Guild Wars 2

If I remember correctly, I used to use a 30/0/0/20/20 build (which is guess is 6/0/0/4/4 now). I can’t remember exactly what skills I used even since everything has reset for my character.

Hi folks, just came back to check things out. Been away for a long while and I’m kinda confused amid all the changes. I was wondering if anyone could help me get back on my feet with a working staff ele build for WvW. My only request is that it contains Blasting Staff (which I noticed you can now get at Adept rather than Master).

I also have some questions with gear. I have a more or less full set of zerker, PVT, and celestial. I was using Celestial before I left but it looks strange now without the crit damage . Is Celestial still good for WvW staff eles? Or is something else better. I was also using Traveler runes since I loved the permanent 25 speed boost. Are there now way better options (again for WvW staff).

Logged in every day last week and had Outnumbered buff almost the whole time. Logged in again this week after reset. Oh look, Outnumbered.

Next league, we need to be in Bronze.

I am actually genuinely curious as to how that’s possible.

It would actually be nice if they took the current One with Air and replaced Zephyr’s Speed with it (the current 5pt minor trait in Air).

I would like it, yes. However, I doubt it will happen as (1) it’s a buff to Eles, and (2) it buffs something a lot of people probably already/frequently use.

Eh, who am I kidding. Should have stopped at (1), hmm?

It would be nice yes, though technically many of our talents DO affect trident (i.e. any talents that affects the different attunements will apply to trident such as shorter CD in that attunement, increased damage in that attunement, passive damage increase in all atunements, etc.).

The exceptions would be the weapon specific ones (blasting staff, vigorous scepter, windborne dagger) and Evasive Arcana for whatever reason.

First off, thank you everyone for all the detailed input! You’ve given me all a lot to think about.

I think at this time, I will try out first Natsu’s build. It gives me greater leeway for possibly making mistakes while still practicing on the class. At the very least, it can give significant buffs to party mates through might and shouts even though it may be far from max/high dps builds.

I am, however, interested in trying durend’s sword/focus build some time in the future. I do not have an exotic sword available for use at this time (and have not in fact used sword ever, except to unlock the skills) so at the very least I’ll wait till there are enough dungeon tokens for it.

What then is the alternative to a non-AH DPS build that isn’t glass? Would it be wiser to do the opposite of gearing defensively but using offensive traits/utilities? I have tried a zerker guard with a DPS build and didn’t like it (it was a long time ago so I can’t quite remember the stat distribution).

Just to clarify, I’m playing her mostly for dungeons.

My guardian has accumulated dust for awhile but I’m thinking of bringing her out again to see some light. Last time I’ve played her, I had her geared out using the 0/0/30/30/10 Anchor build with knights gear and zerker accessories.

I’d like to respec her to do some more DPS but was wondering if there is a good DPS build that does not give up AH. I feel like I’ve gotten used to using that trait. Currently, I’m using:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|2.0.0.0.0.0|6.0.0.0.0.0|1g.0.1g.0.1g.0.1g.0.1g.0.1g.0|1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.cg.67|0.0.u46b.u289.a1|0.0|0.16.19.18.1i|e

I sort of like the idea of using “squishy” (but high DPS gear) and defensive traits/utilities. It gives me the option to be more defensive if the situation calls for it. Does anyone have any suggestions that could improve things (other than giving up AH)?

I don’t think I’ve logged on once this week without having the outnumbered buff in EB the whole time. >.<

ThiBash.5634:

Frost Bow also provides chill. ;-)

Yes, except Frost Bow requires me to be up close and personal for the Chill to be any good. If I could really afford to be that close to apply a snare, I probably wouldn’t need the snare to begin with.

STRanger.5120:

Well, when I’m thinking of this as you mentioned it, maybe you’re right, I rarely used the glyph in those attunements so I might miss that Thanks for pointing that out

I’ll test it as soon as I get home from work

I have actually been using GoS in Water attunement more often to apply a large amount of chill on a boss target rather than the nerfed ticking blind (few bosses that come to mind are Mossman, Archivist, Ice Ele/Dredge Machine in Underground Fractal, and the Captain in Ascalonian Fractal). That plus Frozen Ground + Earth Auto can apply a lot of Chilled on bosses that are annoying when they move around fast.

I’ve been experimenting with using Air Attunement GoS on bosses like Tequatl as all 36 lightning bolts should hit him but I’m not sure if it’s really worth losing another utility slot for it since each bolt does tiny damage.

STRanger.5120:

Also, there is quite a big difference between the storms created by the glyph and the Ice bow #4 (bow skill is more like tiny meteor shower – separate projectiles, while storm is a classic ticking AOE like lava font, while in earth also providing very good AOE blind )

As far as I know, only Fire/Earth function like Lava Font. Air/Water function like Meteor Shower.

That doesn’t seem odd to me. An elementalist who conjures fire would have no need for a torch.

IMO, Sigil of Fire is the best option for damage if you have a decent amount of crit.

Carpboy.7145:

Equip bomb kit. Stack power. #4 on bomb kit will basically make you immune to damage in pve. Use elixir b, medkit, and rocket boots once available for fast movement speed. Put first 10 traits into explosions and grab forcefully explosives. Put next 10 into tools and get speedy kits. You can now use whatever utilities you want with bomb kit. Then put 10 more into alchemy and get invigorating speed. You now have perma vigor and swiftness. The rest of your points can go wherever.

Thanks. Definitely something to start with and I’ve been using the bomb kit with some success (though it definitely not the playstyle I imagined when I started playing the class).

Pentzski.4620:

But yeah, one can’t blame an entire server. However, it was talked about openly in your TS by the guy who was doing it, while he was doing it, so some people in the attacking group probably did actually know what was going on.

Nah fellow-IoJs, it was probably a coincidence that SM got zerged just after that CD troll drained its supply completely.

Probably a coincidence too that our keep got zerged after 13 trebs went up draining most of the supply.

Oh, let’s not forget the coincidence happening over at BP’s Borderlands where it seems they are encountering the same problems in their keeps.

Update: He set himself to appear online for whatever reason but he has 31 achievement points. So yeah, free trial…

@Ricky
Also, I see what you mean lol. I hadn’t really paid so much attention to LA chat but I just noticed the same thing on our server too. Like 30 mins of gold selling ads spammed by the same guy (I had to change zones so he’s probably still at it).

Ok, I just came across this thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Why-are-trial-accounts-even-allowed-in-WvW/first#post2972378

It appears that BP is facing a similar problem in our current match up of IoJ vs BP vs CD. I’m from IoJ and it seems people from Crystal Desert may be abusing this “free trial”. I had assumed the guy causing trouble for us was from CD as he wasted SM supply before CD zerg arrived and then wasted Keep supply just before CD zerg arrived (coincidence? I doubt it). That other thread makes me think that it’s CD all the more.

We’re having problems with characters that are using up supply building siege in useless locations (hello army of trebs NEXT to a wall) and turning siege away from defensive positions and there’s nothing we can do but watch. He managed to take over 50% of a fully upgraded keep’s supply right before the enemy zerg arrived. Cannot even whisper him as he “appears offline”. Did manage to get the ID though by adding him to the ignore list. Screenshots of his actions and ID have been posted in a ticket by one of our server’s guilds but I’m guessing nothing about this will be done. Can you just close this free trial thing please… Or maybe ban whoever sent him siege/gold?

(On a side note, yes I’m assuming it’s a free trial account. If it isn’t then all the more that kind of action needs to be banned. Or are such actions approved by ANet possibly because it nets them gem purchases for server transfers?)

As an added note, I tend to favor Power-based builds rather than Condition based ones primarily because it sucks to fight things that are immune to conditions while leveling (such as structures, etc.). However, if the kill speed difference between Power and Condition is huge for Engineers, I’ll consider using the later if it really is that much better for leveling.

Could anyone recommend a pretty good leveling guide for an Engineer to someone who has never played one before? I don’t know which traits/utility skills I should unlock first and which abilities or combos go well together. Any help would be appreciated.

In all honesty, good riddance.

I’m glad you enjoyed it though.

You’ve never been able to crit on many bosses (all the dragons, Golem Mk 2, Fire Ele, Shadow Behemoth, etc.). It’s been like that since release.

You can however crit on a lot of bosses also (all humanoids, karka, etc).

In general, anything with Power is a primary attribute (i.e. highest stat of the three) would be good as “World Boss Farm Gear”. Soldier (PVT) stats is particularly good for Tequatl because the abilities in that fight hit for a lot.

Oliin.9581:

A fan of the fine art of understatement are you?

I had another word in mind but figured it might come out a little harsh. :P

Don’t you think that’s just a bit… much?

Does anyone know which attunement would yield the highest dps for Glyph of Storms? With many world bosses having fairly large hitboxes, it would not be too farfetched to assume that all attacks from GoS will hit. Given the secondary effects on Water (Chilled) and Earth (Blind), I’m think the only contenders are Fire and Air (which seem to have no secondary effects).

So which do you think would deal more damage for GoS? Fire or Air?

Molten Alliance Mining Pick is Masterwork Quality.
Bone Pick is Rare Quality.

The difference in quality is just aesthetic, right? I mean they have the exact same chance of getting rare quality mats from the same node, correct?

I don’t know about you but I didn’t get it for the fact that the laser shoots at the corpse but rather than fact that the laser’s big butt lands on the target’s face. :P

I prefer it the way it is as it allows me to hit elevated targets that would otherwise be impossible with ground targeting.

IMO, it’s better to have 30 in Fire as it not only gives you more power for harder hitting skills but also access to XII which grants might on attack. Note that you still gain might stacks even when attacking with conjured weapons as long as you are in Fire Attunement. I’ve found that in large zergs, I don’t always get the 25 stacks I’d like even when stacked up. XII allows you to more or less maintain around 10 stacks of might by yourself as long as you are attacking. Even if you do have a consistent source of 25 stacks of might, I’d prefer the 100 power over the toughness you might get from Earth.

As open world content, no ty.

Every single Anet Dev I’ve seen running around in Lion’s Arch or WvW is a warrior. What else did you expect?

zencow.3651:

For mesmers you can press F, cancel and re-channel it right before the mesmer finishes his tele animation. The stomp channel would be delayed enough that the stealth will end before the channel finishes, which is much more efficient than waiting for him to reappear for stomp. Lightning Flash not often needed for mesmers since their tele usually still leaves them in range of the stomp.

Would you happen to have a link of a youtube video showing this? I think I get what you mean in theory though it would help if I could see it in action.

I noticed none of them died or got downed.

The only time I ever use GoEP is as my second stun breaker for Jormag.

In that case, would that work against theives and mesmers too that become invis? As long as I can lightning flash right next to them before the stomp ends?

Hi. The strangest thing happened earlier. I saw a thief start a finishing move on a downed Ele. The Ele used Mist Form to run away and it seemed like as soon as he came out of Mist Form, the finishing move happened and killed him. How is that possible? Shouldn’t the thief have started the finishing move again from the start?

Ok, I’ll give in and spend on some Soldier’s Gear for Teq (mostly karma anyway). What I was wondering about is what would be the ideal runes/jewels for armor and trinkets. I’ve seen exquisite Azurite Orbs/Jewels. Is that really the best?

Might just be a bit too early for me. Good luck though!

I did encounter this once (at frostgorge) but it seemed to be due to being out of sync with the server (could have been lag or something else). I logged off to character screen and just logged back in. I was then able to interact with the scale.

And conjures being worse than our weapon skills makes any sense how? :P

Conjures should be better given the trade off you have to make to actually make them good, which includes:
- limited charges and on a cooldown
- losing weapon skills
- cannot use bundles
- lost when downed
- a utility slot (often used for defensive utilities)
- heavy investments in certain traits to make it good

It would make no sense whatsoever if conjures are worse than weapon skills despite having all these drawbacks (otherwise, what would be the point of the conjures).

If you want to argue that weapon skills are bad, then evaluate them for their own performance. But saying “conjures is better than weapon skills therefore weapon skills are bad” is not a good approach to it.

I’ve been running a more phantasm-focused build (in the hopes that it will help in the Orr zones) but I’ll give Lazy Kai’s build another shot.

I’ve also been using torch for the WvW zones. Almost tempted to put 30 points in Chaos for the stealth buff but I’ll worry about that later.

To be used for World Completion. Yes, it can be argued that every weapon set is viable for PVE. However, I’m no pro at Mesmers and am hoping to finish world completion as efficiently as possible while soloing. I would appreciate a little guidance on how this can be best approached.

Viable as in can you complete every single dungeon as a Staff Ele? Yes.

However, I’ve found S/D generally more efficient (i.e. faster kill/clear speed) particularly in its ability to apply large amounts of Might stacks which Staff simply cannot do at the same level.

True for me as well but I play neither my Guardian nor my Mesmer anymore (other than for crafting or parking them somewhere like the Quartz node).

This is the first Living Story for me (Since Flame and Frost) where it’s been a week since the content was released and I have so far only completed one achievement in the new category. I don’t find it interesting at all (and I usually finish all doable achievements within 24 hrs of LS release). I might get around to doing it just for the achievement points but mostly I want this over and done with so we can move on.

Some people like it, I guess. It’s just not for me.

Ok, thanks for the input folks! I’ll keep those in mind.