Guild Wars 2

Arcana 30 is a must since it lowers your Attunement cooldowns to 9 seconds, which is NEEDED for more protection uptime from earth and to proc Healing Ripple and the condi remove on water attune more often. It’s also a necessity since without it you end up stuck without an attunement to switch to/can’t rapidly adapt to the change in play like you’re meant to as an Ele.

Evasive Arcana is a NECESSITY since you get a blind, a heal+cleanse and a blast finisher from it for another heal in water fields if you’re staff, without which you can’t survive.

Xaos.3257:

19K and hit like a truck? please link this build i need it badly !
( for reality checking though we have only 70 trait points and we are not talking about wvw )

Something gimmicky like this maybe? Far from viable but hey people like QQing about S/D spikes.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArIhImIblx5IAiMOQgRhOEPswBJqCA-ToAA2CnI4SxljLDXSuscNsYWA

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

It would be better to rework the entire amulet system to allow for more customization and less forced specialization. The current state of the amulet system is partially responsible for the lack of build diversity, because the limited possibilities for allocation of stats push everything toward a small number of builds that synergize best with those allocations.

Won’t happen. Anet already sucks at balancing, with all the min-maxing going around they’d find it much harder to pinpoint what’s causing things to be too strong.

PlatypusRex.3428:

I’d be ok with a FA-like trait in each line, so you could specialize in one if wanted to. I know others have suggested it too.

Fresh Air + Fresh Water would be pretty sexy spamming dat discharge + healing ripple.

MyPuppy.8970:

The exact words were “known and documented issue”

Known and documented for a looooooong time now. Major coding issue with how Attunes used to have innate passive effects instead of having them on the 5 point traits I think and other changes I think. Afaik the Earth one used to be more armor the longer you stayed in Earth, couldn’t remember what Air was but hence only Fire and Water work now.

silentnight warrior.2714:

The warrior fighted the way people say in this forum that its enough to baddies win against good players. That was proven wrong.

Baddies beating good players =/= Downies beating good players.

Does anyone even use it? Much less damage for not enough survivability is practically useless.

Is it ever going to get buffed?

Anet logic was they didn’t want to force casuals to do dungeons.

They also want to keep dungeon rewards low so people who do them too fast don’t get too rich. Cos they don’t want to reward you for being skilled.

Oh yeah, Geyser heals THREE times: On cast and then once per second for 2 seconds so don’t lead it to far, you want it to be on top of the target when it goes off. Some eles lead it waaaaaay too far.

Just stick to whatever’s OP in the meta and enjoy the ride and let the devs worry about balancing and break the game more (truth: Anet can’t balance). Or simply quit the ‘competitive scene’ and you’d find inner peace.

Full zerker + Scholar Runes. The Dungeon people have calculated Scholar Runes are better than Ruby Orbs as long as you can stay >90% hp for 30% of a fight. With staff it’s really easy to avoid damage in dungeon settings where you are under no threat of taking damage if you’re skillful like CoE/Arah or have high DPS team everywhere else and can stand away abit from the melee (you still want to be in range of AoE might stacks + and for Stone Splinters though!).

In pick-up groups who stack on top of bosses without having the damage to support it e.g. Spider Queen, SE p1’s 3 golems you’d have to switch to pvt gear and be bad like them.

Flat damage is always better than critical damage due to:
1. It’s always effective even when you don’t crit. Mathematically a skill on average does:
Damage = (weapon strength x power x skill coefficient / target armor) x Crit multiplier.
Crit multiplier = ( 1 + Critical Chance% * ( Critical Damage% + 0.5) )
When you add crit damage you are adding to a smaller part of the equation, when you are get +damage% however it is multiplied on top on the calculated damage.

2. +damage% applies multiplicatively. In total I have +86% damage from traits sigil of force and scholar rune, not +65%.

Fire XI vs XII:
Persisting Flames gives not only fury but it makes Lava Font last 6 seconds instead of 4 for a 50% damage increase. As Lava Font is 75% of your damage in total it’s a much better damage return than 10 stacks of might. (25 might stacks improves damage by about ~40%, 10 stacks is only ~16%.)

The best time to use 30/30/0/0/10 is with dagger main-hand for Fresh Air for Air 15 and Lightning Whip spam.

I also don’t use sigil of battle/boon duration runes for pve any more since I expect team-mates to blast in my field when I use a staff and in good teams I’d get 25 mights anyway.

6th bonus is always effective regardless of having a pet or not.

Not sure if someone else reported since I’ve mentioned it previously here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Traits-something-is-not-right/first#post2967150

But the gist is:
Zephyr’s Focus doesn’t work with Stone Shards while Obsidian Focus does. (new tooltip shows Stone Shards should not benefit from either even though it’s a channelled skill like Arc Lightning?)

Zephyr’s Focus grants it’s bonus for 9 seconds on Cone of Cold lasts beyond the animation regardless of how you cast it. i.e. you can even interrupt it to gain a 5 second recharge on Cone of Cold to indefinitely maintain it if you wish.

A small text bug I spotted during the dev video that carried into the game that I forgot about:
Evasive Arcane earth’s skill display says Shockwave instead Churning Earth. (issue might have arisen from Evasive Arcana’s earth dodge having once been Shockwave instead of Churning Earth.)

Don’t change a thing. Just don’t get hit. The higher you go it will only get worse so just get used to being squishy and dealing big damage instead of trying go get more tanky.

Gorni.1764:

Pro-Tip:

• Casting Lava font with Arcane Power and switching to earth causes Lava-Font ticks to immobilize your target with Elemental surge for the whole duration while doing nice critical damage

Actually, you should Flame Burst after the Lava Font and switch to Earth before Flame Burst hits for both a faster immob and for the burn to cover the immob. It is quite sexy when you follow it up with an Ice Bow but still Elemental Surge just isn’t worth taking over Evasive Arcana, wish ES wasn’t a GM trait

Oh yeah, cancelling meteor shower drops less meteors. Some eles I see like to stop channeling it prematurely.

I’m afraid that’s all ;o

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhIm0blR1gjEAkCoEeQADFMZoRHSBA-jkxAYfAqAQyrIasF3ioxqrxUuER1A-w

Ele DPS master race.

30/0/25/10/5 would’ve been better for the amount of attune switching I was doing.
30/10/20/10/0 is what I usually run nowadays since Persisting Flames and Ice Storm buffs makes the Fire Attune staff camping+Ice Storm with Earth IV work really well together to out-dps anyone else.

The fastest way like with any boss would be to use FGS and pull it to one of the buildings/ inside the hut where he spawns for Fiery Rush abuse.

Pro tip: You can lightning flash away after you start channelling Meteor Shower/Ice Storm to avoid damage (the AoE will still keep landing where you targetted it.)

Zenalpha.4192:

But if you do faster without any damage, i will congratulate your own performance.
i think you cant’ do it ^^
Take it like a little challenge i give to you in order to have fun.

Here you go, first attempt: 3’30
http://youtu.be/FqrjSzE1enA
I’ll try for faster if you can beat that.

P.S: Food used was not performance enhancing,
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Piece_of_Candy_Corn_Almond_Brittle

P.P.S: In case you missed the point, my previous comment was referring to how Meteor Shower drops less meteors if you cancel it = lower DPS..

What’s the RP reason for your character cancelling Meteor Shower early? Impatience or plain incompetence?

runeblade.7514:

I wonder how this guy dealt with it when he is the profession that warriors directly counters.

http://pl.twitch.tv/forsaker_/c/3130544

Longbow/GS is meta now?

Back when Shadow Shot wasn’t unblockable before the April 30th update, teleporting spinning Ginva onto afk rangers was fun fun fun.

reikken.4961:

I thought people were already doing this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdBJw9cBuEo

Except that’s the proper build, 25/30/10/0/5. Traits III, VI | VI X XII | VI. Not being bound to Vital Striking and Enduring Damage is great since you can KO people mid-fight as well rather than all devoted to one opening bang that fails 90% of the time now that everyone has seen it and expects it coming.

Also, Sigil of Geomancer/Hydromancer also does higher damage, can crit and ALWAYS occurs at the right time upon Air Attunement while they are knocked down for up to 4k. Sigil of Air/Fire procs before the earthquake for only 1k or 2k if it procs after.

IIRC Anet said implementing a simple text/book interface was difficult for their game engine to handle. And cinematics of great length would would require too much voice acting to tell the story.

mjharrison.3209:

If you think cantrips are bad then you’re beyond help. Cantrips and 0/10/0/30/30 is still the strongest build around.

If you think Mist Form and Armor of Earth are the only viable option, you’re living in the past. Cantrips were indisputably the best back when Soothing Disruption had a base Regen and Vigor was 9 seconds instead of 6 seconds and Cleansing Water had no ICD but with the recent buffs their nerfed benefits pretty much even with what Conjures bring to the table, Earth Shields survive and Lightning Hammer’s de-capping ability, the later of which triple cantrip and crappy damage does nothing to help you compete over the node.

But keep running the same build and complain how Ele is 100000% underpowered when it’s only 30% underpowered.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Maybe instead of Signet of Earth, just go with arcana’s grandmaster trait that gives immobilize to arcane skills in earth attunement. Deals more damage anyways, the cooldown will be shorter or the immobilize will be aoe, although it comes at the cost of a grandmaster trait.

I’ve tried that gimmick. Arcane Power+Ice Storm in Earth is really fun. Against a single target the immob stacks high enough that you can follow with a Deep Freeze.

But realistically it’s too inefficient.

The Elementalist Water Magic Master Trait number X does not grant regen upon using Frost Bow or Mist Form.

mjharrison.3209:

All of the things you listed can be achieved with other utilities that don’t require you to give up 20 skills for 5. IMO you’re crazy.

tbh our other utilities are pretty bad and arguably worse than conjures since they all do something another utility does and especially more noteworthy than Arcane Wave/Blast. I’d recommend using one when it suits your build (using more than one becomes too hard to juggle cooldowns/keeping track of when to pick each of them up).

Lava Axe provides more sustained damage with it’s 1.0 coefficient when your bursty skills are on cooldown and it’s might-givingness also fuels more power into your next burst. The extra dodge is also great.

Earth Shield lets you go invulnerable twice every 60 seconds if no-one else picks it up, compared to once every 75 seconds with a stunbreak with Mist Form which is also currently buggy. Stone Sheathe is also a nice block and Magnetic Surge’s daze is also

tldr: Lava Axe covers lack of sustained damage, Ice Bow allows more opportunities to burst, Lightning Hammer provides Banish and Ring of Warding which are great for contesting capture points for bunker eleing. Earth Shield is strong but in a weird spot where I can’t find a use for it.

Undead or Inquest?

I’m pretty sure he’s inquest since afaik Inquest Slaying potions buffs damage up when hitting him and the first Alpha encounter shows he’s fighting with Risen Thralls so that’s an indication that he’s of a different faction to them. I also remember getting Inquest Slayer achieve upon killing him once upon a time.

But I’ve heard people also say he’s undead so I could be dreaming all along. So what is he really and what potion really works?

Ele = dependant on traits to deal any amount of damage and lacking mobility since RtL nerf that are otherwise readily available to thieves, rangers and warriors without having to sacrifice ANYTHING.

One with Air is a sacrifice in damage with minimal effect. The only time it’s useful is bunkering with staff where damage matters little. D/D and S/D both require you to be facing the target 90% of the time otherwise you deal no damage.

It’s obvious they didn’t care to address ele issues outside of staff ele with this patch.

Illusion.1807:

My superior sigil of battle does not work, instead of stacking might, it simply triggers ring of earth. Why is that?

You’re using Sigil of Geomancy?

On topic: Well yeah, nothing to do with D/D was changed. No reason to run the crappy One with Air either since 90% of the time since you’re forced to face the target to deal damage and the superspeed only benefits outright running away.

Really strong now. It covers the downtime when using Fresh Air S/F 0/30/0/10/30 really well where you were solely dependant on gale landing/not getting stun breaked to do a DT->Phoenix->Air Spike. Now you get 2x Deep Freeze (assuming other frost bow doesn’t get picked up and you put) for an extra opportunity and Deep Freeze being un-stunbreakable is a huge bonus.

Ice Storm also provides some nice spike damage too since it actually hits now and every storm hits around ~8 times (with glassiness this is 1.5k-2.5k per comet hit) if the target stays in the AoE compared to ~2 hits before for when Deep Freeze gets dodged/before Deep Freeze to force a dodge. Would be nice if Meteor Shower channelled faster+dealt it’s damage in a more compressed manner like Ice Storm.

Worth taking over one of the Arcanes.

Extra tick on Lava Font from Persisting Flames and Meteor Shower changes makes Staff camping far too appealing, especially being way more PuG-safe than LH now.

I don’t have numbers, but it seems that it’s another traited skill version issue among many that Anet has.

Without taking Persisting Flames the Lava Font cast of 0.2 cast and 0.2 aftercast is true seen by how you can throw a fireball mid-arm swing of the Lava Font cost.

With Persisting Flames however, it seems like that version of Lava Font still uses the old cast times, with you being able to throw a fireball later in the cast animation.

Edit: actually, I can’t tell the difference, it’s not very consistent judging by animation and my internal clock isn’t good enough to tell

Zelyhn.8069:

Adastra.9821:

Now take pyromancer’s alacrity along with persisting flames. Hello permanent lava font.

It’s not exactly permanent

It is now, try mashing 2 harder :P

It’s still counted as a field during the short time the circle disappears.

STRanger.5120:

zencow.3651:

Persisting Flames now gives Lava Font another additional tick. PvErs rejoice!!

It was doing this even pre-patch if I remember correctly So nothing new m8

No, with 30% field increase it was only 5 ticks from 4 when untraited, now it’s 6 ticks from 4 when untraited!

This is about equal to hundred blades damage rather than being slightly under hundred blades.

Also rather than almost having perma-fire field up, it’s truely perma-fire field.

Persisting Flames now gives Lava Font another additional tick. PvErs rejoice!!

Kyskythyn.6471:

mjharrison.3209:

Regardless of how boring they may or may not be, I think the main issue with Ele traits is how horribly balanced they are. >50% of them are total rubbish.

There’s also still the issue of requiring 20+ arcane and 15+ water in every (WVW) spec worth a kitten .

*To be fair, most classes have a small number of good traits that make up their viable builds. *

Water and arcane are certainly nice, especially for bunker builds, but I wouldn’t say they are necessary. I run 10 in water and 0 in arcane and I like to think I do ok in wvw.

Agreed, non-pve Warriors are required to take 20+ defense for cleansing ire and 15+ discipline for fast hands and a compulsory 0/10/30/0/30 to obtain godmode.

Axelifus.3269:

Then you go back with a x/focus and defecate on said thief, “2222222222222222222”.

Not if they just stealth/22222222 in the opposite direction :P

Zelyhn.8069:

Scepter is bad but please play the way you want

But DT→ Ring of Fire→ Fire grab kills trash mobs the fastest!

Why I never understood bunker staff since the EA nerf. How do you survive 1v1 let alone survive for at least 1 min in 1v2?

Cenzuo.6328:

I have been using vit toughness gear and power vit weapons and trinkets but I still have some problems staying alive

You should try a more aggressive approach, perhaps power/prec and power/vit blend of gear. If things don’t die after Burning Speed → Ring of Fire and a few lightning whips then you definitely have a DPS issue. When I levelled, I prioritised Renewing Stamina as the sole defense so I can dodge more and pumped damage everywhere else.

Always have power everywhere. Going ‘tanky’ makes your levelling process alot slower since you take longer killing mobs and fill hearts and maybe even kill so slowly that other mobs respawn on top of you.

mosspit.8936:

Havent done much CoE but Is this specific to CoE?

Pretty much specific stack on top of boss and dps it down situations where everyone downs except the pvt/clerics so they feel good about themselves.

SE p1 golems is also another good example. CoE 2 and 3 Alphas are where you ain’t need nobody’s help unless you’re not a thief and the PuG’s DPS is just so atrocious that they can’t break you out of crystal.

Berner.7289:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

For the record, I just did an AC run … with me on staff ele.

You took an ele into AC and had a smooth run. Wow! Your system is amazing.

Actually, as an ele myself there’s a clear difference between what PuGs perceives as a ‘smooth’ run and my own perception of a smooth run. And that goes for every dungeon.

Paths like CoE p1 are incredibly fast if you full zerker, but if you’re caught as the only zerker in group you end up faceplanting while the presence of pvt/cleric guardians does nothing to keep you up.

If they are supporting so well why am I getting downed? People want to gear check to prevent situations like these where they themselves have to ragequit or themselves switch to tankier gear themselves and be forced to endure a long run.

Zerkers in PuGs = either everyone has to do it, or none.

Floryn.6307:

Ty for the enlightenment, you 2, fortunately after over 3200 hours played on guardian (12k AP, legendary, spvp 45 without farming SH, etc etc), and thousands of dungeon runs, I am pretty secured and I stand behind my words PTV is not a bad choice and it doesn’t hinder a group, assuming you are running the correct rune set, sigils and trait lines.

I would ask if you guys are banned from high lvl fotms groups, but I already know the answer to that one. No wonder you spend more time on forums then in game. -)

I’m only on ~2300 hours total. Anet points at 10k since I stopped caring around Flame & Frost. BiFrost & Meteorlogicus. Stopped at spvp 39 since exodus of Gw1 buddies at around the bunker meta/duel well necros period. Guess I’m about 50% more efficient as would be dictated by zerker vs pvt?

Edit: Ele main and ofc hating the current spvp meta.

guanlongwucaii.3162:

ROFL, ITT PVTer trash thinking hundred blades is incredible dps

It has legendaries too, for shame!

You know what’s more painful than having to do map completion for your first legendary? Doing it the second time for your third legendary. I don’t feel sorry for the people with 5+ though /jelly

haviz.1340:

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

How dare you insult my ele blind bot! Casting Blinding Flash was an art!

Indeed it was. :p

It was when it was massive 15 energy so you had to actually use it as you saw the enemy warrior warriors spiking instead of having it become Draw Conditions fodder ;o

As much as non-interrupt midline goes, even though it’s considered a female dog role, if you had people not doing it right (mainly not cancel-casting and eating Dshot), it had a huge impact on whether your team survived or not, compared to interrupt midlines who determine whether you’re pressuring the opponent or not. A good water ele would also watch for incoming flag-runners and overextended past the enemy team to snare it like a ranger would without the safety of Natty Stride or Lightning Reflexes.

Rupt-wise, GW1 servers was also biased towards euros anywho especially when NA teams met EU and so they played on euro servers.

Today I joined a PuG experienced-only zerker p3 crew.

At the destroyer I of course jump at the destroyer as the shield goes down and with massive damage everyone stayed and assumed he would be dead with one lazer… unfortunately this was not the case and we all got knocked back into lava as the shield goes back up and everyone else dies while I survive by vapor forming away and rez myself back up and then everyone else.

As everyone races back down to tag the boss who only had a sliver of health left, I Lightning Strike for 4k which finishes him off and walk off with his Steel Chest while everyone else cries about the possibility of Dusk having been in the chest that they didn’t get, at which point I say ‘blame the ranger’ who was using GS and no frost spirit.

It was otherwise the best PuG run I’ve had by far and Alpha dies before my FGS runs out like it otherwise usually does.