack 25 bloodlust super fast by just swapping to sword/warhorn before kill.

If gold is not a problem then buy another sword + warhorn with different sigils (e.g. force, accuracy, corruption), then swap weapons from inventory when you got 25 bloodlust stacks.

covenn.7165:

The only place a D/D ele can be considered over powered is in a 1v1 situation. Even then, the D/D ele is only perceived as OP because they can out last people over a long period of time and escape easily if they start to lose. Its not like they are running around wtf 2 shotting people like GC thieves are.

If “over powered” means “extremely hard to kill” then you are right. Buts thats also true for many other professions. I had many 1vs1s against decent thieves, mesmers, engineers and guardians which literally last forever.

I think we will all agree that some professions/builds are extremely viable for 1vs1. d/d bunker ele is one of them. But don’t forget that for achieving that level of tankiness, ele has to sacrifice alot of damage.

My d/d ele is extremely hard to kill, but at the same time it’s extremely hard for me to kill anyone! In WvW most enemies can outlast my damage until other players join the fight.

Atherakhia.4086:

Things like healing yourself when attuning to water. 2k+ heals from blast finishers in water fields. RTL not being on a 20 second cooldown.

Sorry bro, but what are you exactly talking about?

Water Field = Staff
RTL = Dagger

You cannot have both in one build.

me im not.9357:

The problem is in culling. Youre standing there with your 10-20 buds and you see another group approaching that looks about the same size… you prepare to engage— and then bodies litter the ground. You’ve just been culling trained. Before you even saw your enemies you where killed by hammers and their crazy control effects, D/D mages and their insane burst, etc. And there is nothing you can do about it.

Culling seems to be the answer to everything. But you’re wrong. Even if you cant see your enemy due to culling you see your health bar dropping. If your health is dropping its time to move and dodge away.

Its so kitten simple to prevent AOE for a large group: just dont stand all in one place!

Ive played DAOC for ages and the first lesson learned for everyone in RVR was to spread out on INC. Guess what? It worked. It worked although AOE in DAOC was far stronger than in GW2.

Its so simple and effective to counter AOE just by NOT standing all in the same place.

Oglaf.1074:

Nothing it doesn’t already do for Hundred Blades and Whirlwind Attack.

I have to disagree. IMO the synergy between weapon swaps would be to high because combining 100b + Whirlwind Attack + Volley would result in insane stacks of might. And its repeatable every 8s.

But I like the idea of having a Forceful Sword trait. Might stacking could make sword condition builds much more attractive.

I disagree that adrenaline system must be reworked. All burst skills besides GS are extremely powerful.

IMO berserker stance is just fine, but cooldown should be lowered to 30s. Sure, not all builds need some kind of active adrenaline gain because the passive gain is good enough. But other builds really profit (e.g. rifle or longbow).

Warrior got 3 active adrenaline gainer: Healing Surge, Signet of Fury, Berserker Stance

Berserker stance has 2 advantages: (i) its instant and (ii) it provides more than 100% adrenaline when used properly (right before using a burst skill).

So nop, Berserker stance is far from useless.

Manticore Five.9867:

That’s wonderful that you can do two combustion shots every 5 seconds. What’s your secret?

the secret is that u can equip 2 weapons bro

Thobek.1730:

“unlike other games stealth is not unlimited” – perma stealth theives would disagree.

“its not unlimited it should be used with careful forethought” – yeah every 4-6 seconds. ohh big deal.

Thats indeed more than absurd. Sure there is no perma stealth because stealth breaks after a few seconds, but it can be repeated much to often.

DAOC got a perma stealth system which imo was MUCH BETTER than what we got in GW2. Stealth professions in DAOC could run around in stealth as long as they wanted. But you were revealed either on dealing or getting damage. IIRC some professions got an ability to restealth during combat once per fight. But thats it. No disengaging multiple times in the middle of a fight. No loosing target every few seconds, no mindless spaming aoe on targets you cannot see.

/sigh

- CC is a counter to mobility
- Stability is a counter to CC
- Healing is a counter to damage
- Condition removal is a counter to conditions

But Auto Attacks/ AOE is in no way a counter to stealth. Sure you can deal damage to stealthed thieves but its not a counter because you cannot negate stealth.

Besides grouping with your enemy (lol) there’s no counter to stealth. Sry bro!

Chukree.1756:

You can’t have survivabilty and GOOD damage at the same time. MOBILE STRIKES (the trait – makes you able to break immobilizes when you use a movement skill).. THIS is a trait you want, when you can’t cure every condition, or SHORT BOW (5) you away like Ele / thief, but you want SWEET REVENGE as well but you can’t have it! ’Cuz you want leg specialist as well and you want damage!

So you want a bunker build with high mobility + high damage? Sry bro, that would be too op. You cannot have it all. All professions have trade-offs.

GS Warrior is high damage + mobility, so are thieves. DD Ele instead is high bunker + mobility, but mediocre damage due to full PVT + Clerics + no damage traits.

IMO warrior has by far the best mobility in the entire game, but you have to trait for it. Pro tip: Immobilize is the best CC in-game, and warrior have awesome counters to it (mobile strikes, restorative strength).

Spacchiuso.5230:

Kormona.7156:

Stealth finishing is something i hope get removed.

While stealth the thief can take damage, knockback ecc… we don’t have access to stability while finishing… and what do u think for example for the Invulnerable Engi stomp with Elixir S?

at least you can see them stomping.

xKedge.5493:

I was talking of Ele daggers.. and I can get around 14+stacks of might on ele with 3 times the survivability of a thief and faceroll 3-4 people while i cant do that on a thief unless they bad.

No matter which ele you meant, your statements are plain wrong. Ele is the profession with the lowest HP + Toughness. But ele is forced to compensate by running full PVT + clerics.

So pls stop pretending thief has so few HP + toughness. The reason most thieves have lower HP + toughness is because they run full glass canon. The reaons is thieves – as the ONLY profession – dont have to rely on defensive stats because stealth is such a powerful defensive tool without any counter (aoe is no counter to stealth because it does not break stealth).

IComeInPeace.1768:

WvWvW reward system must incorparate a DAOC type reward system.

All 5 man groups get a 25% increase in WvWvW points. (aka realm points)

A rank 1 rated toon is worth 100 points. If the player is killed by 10 people who damaged him, they will recieve the points reative to the % of damage done.

Example: I solo and rank 1 person. I get 100 points
5 people kill the rank 1 person. I did 55% of the damage. I get 55 points
20 peopel kill the rank 1 person. I did 4% of the damage. I get 4 points

5 man partys get a 25% bonus only if under 10 people damage the target.

As you rank up your value is higher. Example: rank 5.5 = 155 points.

Good point, but you forgot a few things which are important:

1. Points should be splited evenly between party members (like in DAOC). Maybe this should be expanded to squads!? dunno.

2. Points should also be granted for other defensive actions, e.g. healing (like in DAOC). So when you heal someone who kills someone who is worth points, then a (small) portion of the points should go to the healer.

3. Killed players should not be worth any points for a period of time (e.g. 5-10 minutes) to prevent kill farming (like in DAOC).

OK. From my observations when using RTL to go over a floor bump you will move in a certain curve down to the floor. So its not possible to use RTL for jumping on the other side if both sides are on the same height level.

I havent tested RTL this way since last patch, if anything has been changed. My main is a warrior and Rush has always (since headstart) been like this whereas Leap can be used to actually jump in a horizontal direction.

Bast Bow.2958:

To me only D/D elementalists and thieves are kinda OP in WvW.
They are the only professions who can decide on their own when to enter or a leave a zerg, 1 v 1, or 1 v many and the other professions can’t do anything about it even if they have the upper hand in the fight. Other professions don’t have this capability. This makes them OP imo.
Thief does it with all it’s endless stealth.
D/D with it’s endless speed, healing power and condi removal

For D/D ele mobility is one skill namely RTL which can be easily countered by immobilize.

I really cant get it why everyone’s stating that d/d ele is uncatchable. I find my warrior is much more mobile with greatsword + sword leap + mobility skills & warhorn breaking any immobilizes. My ele has hard times breaking out of immobilize because the condi removal is just 1 condition at the same time. Its very easy to cloak immobilize with another condition.

People have to realize that immobilize is the single best form of CC in the entire game.

Im playing ele for 2 month now and never noticed any change in RTL. So what changes are you referring to exactly? Please be more precise. What was RTL before and when does it change?

Your post is extremely confusing because you posted it right after the last patch. Everyone excepts something about RTL has been changed in the LAST patch, but thats not the case.

Technically RTL is a Charge like the warriors rush skill. Charge is meant to travel fast, not to jump across obstacles. Thats what Leap is for like warriors Savage Leap or Eles Lightning Leap or Magnetic Leap.

Sure, leaping across obstacles is awesome fun, but as a trade-off Leaps are lower range than charges (600 vs 1200).

You cannot have it all. Get used to it.

xKedge.5493:

Do damage?

Most of the classes you mention can outlast a thief and even burst him.

Lets see..

Warrior/Guardian/Ele CC > thief CC
Warrior/Guardian/Ele HP > Thief Hp
Warrior/Guardian/Ele Though> Thief Though

Wrong. Ele has lowest HP + Toughness of all professions. The difference is most thieves run mostly glass canon whereas eles mostly run full PVT + clerics sacrificing ALOT of damage stats.

Thief is the only profession who can go mostly full glass canon without sacrificing to much defense due to stealth.

Oh wait, we shall use AoE, my fault… lol

The main problem about balancing in WvW imo are upscaled players. Those vids never show the average + involve mainly upscaled players. So you cannot generalize if something has to be toned down.

I’m no fan of upscaling in WvW. IMO it should be removed or toned down. Anet should make something like battlegrounds in DAOC for player levels 1-79 (smaller WvW like sandbox map), then restrict real WvW to level 80.

Heartseeker is the most annoying thing besides culling in WvW. Its not that big of a problem in 1vs1 but theres less you can do when you get jumped by a 2-2-2-2 thief in the middle of a fight.

I also noticed many thieves start running as a duo just spamming 22-22-22-22 from out of stealth. Awesome fun.

ATM heart seeker has it all: gap closer, decent damage, cheap/ repeatable. Remove 1 of 3 and its fine.

I can live with it. But what really annoys me is the sound effect of shocking aura. It sounds bad when used on your own, but its even more horrible when used with powerful auras on multiple allies.

After testing Conjured Greatsword Im pretty sure the damage is much higher than before.

However I cannot see any difference in Glyph of Elementals damage.

Kardiamond.6952:

they can solo group and if it gets ugly, they can just RTL away. Having AoE damage make really them efficient in those case.

Let me correct this sentence for you:

They can solo confuse groups by throwing in some AOEs which deal mediocre damage and then RTL away. Having mediocre AoE damage make them feel efficient without actually threatening anyone.

Devfede.6934:

Attunements cooldown are too short, Keep in mind they are 4.

In my humble opinion, that cooldown should be really extended.

Attunements already have trade-offs compared to other professions:

1. ele skills in general are on a much higher cooldown than other professions skills. you have to switch attunements to compensate for that.
2. ele doesnt have the opportunity to swap weapons. so if you run d/d you are forced to stay in melee range. you cannot swap to range weapons in combat like other classes.
3. attunement cooldown per default is at 15s compared to 10s weapon swap for other professions. most eles feel to be forced to trait 30 arcana for 9s attunement cooldown. Compare this to 5s weapon swap on warriors!?

Dont know about staff but in WvW my D/D ele rarely gets any loot/ badges because of mediocre single target damage. I get so much more badges with my warrior using either GS or Rifle.

paleeshi.1924:

teg.1340:

If you get bursted by a D/D ele, then you have to either stop running full glass canon or learn to dodge the right skills.

Yes indeed, it’s very easy to burst down a glasscanon theif. But then again, I don’t need to play D/D ele in order to do that.

sure, you dont need a d/d ele for that. d/d ele = mediocre damage. thats what I wanted to point out.

Firegoth.6427:

In most (all) cases the ele will remove any CC placed on him fairly easily and then escape.

While having plenty of stun breakers, ele is indeed very vulnerable to immobilize. All you need is timing. Use immobilize:

- after ele attunes out of water
- after ele uses a cantrip
- when ele uses RTL

Also try to cloak immobilize by applying another condition right after using immobilize. Most eles dont run with cleansing fire so they can only remove 1 condition at the same time.

Red Falcon.8257:

Currently the D/D build has the same burst power of a Thief

NEVER.

Bunker D/D is full PVT + clerics (= mediocre damage stats) + 30 arcana/ 30 water (= no damage stats) + all D/D burst skills are on huge cooldowns.

D/D damage is mediocre compared to many other professions.

If you get bursted by a D/D ele, then you have to either stop running full glass canon or learn to dodge the right skills.

lcc.9374:

My personal favorite

D/D ele 1v5-8 video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba8u9PBcdmo

since posting videos seems to be the trend in this thread

Wrong vid? This is not 1v5-8. Its 2 premades vs 10 mostly upleveled noobs + they use a mesmer portal to rezz themselves up. Great action though.

Waraxx.4286:

we bring a 80% uptime of fury to all party members ( in a organized party that is)
lets say the average party member have 25% increased crit dmg. by this fury we increase the party’s overall dmg with 0,2*0,8*0,75= 12%. and, yes, that is with a staff build.

1. its not 12% because other professions have access to fury too.
2. its not to all party members because the radius of powerful auras is extremely low
3. two warriors stack 6-12 x might + perma fury to all party members in a much larger radius than eles

Do you really complain about too much combo fields in PVE? You should be happy about each combo field set by a party member and just use your finishers.

My DD ele has 2 combo fields whereas my warrior got 1. Not that big of a difference.

RaynStargaze.6510:

Im saying ELE can do EVERYTHING – no class can do EVERYTHING this is not a matter of weapon swapping but as i can see you either dont want to understand and just troll or youre really just plain dumb

Ele cannot do everything either. DD ele doesnt have range damage. Bunker DD ele deals mediocre damage compared to other professions (due to full PVT, 30 water/ 30 arcana). Glass cannon ele is squishy as hell. And while having a wide range of different skills, those skills are on a much higher cooldown than other professions skills.

DD bunker ele is weak damage-wise. You have to outlast your enemies. Dont except to deal massive damage in a short period of time.

Try to master your dodges and attune to water as often as needed. Dont let your health drop to low. Try to avoid immobilizes. If you feel to weak use RTL defensively to disengage from combat instead of offensively.

Xynn.2748:

I know Eles are extremely strong.

PVP/WvW:

DD bunker ele has strong survivability + mobility and thats it. Damage is mediocre compared to other professions. Ele is forced to go full PVT armor where other professions can easily go for Knights (warrior) or just full Berserker (thief) without sacrificing too much defense. And ele is forced to go deep into arcana + water (again no damage).

So at the end its a trait-off. DD bunker ele sacrifices damage + range dps for survivability + mobility. The prob is people are complaining about dd ele without factoring in the trait-offs.

Its easy to just pop mist form, armor of earth + RTL away. But its extremely hard to actually kill decent enemies.

I had many 1vs1 vs decent thieves, mesmers, guardians or warriors in WvW which took FOREVER.

PVE:

Ele is far from strong.

etrigan.4213:

I’m hoping badges will be useful to either buy the gear or buy the prestige(with no badge sink).

The problem is your approach would punish all players who already have bought siege or exos for their badges.

IMO it would be better to use WvW achievements for a retrospective prestige bonus, e.g. convert WvW player kills into a certain amount of prestige. The problem is that WvW achievements are account-bound not char-bound.

@Biganorak – Great idea to reward server loyalty this way. But I dont think Anet will do something like that. I dont like server hopping (playing on the same server since head-start), but its sadly a valid feature of the game.

Hopefully we get an initial prestige bonus for playing WvW for month. But Im afraid we all start at zero. ;(

Every class is viable if played well. Though some classes are easier to play than others.

Some classes are superb solo roamer (1vs1) while others shine in group or zerg battles. So you can hardly compare one and another.

me im not.9357:

I played on a few servers before deciding on my tier 1 home.. and I think the strong opinions on AOE probably depend on which servers you’re playing on or against. At lower tiers, AOE isnt a problem. It’s useful and can be highly strategic in a way that is neither broken, imbalanced, or unfair.

The problem, I think, is what is just starting to happen on Tier 1 servers. If done properly, an AOE zerg absolutely will destroy much larger zergs in no time. Its happening right now, Ive seen it, tested it, had it done to me, used it against others— the point is it works…. very well… too well.

AOE needs to be brought down a peg… My solution—- Id suggest making it where not only can an AOE only hit a select few targets (we already have that), but that a player should also only be able to take damage from a 1-2 aoes at a time in addition to siege damage. That way AOEs can serve a purpose without being broken.

The main problem about it is culling not AOE damage. You can easily dodge out of AOE circles. You can easily position your own zerg that its not easily targetable by AOEs.

But in the current state you cannot do anything because the enemy zerg renders to late.

FIX CULLING BEFORE FIXING ANYTHING ELSE!!1

In DAOC RVR AOE was far more powerful. But it was part of the game, people have learned how to counter it (do not stand all in one place, use interrupts, use cc, …).

ComeAndSee.1356:

I get hit by Meteor showers for 2k-2.5k all the time and that’s with 3300 armor FYI. Multiple meteor showers in one spot can drop you fast. Almost 5k a second incoming damage.

Are you really complaining about being hit by 2k damage by a 4s channeling spell on a 30s cooldown? Now Ive heart everything… /facepalm

People just see how hard it is to kill a bunker dd ele due to RTL + healing and cry for nerfs. What they dont want to realize is that those bunker builds deal mediocre damage.

Hi,

I’m playing WvW-only since I hit 80 with my toon. After playing DAOC RVR for years this is the first MMORPG I’m really enjoying. But unlike the good-old DAOC time my played-time is very limited now (~1h a weekday, few hours on weekends).

I’m at 3000 player kills in WvW atm which took me forever. Also getting all full exo stuff on my 2 toons took sooo much time while playing WvW only. I’m really concerned that I once again have to start at ZERO with the upcoming WvW prestige update.

I mean all those 24/7 bandwagoners with their pve legendaries/ ascendants or rr40 spvp experience will join WvW once there’s progression to farm.

tldr; Any chances the upcoming WvW prestige update will be some kind of retrospective (factoring in the existing WvW achievements)?

I would really appreciate an official statement on that.

TIA

GS + Sword/Warhorn + bulls charge = 4 gap closers + perma swiftness

thats enough.

Daendur.2357:

hidden thieves reviving someone can also be hit by single target attacks.

nop you cant. single target skills actually need a target. the majority of melee skills is cone aoe, not single target.

try to hit an invisible target e.g. with any rifle shot (warrior). its impossible.

Whats wrong with AOE damage in the current state of the game? I really cant get it. Its like Anet plays another game than I do.

IMO AOE is not to strong, its to weak (because of the 5 target limit). I really cant get the logic behind it. In WvW siege weapons can hit up to 50 targets but a player skill is limited to 5 targets and hits for pathetic damage? What about professions which are entirely focused around AOE damage?

Im speechless because this lets me loose faith in Anet.

I really cant get it. Whats the prob with AOE damage? Am I playing another game like Anet?

In WvW AOE spell damage is pathetic compared to siege weapons and single target burst classes. My rifle warrior hits for 8k+ with volley every 8s on 1200 range. My d/d eles fire grab crits for 4k every 45s on burning targets. lol

Sure, mobility + healing is great on my d/d ele. But it takes me FOREVER to actually kill anyone in WvW. When they nerf aoe damage (aka 99% of our spells) there’s no reason to use damage spells at all.

Sifu.6527:

When I said set rotation, I mean rotation like these.

RTL—->updraft
BS——>ROF/DB
MS—->EQ
Water to heal

When to use them is up to the player. Nonetheless, a set rotation like any other (e.g. 100B+WA).

this whole “rotation” takes ~8s and is repeatable after 45s due to high cooldowns on updraft and earthquake. whats next?

I dont see the point of this thread. Sure a bunker DD ele has high mobility and high survivability. But thats it.

1. Mobility: Nothing special here. Other professions got it too. Warriors traited in GS + Sword/WH have 3 gap closers + perma swiftness. Thieves are extremely mobile too. DD Ele has RTL. Get used to it.

2. Survivability: Bunker DD ele is 100% specced for defence and sacrificies damage for it. Its a trait off. Bunker DD eles deal mediocre damage. They are traited 30/30 in water/arcana which are defensive trait lines (no damage). They put on full PVT/clerics (again no damage despite power). And they generally use 3 cantrips as utilities (again no damage).

Kibbles.9813:

This is the frustrating part for a player facing a D/D Elementalist, really; between Mist Form, Shocking Aura, Frost Aura, RTL and constant Regeneration there’s no way to actually pin them down and hit them for long enough to cause any threatening amount of damage unless you invest heavily into burst, which in turn leaves you as a vulnerable glass cannon that can simply be outlasted after the initial strike.

All of those powerful ele skills (except RTL) are on high cooldowns.

Earthquake: 45s
Updraft: 40s
Mist form: 75s
Armor of Earth: 90s
Lightning Flash: 45s
Churning Earth: 30s
Fire Grab: 45s
Cleansing Wave: 45s
Frost Aura: 40s
Shocking Aura: 25s

Got it? Ele has 20 skills but the downpart is those skills are on much higher cooldowns. Get used to it.