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I find it interesting that all discussions of Scepter vs. Dagger Main Hand assume Dagger Off Hand as a given. I agree that Scepter could use some love, but Focus seems to be the real weak link in the Elementalist arsenal right now… if I had to rank combos based on observed popularity, it would go:
D/D
Staff
S/D
S/FI have never seen anyone playing D/F, aside from the times I’ve tried it and confirmed for myself that it’s not a very elegant combo.
i run d/f a lot. i love the ranged control, anti ranged, and extra way to tank/stomp with the earth invuln. that said, it seems to work best in either a glass cannon setup where u get good aoe sustain from the dagger and the focus to keep them off of u / CCed, or with a condition/survive setup focussing on burns
scepter is far from uncompetitive, a lot of top paid tpvp eles run s/d. the blinds are powerful, with single target dps in air and some aoe in fire. water is a good healing attunement in this setup, and poppin into earth for some toughness or a blind aint bad
I don’t think this game has enough time online to be real competitive (like starcraft), people (even top players) are still learning and changing his ways of play. So i prefer to stick to numbers. + there is something I already said: maybe you can own 1vs50 with scepter and suck 20 v 3 with dagger, ability, fitting into the right team composition etc… are many of the factors that can be included. But that doesn’t mean the weapon is still balanced. xD (in fact, i think focus is far worse)
i can not argue that i prefer main hand dagger to sceptre, but just saying it is competitive. it just has more defense than main hand dagger, and it has burst, but its a bit harder to land. the thing is, it’s all at range. so of course your numbers will be less cause u can do them from farther away
that said, i cant dissagree more about the focus as well. one of my favorite setups that ive made a few builds around is d/f. the focus is a defense and control weapon.
which leads me to the main problem i have with your argument. you’re comparing apples to oranges with your math. you’re comparting a close range aoe burst weapon to a mid/long range offensive/defensive hybrid weapon. and then u go on to bash focus which is a control/defensive weapon. they all do different things at different ranges.
i will agree that the daggers offer a nice set of skills, and is probably the easiest to pickup, but they are all close range damage spells (with 1 mobility and 1 heal/cleanse). both scepter and focus perform just fine and at range if you’re running a build/setup that makes good use of the skills. it seems like you want all of our weapons to be purely damage and have more or less equal skills
i could definately handle that level of complexity, and it would def be overpowered. tho, maybe it would be cool if we could choose 1 weapon with no swap, or 2 attunements wed have access to combined with swap. same number of skills, but more combos
scepter is far from uncompetitive, a lot of top paid tpvp eles run s/d. the blinds are powerful, with single target dps in air and some aoe in fire. water is a good healing attunement in this setup, and poppin into earth for some toughness or a blind aint bad
yeah the thing that is tricky about ele is all the AOE damage. which needs to be less than single target to be balanced. which means from bunker to balanced builds, our damage isnt all that great… it can be good with lucky crits and if the team is bunched up, but u really need to spec offense in some way to put out damage which leaves us pretty squishy, which is balanced
sure we have a lot of active survival tools across 25 or so skills, but we need all of those at the right time to manage a fight. the first 20 games or so of ele i played i thought they were underpowered. after 400+, i think they’re about right
for pvp, make sure to check the weapon/armor/item vendors in the mists. the weapon and armor ones sell sigils and runes for armor respectively, that allow you to upgrade/customize further. then the other one sells amulets, which have a couple of stats on it. the amulet u wear is key to your build (ie, berzerkers is a dps amulet, shaman a tanky amulet, etc). soldiers amulet will prolly be your friend early on, as well as a stun break and possibly invulnerability skill to start out.
if you do try out tournies, actively try to take new objectives or hold old ones, versus simply standing with a teammate on a node where there is no fighting happening and hes guarding it
Here’s a good tip:
If you want to kill a d/d elementalist, bring a necromancer into your group. All those boons you see? Instant gone and converted into conditions etc etc.
depends on the elementalist. eles can have more or less condition immunity if they want to go for it. the entire water line has condition removes. ether renewal will remove like 6+ conditions on a 15 second cd. many of our skills and utilities also remove conditions by default or when traited
edit: the real way to kill an ele is CC. if they cant use their heals/utilities they go down very quick
hahaha this post is funny to me. about a month ago when i switched my main from ranger to ele, seemed like there were posts everywhere about eles being underpowered. i joked to my friend how i seem to enjoy the least effective classes the most lol. and in the past month, all theyve done is get nerfed.
maybe the nerfs made more people try D/D from staff, or maybe as people fought more good eles more people wanted to try it. i definately have seen more eles around in the past month. and */d eles in bunker or even soldiers gear can be pretty formidable, especially 1v1.
that said, they are definately no overpowered. if they run bunkery, they pretty much sacrifice any damage to do so, which is balanced. since most of their damage is AOE, and balanced as such, it somewhat limits their 1v1 ability, because even if we stack our biggest burst combos, its not usually enough to kill a lot of people, and we usually have to be pretty squishy ourselves to do it (tho, if u hit 2-3 people with that same burst combo with the help of a team, that is pretty powerful)
all in all they are completely balanced. u just have to know how to fight them. since they have the lowest hp/armor, most of their survivibility is active. if u can chain CC an ele youll get even a bunker down pretty quick. if hes damage, just need to spread out and focus him early, he wont be that hard to get down
ya the ele downed skill is abit broke now, it only the hp regen that makes it so, im quite happy for them to have the skill, but they shouldnt be able to use it on 5% hp then suddenly be back to like 75%. that being said it only lasts 3 seconds and is pretty obvious. i would say its probably OP when couples with “teamwork”
teamwork in general is overpowered in this game and needs a huge nerf.
but it is a very unique downstate situation. id say thief and mez are similar, just like eng/guard/nec/ranger are similar, with warrior a hybrid of that and mist form. u can always delay the stomp which is nice. but unless you’re with friends or near a wierd hiding spot u can quickly get to, it is usually a futile death march.
and even sometimes in pugs i fool the person about to rez me and then he doesnt try again :-P
edit: actually my main prob with it is accidently hitting it before i want to cause im spamming a 2 skill right as im downed. i almost wish it had a half second delay or something. still plenty fast to beat a quickness stomp, but keeps u from accidently wasting it
(edited by typingofthedead.5614)
I have witnessed same thing. At the beginning of the match one ele rushed our save point. We got her down, at that time none of us 2 was killed who faced an ele, but for some reason the ele rallied.
It happen a week ago or something, so that is why I cannot bring more details. I remember it because it was a very close match and it was bothering me ever since
so just so you know, if an ele uses her rez utility in fire attunement, they have a 15 seconds buff where they will insta rally on downed. no one else needs to actually be rezzef for this to happen. so it could be that.
that said, as an ely, i did have a suspicious insta rally as soon as i hit mist form in a match last night, but i roam a lot and it was a chaotic couple of battles so its hard to tell
The 14th will really make or break the eSports in this game >_> Let’s hope!
isnt that what people were saying about the nov 15th patch?? salvation is always only one patch away :-P
The issue is that is very hard to balance for top level play and entry level play at the same time. When it is balanced around top level play the entry level players need to get better but it can be incredibly frustrating and it will stop a lot of players from getting better. When it is balanced around entry level play then top level play is awful.
The game is more balanced for top level play right now than for entry level play and with the goal of being an e-sport top level play will always have priority.
the barrier of entry is less than a lot of previous games where u had to gear grind just to be able to compete. everyone is on equal footing in s/tpvp. the only things stopping from someone getting better is practicing their class/combos, learning your enemies class/combos, and figure out some of the nuances of staying alive / rezzing / stomping / map features.
but really, the difference between a good player and a bad player running the exact same build is only practice.. and thats the way it should be IMO
i mean are u just doing hot join? hot join is not pvp, its a place to test builds. try some tpvp, prolly wont face more than 1 mes and 1 thief in a match, and have teammates to help.
as an ele, it is not true that u have to go bunker. and if you are a bunker (or even soldiers amulet wearing) ele, and you are still getting bursted down by thieves, you are doing it wrong. a balanced / defensive ele is practically a hard counter to thief burst builds. but it is very possible to spec damage on ele, and use your superior mobility and defensive utilities to survive
also, i agree that bunkering is no fun. it can help u win tpvp if you are good at it, and winning is fun if you’re with a team. but it sounds like you are using it for spvp and hiding behind it since its the only way you can stay alive, but even then cant stay alive very well (hint, a lot of ele bunkering comes from active skills).
so since yr not very good at staying alive in spvp which it doesnt really matter there anyway since its a zergfest where point control is secondary, maybe try an offensive build. the trick is to burst that thief before he can do the same to you (hint, jsut cause hes stealthed doesnt mean he isnt there, and pretty much all ele attacks are aoe).
or maybe its just not the right class for you. maybe a necro or even a mesmer might be up your alley.
tho i agree hotjoin in general is not very fun. just go offensive and run with your zerg, you’ll never be able to take on a giant zergball no matter how bunker u are
I have used it in spvp some. my only decent skill set is around d/d but i did find that dagger/focus feels a lot like dagger/dagger in its skill flurry.
I would atuntment dance for damage and might and then bring out the ax or FGS. it did get me some kills but having only done a few times it just does not compete with dagger/dagger skills.
I switch to dagger/focus in wvw sometimes when i want a more stationary defensive setup.
i have also used this in pve and the one thing i have to say about this setup is that it was “fun”. I dont know why as i am still way better with dagger/dagger but nonetheless the action is still fast.
@sachiel thanks for the video!
exactly, thats part of the reason im tryin this setup, is that its similar to d/d in that theres 2 auras, mostly no ground target skills (flame wall only one). its a tradeoff of mobility and burst (which is a big tradeoff), for ranged control, anti ranged, and survivibility.
when managing my cds right (mist form and arcane shield, earth 5, protection on earth attune or heal in earth, ranged chills/dazes to keep them far away from me), i find this can be quite survivible in a glass setup, and your dagger 1-3s still do pretty good damage, but if u do get blindsided or exhaused yr cds you do go down pretty quick
and since most of yr damage skills are pbaoe, u can attack the zerg while locking down the ranged support guys.
anyone else run this in tpvp? any opinions? or what do u run and why?
so the staff has never been my thing, and im not super into the scepter. rather than simply join the hordes of d/d eles out there, ive been trying to make d/f work with mixed results, wondering what everyone else thinks or if im wasting my time.
first, losing the offhand dagger hurts. lightning flash is almost a crutch to escape any situation and u have to play a lot more aware/position oriented by losing it. and losing the offhand fire and earth hurts your potential burst quite a bit.
that said, with the focus you gain a lot of control and defense, all at range. which helps to lock down those necros/rangers perched on a ledge. in order to feel useful in this setup, i find i need to gear for glass, but spec/utility for defense (30 water, mist form, and arcane shield). and usually arcane wave for extra damage.
so its stat focus is pow/prec/crit damage, and vit. this setup works best in team fights, since your dagger skills are aoe and hit fairly hard. and by managing defensive cds, protections, etc, u can survive pretty well despite being glassy. and have 3 ways to safely stomp.
but u lack the overall defense and single target burst, so i find its not a great 1v1 setup. and u lack mobility (mostly swiftness from auras or attuning to air. can take teleport as one of the utilities), so u really need to be aware of yr surroundings and bail early sometimes. but i find its good control, aoe sustain damage, and survivibility. and u have 1 big falcon punch with fire 3 + arcane wave
so i guess has anyone else had success with this setup in competitive tpvp? if so, how do u run it?
man i’d like to think the thief isnt OP. but lately ive been getting destroyed by good teams thieves stealthing the downed guy. (we down their team, i go to invuln stomp with mist form, they stealth and rez him).
so in general, i think being able to coordinate rezzing/stomps is a very important part of the meta (stability, knockbacks, stealths, etc). rezzing and teamwork are overpowered.
u almost definately need a good tank it seems like (guard, eng, ele). mobility is important (mesmers portal, eles, thieves), as well as having a good 1v1 guy (for side points, treb). and necros are incredibly valuable for team fights.
but anything can work as long as u have a good mix of skills/roles and teamwork. and a tank. n maybe a pro thief that can solo the lord without downing the door
This is really confusing if you’re using red or blue dye and you’re on the opposite coloured team.
How so though? The only time this could potentially be confusing is if the enemy is too far away to where the nameplate doesn’t show up above their head, any other time, if they have a red nametag they are the enemy.
It’s not that you can’t tell who’s an enemy; it’s that it’s hard to tell what team you’re on. If you see yourself wearing red but you’re on the blue team, it’s kind of confusing, especially if you didn’t know they made this change.
yeah… i have red and blue in my outfit, so the first match i played i was really confused… but then i figured it out and i like it overall, adds flavor and makes getting those rare dyes as a pvp only player actually worth something haha
i agree its a much better environment to test builds for tpvp, and see how things work in 2v2 or 3v3 fights. i almost think it should be set to 6 people tho in hotjoin, to accomodate for the fluctuation in population (very often on these servers i find after 1 match it can drop to a 1v2 or 2v2 which is almost too few for a 3 point map), and agree they should have some near the top of the list
hahah its just meant to be constructive criticism, jon can take it :-P this is a great game that im sure isnt easy to balance.
plus im still sorta mad at him for promising all these secret awesome ranger fixes and then responding with underwater combat buffs, a minor tweak to the greatsword, and making spirits less useless in the tooltip only. but hey thats why im an ele now and im lovin it hahaha
RTL is indeed a bug. I’ve got a fix and going to try and push it through today.
Jon
as a software developer, it is slightly concerning to me that in 2 week dev cycles, yous guys appear to be missing blatent bugs (ie losing traited stats while transformed) that the player community was both able to notice and diagnose within a few hours of playing.
public test server anyone?
I want to hop in and say that while this bug is proving near impossible to reproduce on our machines, we hope our fixes going out today will finally take care of it.
hahahaha, as a software engineer, this should be read this as: "we honestly have no idea why this is happening, and since we are unable to replicate the steps required to make this bug happen, we dont really have any clues either. but we did tweak some stuff that it might be related to, so sure it may be fixed. but again, we can’t be sure, since we have no way of testing it on our end and unless we got lucky its probably not fixed yet "
just because you cant kill someone, dont come crying to nerfing buffs.
based on his post, it seems more likely that hes trying to bunker with a class without access to a lot of protection (like ranger maybe), and getting pwned
im 95% sure the boons you apply to others use your boon duration rating
This class and style plays amazing… I’ve fought several recently, both in my burst specs and balanced specs and I haven’t defeated one yet. They seem to play much like the original Ele Bunker, just with a far more consistent damage output.
Anyone else seen a rise in this build? I know I dueled someone the other day who wanted to show that Rangers aren’t nearly as bad as people try to say, and I must say, this seems to be the hardest hitting bunker class in the game so far, at least in terms of consistent damage output.
Ranger was my first class, and the key to beating any ranger is simple. Dodge the arrows and you can laugh at them while you kill them and they may land 10% of their shots, but that is all.
Dodge you say? You lie you say? Try it. Have a Ranger shoot at you, while you’re standing there simply alternate pressing Q and E really quickly to strafe back and forth on the same spot. The arrows will miss and the Ranger will get an obstructed message.
It may be intended so that people can avoid projectiles but seriously? For pvp when I play a Ranger and want to assault a point all they have to do is strafe and I lose? To hell with that.
lol. right before the 11/15 update, i was toying with my ele while waiting for ranger changes. saw the changes were kitten, but still tried my ranger for a bit anyway. had a bunker guardian dodge like 100% of my damage this way that i got so pissed that i relogged into my ele mid match and havent been back on my ranger since hahaha.
but yeah, some cond/survivible builds are okay, but they still lack adequade condition removal, and you usually have to sacrifice HP for toughness and cond. and the hp trait line for rangers is kitten
@typingofthedead its called getting owned.You’ll have to accept that some people are just better than you because I play berserker elementalist too and I don’t have those problems that you’re talking about.
hahah kitten that thats a lazy response bro. so what, do u have 0 latency and super human reaction time? im not exxagerating when i say twice in 1 match the SECOND i heard the thief weapon sound (before i could even see him), i went for mist form (which is bound to my mid mouse button and muscle memoried), and twice i was dead before i could use that SINGLE SKILL. with full health.
so i dont doubt he was a good thief. and sure, the first time i didnt know he was around. i could for instance preemptively put on protection (tho its not huge duration), or preemptively dodge, but its all just a guess. if i switch to soldiers i have 0 probs with the same thief (able to react, take the burst, aoe when hes out of initiative, etc). but if you’re so good, please, tell me, as a berzerker ele, how u manage to live that out of stealth burst that can drop me before i can move my finger slightly right and press a button
Your first mistake was wearing berserker’s as an ele.
Get Valkyrie Jewelry, Mix it with Soldiers Armor with Valkyrie Orbs in them.
Get 100% chance to critical when switching attunements (weapons.) sigils, and the other one dealing poison or stealing life when switching.
Precision is useless on an Ele, you can switch attunements so much for 100% Criticals its not funny, Stack Toughness/Vitality/Healing/Power, Bunker it up brotha.
hahah i mean, i know i can bunker/balanced build it up, sure, and it works fine. but as long as im not facing a glass thief, berzerker is fine too. i can survive just fine while layin down a ton of hurt thru active defense and running away. my problem is that the thief hard counters pretty much every other offensive build from any class with little downside. which means the meta is to run a thief in your group for offense, and make every other class go defensive
edit: i am speaking pretty much exclusively for spvp or tpvp, where the gear choices are limited, and its much harder to stack just a lil toughness without going to far in at the cost of other things
@typingofthedead its called getting owned.You’ll have to accept that some people are just better than you because I play berserker elementalist too and I don’t have those problems that you’re talking about.
hahah kitten that thats a lazy response bro. so what, do u have 0 latency and super human reaction time? im not exxagerating when i say twice in 1 match the SECOND i heard the thief weapon sound (before i could even see him), i went for mist form (which is bound to my mid mouse button and muscle memoried), and twice i was dead before i could use that SINGLE SKILL. with full health.
so i dont doubt he was a good thief. and sure, the first time i didnt know he was around. i could for instance preemptively put on protection (tho its not huge duration), or preemptively dodge, but its all just a guess. if i switch to soldiers i have 0 probs with the same thief (able to react, take the burst, aoe when hes out of initiative, etc). but if you’re so good, please, tell me, as a berzerker ele, how u manage to live that out of stealth burst that can drop me before i can move my finger slightly right and press a button
Daecollo: that IS the problem. the mere presence of a thief more or less forces the opposition to have to stack toughness/defense to have a shot. any build that requires active defense becomes kitten, since u can’t see the thief coming, and then he can burst u down before u have a chance to pop a single skill. even if that skill is the perfect one for the situation (stun break, invuln), whats the point if u do not have enough time to hit it between realizing the thief is on you and going down.
this is both frustrating, and makes it hard/impossible to run an offensive build on another class since the thief trumps it. so i have to run a less fun and less group optimal tanky build to deal with the thief.
so any offensive build i run is hard countered by thief, which takes me out of the game. or i can run a defensive build that takes the thief out of the game. there’s no middle ground it seems, and each build type is ruining the others fun
There is no other class that you don’t need active defences against such as stun breakers and invulnerability , there is no class that can’t put you down just as fast as the thief.This is not WoW or other MMO , here you don’t defend yourself by stacking toughness .Learn how to counter it.L2p
There is plenty of time to react , and people like you needs to stop saying that they don’t see the thief comming.None sense.Look around , he surely isn’t invisible.Don’t and die.Its the same for any other class.
this isnt learn to play. ive made plenty of thief counter builds. they work fine. the problem is if u try to do an offensive build yourself. im running an ele build thats fairly glass stats, but with lots of defensive traits and utilities… and 18khp. I’m NOT exxagerating that twice in 1 tpvp match, the thief (that i had no idea was around due to stealth and just entering the fight as a roamer) was able to down me from full to 0 before i could hit the invuln/stun break bound to a mouse button. literally reacting as fast as i could.
i have no problem reacting and surviving with this build vs any other class, even 2 classes at times. if i could have gotten that 1 skill off (toughness, stun break, invuln), id be able to separate and be fine. but its not an eggageration, or L2P. maybe other classes, or if i was rollin with a bit more toughness (even tho i have good vit), mighta had the time to get that 1 skill off. i have 0 problems with this build in any other situation. so then im forced to put on tankier gear, and sure i can kitten up the thief then, but im unable to perform my role optimally otherwise vs the rest of their team
Daecollo: that IS the problem. the mere presence of a thief more or less forces the opposition to have to stack toughness/defense to have a shot. any build that requires active defense becomes kitten, since u can’t see the thief coming, and then he can burst u down before u have a chance to pop a single skill. even if that skill is the perfect one for the situation (stun break, invuln), whats the point if u do not have enough time to hit it between realizing the thief is on you and going down.
this is both frustrating, and makes it hard/impossible to run an offensive build on another class since the thief trumps it. so i have to run a less fun and less group optimal tanky build to deal with the thief.
so any offensive build i run is hard countered by thief, which takes me out of the game. or i can run a defensive build that takes the thief out of the game. there’s no middle ground it seems, and each build type is ruining the others fun
Well a lot of our traits and utility is terrible, we have little access to buffs and boons, and we have the highest burst in the game, little HP, we have very little choice then to kill them before they kill us. If we can’t kill them (bunkers/people who trait for protection when they get hit big.) we HAVE to run away, our DPS goes from awesome to suck, why? because of our traits…
We have VERY VERY VERY little passive buffs, did you see the traits we have? most of them are horrible compared to even RANGER and Necromancer, we mainly take traits for stats.
Shadow Arts is the only interesting tree we have.
How many Thieves do you see using Venoms? None.
How many Thieves do you see using two Pistols? None.
How many Thieves do you see using Traps? None.
How many Sword/Dagger, Sword/Pistol Thieves do you see? Barely any, both do poor damage, there are no traits that improve sword critical chance like 3 OTHER classes.
Most of our boons last 10 seconds, and have HUGE cooldowns to boot…
Gain Fury for 10 seconds every 45 seconds? … how is that fair when other classes can get perma fury?
Gain Swiftness for 10 seconds when you steal? (45 second cd.) how is that fair? other classes get perma swiftness…
so, ill agree, build diversity and viability is a problem for all classes. and it seems if thief could compete by not going full glass, it might help.
that said, i have no problem with this class design for thief. nor would i have a problem with their survivibility tweaked, or if their burst was stronger but took slightly more time to pull off.
the only problem i have is when i literally have 0 time to hit a single skill i have bound to the mouse button right where my finger is between the time i notice the thief is on me and the time i am downed. enough time to use a SINGLE skill.
if they, say, appeared right before they hit me. or the burst took 1 or 2 more hits, id have a chance. if my cooldowns are down, youd win, and thats fine. but it pisses me off when all my cooldowns are up and i have full hp and i get instablicked by a thief running a build i have no problem surviving with versus any combination of other classes.
Daecollo: that IS the problem. the mere presence of a thief more or less forces the opposition to have to stack toughness/defense to have a shot. any build that requires active defense becomes kitten, since u can’t see the thief coming, and then he can burst u down before u have a chance to pop a single skill. even if that skill is the perfect one for the situation (stun break, invuln), whats the point if u do not have enough time to hit it between realizing the thief is on you and going down.
this is both frustrating, and makes it hard/impossible to run an offensive build on another class since the thief trumps it. so i have to run a less fun and less group optimal tanky build to deal with the thief.
so any offensive build i run is hard countered by thief, which takes me out of the game. or i can run a defensive build that takes the thief out of the game. there’s no middle ground it seems, and each build type is ruining the others fun
i posted this on the spvp forum and they closed it. so here:
the real problem to me with thief burst is…
… that it ruins a ton of otherwise completely fun and viable builds for other classes.
this isnt meant as a QQ. as an ele and ranger, ive made a number of builds that deal with thieves quite well (toughness, stun break, aoe, invuln, etc). the problem is, these balanced/defensive builds kitten your offense, but also isnt bunker enough to be a main tank on a point.
so the problem is, when i craft builds that use glass gear/stats, but active defensive traits and utilities. with these builds, i can use my reflexes/stun breaks/cc/gap creators to stay alive, even when outnumbered, vs pretty much any class (or 2). however, last night on my ele (glassy, but 18k hp, low toughness but on demand protection), i was at full life, with all my cds up (3 stun breakers). was jumped by a stealth thief, and the SECOND i noticed he was on me, it hit my invuln (which is bound to my mouse button so its fast). but i was dead before i could even click the button. this thief got me like that twice before i had to switch to soldiers gear to try n give myself enough time to react.
so thats my rant. if i had a half a second to pop a skill, i can reset the fight n have a chance. i can understand getting stomped like that if im depleted from fighting, or my kitten is on CD. but i should have enough time between realizing the thief is on me to press a button, and i dont. which completely ruins the build.
im sure a lil more toughness would help (or if i had time to pop my on demand protection). but with the gear limitations, its hard to grab a lil without going all in.
tl:dr? the burst/stealth combo hard counters way too many offensive or balanced builds for other classes, where theres not enough reaction time to even hit 1 skill. suggestion: make thief skills hit less hard but cost less initiative.
i was playing a bit with the hammer and shield last night. i can see some potential uses, tho it was a bit hard to wield. the hammer and shield have a knockback and a pull respectively, each of which could be used to get a bunker off a point.
also, the shield has a daze, and the hammer a stun… which should be considered if trying for a daze or stun heavy build (combined with say comet focus, and/or shocking aura. possibly with runes of mesmer and/or +stun duration sigil)
… that it ruins a ton of otherwise completely fun and viable builds for other classes.
this isnt meant as a QQ. as an ele and ranger, ive made a number of builds that deal with thieves quite well (toughness, stun break, aoe, invuln, etc). the problem is, these balanced/defensive builds kitten your offense, but also isnt bunker enough to be a main tank on a point.
so the problem is, when i craft builds that use glass gear/stats, but active defensive traits and utilities. with these builds, i can use my reflexes/stun breaks/cc/gap creators to stay alive, even when outnumbered, vs pretty much any class (or 2). however, last night on my ele (glassy, but 18k hp, low toughness but on demand protection), i was at full life, with all my cds up (3 stun breakers). was jumped by a stealth thief, and the SECOND i noticed he was on me, it hit my invuln (which is bound to my mouse button so its fast). but i was dead before i could even click the button. this thief got me like that twice before i had to switch to soldiers gear to try n give myself enough time to react.
so thats my rant. if i had a half a second to pop a skill, i can reset the fight n have a chance. i can understand getting stomped like that if im depleted from fighting, or my kitten is on CD. but i should have enough time between realizing the thief is on me to press a button, and i dont. which completely ruins the build.
im sure a lil more toughness would help (or if i had time to pop my on demand protection). but with the gear limitations, its hard to grab a lil without going all in.
tl:dr? the burst/stealth combo hard counters way too many offensive or balanced builds for other classes, where theres not enough reaction time to even hit 1 skill. suggestion: make thief skills hit less hard but cost less initiative.
whats your spec? bunker/healing/boon/staff combo eles were nerfed a couple weeks ago. but prolly u were never that good and everyone else got better
i’ve been running variations on this for a while, cause i cant live without permaswiftness, and and being able to give that to allies always seemed/felt powerful to me that i took it over the other water GM.
i find it works well with soldiers gear, giving u good power and tankiness with the fury able to keep the dps perfectible. ive recently been running it in a glassier spec (0/30/0/30/10) opting to drop the earth prot since u get protection on elemental attunement of earth in 10 arcana, and grabbing the free shocking aura at air 30. i know this aura gives me the buffs, but does anyone know if the 30 pt air aura gets shared?
i like this idea a lot actually. especially if the pet guarding the point counts as a teammate sitting in it for capping purposes. it would allow the ranger a way to effectively guard a point while providing some roaming support.
as a dedicated ranger that recently semi-retired in favor of ele, they do need something. they lack mobility, and killing power. lacking in teamfights (since pets can not jump off ledges if in good position, or they die in aoe making damage crap). they pretty much need to rely on cond damage and toughness, making their DPS awful in group fights / fights with any other condition people.
at this point, i feel like they can back point bunker okay, but only if another class isnt available. making things like guard or the combat rez much more viable would help
in theory they should be balanced. its similar to the skills on weapons. because they have control over what all those skills are, they can easily be balanced across from / relative to one another.
otherwise, why even have them in the game? i can sort of understand from the competitive standpoint, but if they are balanced all it would do is allow for more build variety and slight build variations based on class, which, IMO, is a good thing. none of them seem overly strong, but would give more options to classes (ie, extra ranged options, or different status effects your class can not get).
but, most importantly IMO, its the extra elite skills. i feel like 3 is too little variety, especially when 1-2 are usually some combination of lackluster or not viable for your build/playstyle, which often leaves u with 1 choice, and it often feels more like an addon to your build than anything or too situational.
i was able to get on board with their reasoning for no secondary classes (balance/uniqueness), and less skills (higher quality?), but i feel like when churnign out builds im often starting with the same few traits and 1 or 2 key skills i cant live without, and it gets a lil stale
tl:dr: more flavor is better, and its not hard to balance
as an avid gw1 player, i was dissapointed to find the lack of secondary professions as well as the lower number of total skills, considering that was a strength of the first. however, i was at least excited that there were race/class combos you could set up. but sadly, this is nonexistant at all in spvp. why? if they are balancing skills across professions, im not sure why this was left out.
I think it would add a lot of flavor and unlock a number of different viable builds. a charr guardian could have more ranged options for instance, or a human ranger could get more condition removal. that, and some classes just have awful elite skills imo (ele), and it would be nice to have more than 3 u dont like to choose from. anyone know? thoughts?
lately I’ve been toying with working conjures into my build. I’m not sure how viable taking multiples would be, but the right one in the right build can work.
mostly, ive toyed with frostbow in a d/d build. it has an instant cast time which makes it easier to use, and gives u decent ranged damage and a really nice CC on 5 (albeit at an incredibly long cast time. needs to be used situationally).
last night i was playing around with adding firey greatsword into my glassy damage build. it does a kittenon of damage, to the point where i can easily solo svanir / go to town on a lord with it, even as glass. it has a long cast time that roots u in place however, so i feel it needs to be used like GoE where it should be cast pre fight and you should open with it. that said, i usually open with a leap then meteor (#5), then spam skills till meteor comes off CD, hit it again, then drop it. the aoe damage can be huge, esp in a glassy setup.
those are the only two i have messed with tho. im going to try to keep using the greatsword in competitive tpvp and see if i can get good with it, since elementals are so boring, and tornado is kitten
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