Guild Wars 2

Regarding DE you have a strong point there (I’d also add far reaching manipulation which I love) so it’s not easy dropping any of those traits. However, you cannot deny that although a phant build doesn’t want to override its phantasms, more clones can always help in terms of shatter fodder and/or damage/survivability. Especially considering your phantasms do not have high HP pool and can die easily. You also picked assassin amulet which is kind of risky if you allow me. So, if you agree, I’d like to keep discussing about various options that can apply to this build.

I was thinking swapping pistol/sc for GS. This way you can drop pistol trait and pick up DE. I can’t remember watching any of your videos with you using a GS. Yet… GS can offer so much in terms of damage. Also, since I find myself comfortable enough with sw/focus I’d go with that. But there are no dazes in those two sets. That’s why I’d pick Harmonius mantra for three dazes. Are three dazes + F3 worth going so deep in dom tree for CS? I think so. Between the pull from curtain, iwave and those dazes you can really shutt down someone.

I understand the build may be, if not totally, rather different from yours but the hard hitting phantasms + CI are there, so… Thoughts?

@ Ross

I have not much else to add on top of what’s been already wrote except that your build is exactly the same I used till few days ago. Only difference is amulet/runes/sigil and DE. I did enjoyed it indeed but went back to the safer 4/4/6. CI kind of forces me to use OH sword which I do not particularly like.

One thing I did try in the past which works great in some situations and less in others is improved signet trait and swap feast for ether and abuse the double phantasm you can get from the very beginning of the fight, especially the 1200 range duelist. The amont of pressure is unbelievable and should get you past the 30s when the heal is back. I agree this approach is not for everyone

There you go! I knew there was something about thieves downed #1

SlimChance.6593:

Since the randomness of CS is something you have to deal with, my suggestion is to maximize those daze’s as much as possible. Run Staff

This is something which doesn’t make much sense to me. I mean, if you really cannot stand the RNG factor, why insisting on it? I did think of staff, but staff doesn’t guarantee a daze. Moreover daze will not guarantee a stun. That’s why I opted for pistol: guaranteed stun. Also, more pressure from the phantasm. As much as I like staff, here I am looking for disabling the enemy. Here is how my rotation looks like: Daze from mantra, daze from sword, daze from mantra, swap, stun from pistol, immob. from sword. If I pick harmonious mantras I still have a charge left. In team fights it is a killer.
Anyway, I need to run the build a little longer for more feedback and I will surely take staff in case I notice the need for a defensive weapon.

SlimChance.6593:

As far as runes go, you might try Runes of Air

I am using it it’s in the sw/p set with sigil of fire. It’s my burst set and it works great.

However, my biggest debate is: is harmonius mantras more important than BI? Will I benefit more from 3 mantra charges or from the boons I get from interrupt procs? Thoughts?

Lifestealer.4910:

Are people seriously complaining

I don’t even..

As already said, I am not.
But the OP pointed at one thing that I am sure everyone experienced: using #2 hoping for a rally or a hand from an ally, and instead you get teleported in a middle of a aoe.

I did mention about #2 randomness, and sometimes it teleports you on a safe spot. But as you know, bad things weight more than the good ones and so ppl complain about it.

@Carighan
I dunno, it must be something to do with the base attack coefficient because (some) thieves do hurt even in downed state. Is there a trait that improve downed state damage perhaps? Because I recall some fights where the thief was able to down me from downed. Eventually he died since I managed to deal damage while he was downed and so my #2 and #3 saved me (lol). But again, some thieves seems to have #1 boosted

I think you should decide which style you want to play first, be it power, condition or hybrid. You say confusion, which leads me to think you want condition (also based on your gear choice). If this is the case, than you do not need to go down 6 into illusion and pick up Illusionary Persona because it is a power trait, actually THE trait for power shatter builds.

Blinding defuddlement is not worth taking after the big nerf it got a year ago. If you want to go 4 points in illusions I’d take illusionary elasticity which is great with staff. Master of misdirection is ok.

You spent 6 points in chaos for a trait that no one (or very few) uses. In the grand master slot you’d better go for Prismatic understanding which gels extremely well with torch and will give you much more survivability. After all you will not use shatters as your main source of damage and thus Bountiful Disillusionment would be wasted.

At this point you have 4 points. You spent 2 for mender’s purity which is ok, but the majority of builds go 4 in dueling for deceptive evasion, which is so important for memsers because it creates clones on dodge and thus giving you fodder for debilitating dissipation in chaos.

As far as utilities I’d recommend decoy (goes well with Prismatic) and one condition removal. The third utility can be portal if you really like it (but it needs some training for maximizing its full potentials) or blink, very useful, or mirror. The healing could be Signet of the Ether or Feast which is by far the most popular. Mirror is ok but will not heal you much.

All in all the build coulkd look like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhMQNAW7PlknpRtFqhatRsNGTfhKQ5QHVyAGG-TFSHABMfBAq9JA4muhc3fgR1fuTJ4RK/A4gAEAABYmzMZWmBDdoDdoDdoNzZOzZOzZWKgJVWB-w

I left blank where you have a multiple choice (chaos master trait can be Chaotic Dampening, Mirror or Anguish or Bountiful Interruption), third utility and Elite which could be mass invisibility which again, goes well with PU

After a period where I have (again) been using lockdown 4/4/6, I must admit CI is always fun to play. Well, the lockdown style is fun, I should say.

But I feel CI misses something… I dunno you guys, but when it procs it’s like a big smile on your face. But then? You haven’t won anything, you gained the advantage of interrupting and nailing down the opponent, but whether you capitalize that hedge is a different story… The 2 ½ sec of immob. is equal to the duration of 1-2 skills and only full shatter Mesmers can bring down (or get close) a tank, or any other profession tankier than a glass build. But the foe is still able to perform actions other than moving. Ok, blind and those conditions that come with it surely help. Yet…
Let us not mention that there are professions which are harder to interrupt than others (thieves and engies come to mind). And interrupting key skills isn’t so straight-forward vs competent players.

Although I have been having a good degree of success (and fun) with it, that feeling is there and won’t let me alone. Until… I decided to try CS (again). And I think I found what I was looking for.

I think that CS disrupts someone’s playing more than CI does and thus it counters those professions, which were difficult to deal when I was using CI. No need to effectively interrupt a skill… just cast a daze to have a 1 out of 2 chance to stun. Although only 1 sec it’s enough to break someone’s flow/patterns/combos, especially because you can chain it.

Ok, I am not here to explain what all of ya know very well, but I wanted to contribute with my experience. Moreover, I would like your opinion on the build which I have been using during the past weeks:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQRAsa7clknpGtlpxUNMrNipxYybih0B0wAlskxB-TpBFwACeAAOOCA12fYxBBoaZAAnAAA

And now with the questions.
Is it better 6/6/x/x/x with CS + harmonious mantras or 6/4/4 with CI+BI?
What is your experience with CS?
I never tried Mesmer runes. Is the 33% longer daze worth?
Would I benefit more from blade training or phant. fury (in wvw I run with longer blink)

Thanks to whoever can help me out with this

Fay.2357:

trooper.2650:

I just wish #1 coul deal more damage. I some time feel I am tickling the enemy with it whereas some professions can really hurt. Does anyone know how the downed skills scale with power?

People seem to think that the downed skills should hit hard, or have oomph, or idk…be in general useful? Being downed is not a good thing. You are being punished when you get downed. You’re on your last chance. The purpose of the downed skills is as follows:

1. Do barely enough damage to finish off something that was low and you had almost killed
2. Avoid a stomp in PvP
3. An unspecified but fairly strong effect, since you should usually not get to cast this

That’s all. 1 isn’t supposed to deal damage. 2 isn’t supposed to instantly save you. 3 isn’t supposed to instakill everything nearby. The skills are simply designed to just barely give you a fighting chance.

What you say is fine by me. However, what I see is that thieves (some of them) can drop you down to downed state from half HP by using their #1. When a 1v1 fight finishes in both parts downed, you know already how it will end up depending on which profession you are facing: necro and you are dead, warriors will stand back up and finish you off, hunters will have their pet to rescue them.

Tbh I do not really care and I am far from complaining. But I find frustrating being teleported in a middle of an aoe when the skill is supposed to help. On the other hand I sometimes got teleported on a safe spot, even on a different level where I could heal up, but that happened very seldom. All in all a bit of fairness would be welcome

I dusted off feedback and it worked most of the times. Than I swapped it in favour of Mantra of Distraction (more flexible). Dropped decoy since it won’t save you form their channeled burst. Mirror blade+F3 shoould help you. Also blink+iwave is good but you end up burning 2 skills in one go which can be useful in a prolonged fight. But Sticker covered it nicely. Follow his instruction and you will see some improvement

I just wish #1 coul deal more damage. I some time feel I am tickling the enemy with it whereas some professions can really hurt. Does anyone know how the downed skills scale with power?

skcamow.3527:

StickerHappy.8052:

Yes, i know a lot of these stuff already,. I’m asking like what if the competition is now with really skilled players, how can I pull of shatters really well?

The blink shatter works for unsuspecting foes, without them seeing you first, if they manage did see you first they can count, and dodge or block the incoming shatter.

Any new tips on surprising foes or landing shatters really well?

I like using my Gs5 blink push, I think not all people are expecting that.

The issue is that we need more ways to root opponents to land shatters. Since iLeap/Swap isn’t always reliable and very predictable, you could try playing a stun/shatter build. So you run the typical 4/4/0/0/6 but with sw/p and signet of domination. Now you have iLeap/Swap and two stuns at your disposal with which to more frequently land shatter combos. I understand pistol #5 and signet of dom are rather slow, but with two stuns, you’ll be able to overcome most builds which typically take one stun break.

That is interesting, but the problem (which is the same I find when running lockdown) is the need to have a boon-stripping utility. Shattering Concentrations is sometimes not enough to clear stability when needed. Maybe it’s just me, but if stab is buried down by other boons, shattering once may not succesfully strip it and your pistol or signet will be useless. So, you end up with one slot for boonstripping, one for MoD/SoD and one for blink/decoy, which is fine by me but can be a problem for others who want both decoy and blink.

I personally ditched sword in favour of double ranged and I am very happy with it.

Mine is so handsome…

Me too, I loved the old mimic. I haven’t even tried the new one simply because I do not like the mesmer support/boon/share type of play style.

Saying that, I did try to replace it with feedback and worked well enough for me. Ok, competent players will move out of it but the skill, depending on how and where you move, will grant a neat 6 seconds of area denial. The way I use it is cast on player, if they move out you run around it, keeping the bubble always between yourself and the enemy. If I am approacing a defendend node, I would cast the bubble on the player, said ranger will most likely move out of it. At this point I just blink in it, decapping the node. There is nothing they can do to you uless they go melee and you should be prepared for that and iwave them out of it.

The new mimic helped me to dust off this great utility althought it has to compete with decoy/blink/condi removal, but this is the same issue with the old mimic so, not a “new” problem.

But I understand that the OP was referring to the pve side of the game, and I couldn’t agree more with. My feeling is that the change was done because of the buff to the rangers, which is crazy. I never seen a game where a profession was buffed and another was nerfed because of it. ANet tried to water it down a bit by advertizing the revamp of mimic under the build diversity label. Ok, but what I do not understand is why other professions were not affected by this change. Engineers come to mind, for example.

I usually do not go on forums and complain about changes. I always thought the devs, whatever game I am playing know more than I do. But this and the lag problems experienced in the past few months! left me wondering about ANet.

All in all this is a poor and bad decision.

Amazing play. One of the best I haver ever seen. Congratz!

kodesh.2851:

I also like 4/4/0/0/6. However, I think 0/4/4/0/6 is even stronger. With bountiful interruption, might on swap, shatter etc, it’s easy to get 25 stacks up fast. The weakness on chaotic dissipation is quite handy as well.

-Sizzap

In terms of damage, I always wondered whether the loss of the dom tree can be made up by BI. You loose vulnerability from minor traits (however mitigated by debilitating dissipation), 200power (easily replaced by 5-6 stacks of might), and two very nice traits like halting strike/mental troment and shattering concentrations above all.

In return you get a lot of might and a random boon IF you interrupt. Interrupting is not granted, though. Only might from shattering is. Runes can help in stacking might ofc. So, it’s a sort of ramp up dps increase.

All in all I think you still end up being more aggressive by going domination. By chosing Chaos is more of a “secure” play style although 200 armor and some defensive boons won’t save you from those glass builds out there.

StickerHappy.8052:

Im bored, anyone have unique or new builds i could test? this is for spvp btw.

So am I. I can’t wait for news on future patches/new skills/etc.

Does anyone have leaks, forums to lurk etc? There’s nothing on reddit…
I think it could be time to have an exp pack. Ok, the Living Story is nice and all but there is nothing that keeps me excited like theorycrafting on new builds and frankly the game started lacking lately. All the builds are there and have been tested extensively.

Need new stuff!

I never thought I could quit a game because of lag. The game is so laggy it’s no even funny. It actually makes me cry! I am fine with devs not answering to all the people crying for nerfs or buff/balancing issues… but this is the core of the game.. connection problems!

I have already posted my screenshot as required by the devs but I’d like to hearing from Anet what they are gonna do about it.

A speed check confirmed my internet is fine. But the game lags as hell. The funny thing is that I am able to play from various hotels around Europe (with wifi) better than I can do from my own home (20Mb download/10Mb upload)

Please, give us some feedback! At least tell me if it’s me or the game (but by the number of ppl complaining I’d bet is the game)

Hi guys. Just throwing out this build to you.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQRArf7KlkntMNOohbtRwNmTqGU/jnKZA/C-TJRAABAcSAYa/hofCAlVGAA

I left blank whatever traits/utility you may choose.
A neat 2k condi damage will frighten anyone (I had people whispering me my conditions were scary ). It could also be further improved by adding the corruption on kill sigil but I dislike it and prefered the bursting one.
It’s kind of an unconventional build since it uses scepter in both weapon sets and thus it requires you to spend a bit of time to adapt. Believe me.. it’s a killer of a build.

However, I agree with whoever is supporting the DD trait: having enemies killing your clones will dismantle any MtD unless you pick DD. Personally I prefer having crippling dissipations too and thus my favourite build so far is 2/4/2/0/6.

Saying that, I believe standard shatter is still superior and thus I don’t see myself using MtD on a regular basis.

Location: Italy
Time and date: 22:00 – 28/10/14
Aurora Glade
Description: 1-10 seconds lag anywhere (mist/wvw/pve) skills activating 2-5 seconds late.
Situation seems improving late night. Never experienced it before (been happening in the past 2-3 weeks)
Tried connection speed test and ping is 21. downlad 20Mb. upload 3Mb. I cannot get higher than that in my area. Seems a GW2 problem only.

Amir.1570:

Shatter Mesmer isn’t as kittened as before now that everything else is broken.

But Shatter Mesmer is still a very brainless spec. People really love to mask their low skill through this class. Can’t count a Mesmers dodges but Mesmers count other people’s dodges with ease.

What?

messiah.1908:

condi shatter tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi-5sY32_cg&list=UUcWnMDLv7r7EikeaBypE8tQ

No offense intended, and I appreciate your effort, but I was looking for a video to show maim potentialities (I am curios about incoming maim buff too). Instead, what I got is a reminder why I am not running it… dragging slow fights, low damage and no mobility. No thanks, I think I will stick to IP unless the buff will turn out to be a huge boost to shatter condi.

It is now working as intended (GW2 was running as admin so I had to disable that).

However, when right clicking for changing view (especially in a frenzy situation) it acts in the same way as the standard pointer: sometimes it disappears. Fortunately, when coming back, it is much easier to spot it because of it’s size and colour.

Thank you for your help

Fay.2357:

This build comp sorta backfired when we didn’t adjust it for the double engie (turrets) comp, but it worked great for a normal team.

Looking back, what would you have changed if you knew about the double turret engies?

Condition based builds shouldn’t have compounding power (Illusions III) since you rely on conditions to deal damage (not affected by the trait) This leads to a swap in weapons. Change sword for scepter and perhaps (but not 100% necessary) focus for eaither pistol/aggressive play style or torch which is not the best for point holding.

If you go for scepter, compounding power needs to be changed in master of misdirection V.

For the rest it looks solid. Only thing I would consider double sigil of energy intead of generosity

I forgot, change desperate decoy for fantasmal fury in the dueling line.

The V.8759:

What if…It was ground target?

This

Well, although I agree with what MSfone wrote I have to say that I liked the intro, the effects you added, the post processing. I cannot say anything about music because I do not have sound at work.

Regarding the gameplay I think you recorded too many fights vs uplevel players.
Last fight with the thief was nice. To be fair yes, the veteran tree did damage him in the end but it was a bit of a pain for Draxx too having the npc around, since he received some damage along the fight and got even rooted.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

TYPES OF LOCKDOWN MESMER

Confounding Suggestion (6/4/4/0/0) : Shares the same role as CI, but instead of focusing on interrupts, Confounding Suggestions encourages chaining dazes/stuns one after another to keep the opponent shut down.

Although it says 6/4/4/0/0, the linked build is actually a 6/6/0/2/0

I tried running yolomouse both as non admin and admin but didn’t work.

I red somewhere yolomouse should be started after launching the game but while I was messing around with it I accidentaly deselected “show menu on tray”. Now I cannot get it back so I cannot choose when to start it, since it is set to start with windows.

I tried uninstall it but didn’t work. I cannot get it back to the tray menu.

It may be usefull to know that I am using a gaming mouse. Is there any setting I should be turning on/off both in the windows and mouse panel?

thanks for feedback. Question.
I log in and do nothing but leave the cursor right in the middle of the screen, where there is only grass and trees, for example. I press the key combo but nothing happens. I select a target, put the mouse on top of it press the key combo and nothing happens. Am I doing it right?

I am in full screen mode. Should I switch to windows fullscreen mode?

I installed yolomouse and it works while I am on the desktop but not when on GW2. While playing, cursor does not change and stays with GW2 default one.

On yolomouse website you can choose betweek 32bit and 32/64bit versions. I opted for the latter. Should I install the 32bit only?

Keys for changing pointer are ctrl+shift+alt+1..9. My shift key is binded to autorun. Could this be a problem?

CptTrips.6512:

maybe this can help you:

http://pandateemo.github.io/YoloMouse/

at first I though you were winding me up
Than I went to check youtube and saw many using it giving high rate. They called it “life saver”.

I think I will give it a go.

Thanks!

I never experienced this problem in any other game I have played but I often lose track of the Mouse pointer. Is there any setting that can help with this? Does anyone ever experienced this?

Hi Xiao,

I always love your montage. They add a bit of depth too

I noticed you used staff in a couple of fights but if I recall well you are always with sword/torch, even in previous videos. Are you switching or was it a temporary change?

Also, you used null field. Don’t you find MoR better for this role?

Keep it up ^^

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQRAsc7dlknpItlpxRNcrNCrxg6sG7MSOQAlsirB-TpBBABA8AA04gAU0+DkXGYjjAAEnAAA

In the link, the build I have been using since patch. Feedback: so much fun

As you may expect it is glassy, very glassy but I do not mind dying a little more if I can kill more and faster. Ultimately, I found that a very aggressive play style can counter thieves way better than many other tactics.

• Question 1.
  How do you see scepter in a shatter build?
  As you see, I decided not to use any 2H weapons. This leaves me with 2 main hand weapons: sword an scepter. I thought about keeping MH sword for the two weapon sets but this would force me to drop far reaching manipulation in favor of blade training to have faster access to sword skills when swapping set. But I cannot do without manipulation trait any longer… it saved me so many times.

• Question 2
  In the illusion tree I am debated between compounding power, masterful reflection and precise wrack. Which of the three traits is better for this build?

• Question 3
  In the domination tree, I’d like halting strike. Is this trait subpar to mental torment and shattered concentration considering I can do a fair amount of interrupts with the chosen weapons?

• Question 4
  I want to max my damage at its highest. Which sigils/runes would you advice? Runes of the pack have the nifty +125 precision bonus which I like but I was wondering if runes with precision/ ferocity (eagle/ranger) or ferocity (air/rage) would not boost my damage more considering the amulet I am wearing.

• Question 5 (not necessarily related to shatter)
  Can you advise how to avoid loads of conditions when a necro is getting close to you? What is the skill which suddenly covers me with 5-6 conditions? How to avoid an engi pull+conditions unload? Is the pull timed or does it need to be activated like our temporal curtain? Can it be dodged?

Thank you

I noticed that too. Not that I rely on it for cleansing conditions but it does proc more often now

I used the same weapons set but I dropped pistol and picked up focus (I haven’t seen iWarden fail once since patch).

As many have said closing gap is essential. I start casting the iwarden and blink in to it and carry on with usual combos ileap/blurred frenzy/shatter.
Than swap to gs+hydromancy+mirror blade+shatter and iWave to purposely create a gap. This make them want to use Rapid Fire. Since I like reflect a lot (I find it amusing) and since mimic isn’t what it used to be (and don’t feel dropping decoy/blink or an utility for conditions), I opted for masterful reflection. Ok, it is situational, but it works vs thieves, warriors and engi too. So I traded a bit of damage for watching others killing themselves!

I totally agree. I did like the old mimic a lot and now I am forced to use Masterful Reflection because of the crappy revamp.

I suspect they did it because of the Ranger new skill. But if so, and I agree this is a naughty thought, why they didn’t just give us a skill similar to engis or warriors which would block any attack for the same duration rather than reflecting them, if they thought it was too powerful?

Promoting build diversity by giving a bad copy of AT? Whoever understand ANet deserves a cookie…

I haven’t tried all the updates but here is my impression on what I run so far:

Mind Stab. Anet opted for an easy tweak but it worked. It is now much easier to use and it does good damage. Further improvements could have been done but so far so good. Thumb up

iLeap. It feels odd not having the clone trying to run to the target but the change is welcome. Sword is in a better spot now, but the clone can still die easily and the bug fix Anet did a month ago still looms heavily on it. It works, but I miss the old iLeap

Illusionary Elasticity. I quickly tried it and clones benefit from it. Not using staff in my build right now but it is defenitely a buff. Thumb up

Mimic. Tbh I prefer the old version. I miss the reflect more than echo effect. Thumb down

Mantras. Not running mantras except for the condi cleanse one. I guess they are good changes for whoever is using them. Any feedback? I guess a thumb up here too.

Scepter. I run in to few mesmers running conditions. I dunno if they were terribad but I did not have any problems whatsoever (running standard shatter build GS/sw+pstl). Feedback on this big torment thing guys?

Please add your experience too. It may help to identify what’s working and can be used and what to stay away from.

Cheers!

Great video Joe. I don’t particularly like the giant head, but technically it’s a very good video.

I see you run with Illusionary invigoration. Will you swap it for Illusionary Elasticity after 09/09 patch? I am sure you are happy about the sword change, but is there anything else you will take from the update? (i.e. one of the updated mantras or mimic)

Ty

Aluren.1896:

Guess I’m also up for a try! Though I feel like I’ve seen you in WvW before at least 6+ months ago and I ended up getting destroyed by this Charr Mesmer…

it could have been Joe who is more of a wvw player. Warlord is a more of a tpvp player but correct me if I am wrong

StickerHappy.8052:

trooper.2650:

StickerHappy.8052:

Wait, so what if i just move away from the pull and warden? So the warden wont hit you. It will be a loss in dps.

Whether you like it or not when you choose to go with focus you have to take in to account that iwarden can fail (lets hope it will be defenitely fixed within next patch) and I am sure you already know this and that even if it doesn’t fail it still can miss a good chunck of its dps if summoned without a means for rooting the target. It can still absorb projectiles though, so it is not completely useless…

ah i see, but i was curious to know the reason why choose focus over pistol in duels?

the duelist is more reliable bec of the range. the stun is good too albeit a little bit clunky to aim at melee range the focus pull. Now lets say if warden threw away his axes at a foe, then I might consider focus over pistol, or is the focus just for personal preference?

I guess the strong point of focus for me is the pull because pulling all phantasms of your foe interrupts them simultaneously, and will lead to a huge dps loss of your foe.

In a duel I’d say pistol is better but it is a personal preference ofc. Focus cc is aoe and it’s one of the reasons if not the very reason ppl go for it. The others are swiftness and absorbing/reflecting projectiles.

StickerHappy.8052:

Wait, so what if i just move away from the pull and warden? So the warden wont hit you. It will be a loss in dps.

Whether you like it or not when you choose to go with focus you have to take in to account that iwarden can fail (lets hope it will be defenitely fixed within next patch) and I am sure you already know this and that even if it doesn’t fail it still can miss a good chunck of its dps if summoned without a means for rooting the target. It can still absorb projectiles though, so it is not completely useless…

StickerHappy.8052:

Hi Chaos and Rylock,

I have a question for you guys, you guys use focus pull right? so with CI thats 2.5 secs, is it worth it with warden because only how many hits does it connect with the duration? since it attacks in melee range

This is assuming sword 3 is on CD. I am just curious with the lockdown with CI and warden, not the fact that it is an AoE interrupt.

What you say it’s true only if you summon the warden after doing the pull.

I think a good way of landing most of warden’s attacks is to cast the curtain first, start summoning the warden and do the pull just before the warden is summoned. This way the phantasm will appear right next to the enemy where he gets pulled giving him the time to land all his hits if the enemy got rooted by CI or landing most of the hits if you fail at interrupting any skill, but still knocking the target down. The time he gets up and move away is enough for the warden to do most of his job.

Curtain doesn’t last very long so you must be swift with the sequence.

Thank you Swimsasa, I appreciate your post. And I’m kind of relieved to learn that starting in air is correct. After all I have the feeling that Air is among the weak if not the weakest attunement for a staff ele (aside from skill #5 which makes for a perfect opening). The other skills are ok but not as nice as those from other attunements… or maybe it’s just me which I fail to fit #2 and #3 in any proper combo. I like the bouncing of #1 but the damage is extremely weak.

Anyway, I have another question for you, or whoever feels like answering.
It’s about healing skills. What are the pros and cons of our available heals for a staff elementalist? Why are so many using AB and how does it work properly? The damage seems negligible but I reckon the value of this skill is the extra heal you get when hitting many opponents. But I struggle casting the heal when surrounded by many so… it is kind of weird concept isn’kitten Or maybe I should just cover myself with stability first… but it’s not always possible

I am infact debated between using AB or the signet (better for pve maybe?) or ER.
What’d you say?

sorry for hijacking the thread but since you are talking about conjured weapons… are there any goods ones to be used in pvp for a staff ele? I particularly like the bow and the shield… are they viable or not worth the slot? Finally is it possible to drop the weapon before it runes out of charges?

So, while I am leveling with a mix of scrolls and open world to get the feeling, I have been trying things here and there but somehow I am more attracted by staff. I really like it.

For now I mainly stick to pvp. WvW would be a waste of time since I do not have the gear nor the experinece. Do you have builds/gear/tips and tricks to share? I am trying to get used to the various combos but which attunement do you mainly start off with or it is rather dictated by the situation or the profession you are facing each time?

I do not feel comfortable to go full glass yet, so for now I am on celestial amulet and a build that looks like this

Any improvment that can be made?

Dahir.4158:

@Swimsasa, I might try this in pvp. Not really a fan of it but if there’s nothing to do I guess I could give it a go.

Using staff for the lols
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5qugdFSuso

I love this. What’s the build please?

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

you in EU? you can add me if you want a day of tips and tricks in pvp.

yes I am. I will do so, thanks!

I tried 02066, with Soldier amulet (not sure of the choice). Used Signet of resto, Lighting flash, Mist, Cleansing Fire and Glyph of Elementals.
Traits:

I
III, IX, XI
II, VI, XI

Although I have much to learn I already feel quite confortable but my first impression is that it lacks of sustained damage. The burst and cc is ok. There is a form of cc in all attunements which I really like, but I feel that I am doing a lot of… nothing, really. Especially vs certain professions which you cannot facetank and thus melee range should be avoided. So, you unload and move out and often it’s enough to let them recover.

I really like fire, lighting and water but earth (especially #5 which can be good but it’s so situational) is a bit meh. Is there a primary attunement or I am supposed to keep switching according to the situation?

I main a mesmer and don’t recall having problems with d/d eles. But I have been amazed by unkillable elementalists which were able to kite (and eventually stomp 1 or 2) few players around during long fights. Were those players staff eles? Which builds/gear allow such survivability and damaging potentials?

Thanks

I guess I’ll have enough to learn to keep keep me busy for a while

Thank you guys!

Just started an elementalist (25) but aside the attunements and the various weapons skills I unlocked and which I am trying to be confortable with I know nothing. Talking about traits and gear.

Main purpouse is pvp and wvwn (not so much zergs but rather roaming, if possible with this profession). Right now I’m doing exploration in open world to get the feeling.

Any suggestion?