Guild Wars 2

vanensang.1389:

The Crusader’s Pack collection is bugged. I completed the story step “Prized Possessions” on a second character and I didn’t get the Resilient Vigil Belt, though I picked the Recruit’s Pack on that character and I already bought the Vigil Maintenance Oil in before. Yet it still shows me that I just have 2 items though I should have the Belt too.

I progressed the Scholar’s Pack collection to 5/8 when I simply played it through without buying those other three items.

Same thing with the “Golden Vigil Buckle” which you should get from finishing the story step “Strange Observations” by the way. Please fix that … half of that achievement doesn’t seem to work.

The Crusader’s Pack collection is bugged. I completed the story step “Prized Possessions” on a second character and I didn’t get the Resilient Vigil Belt, though I picked the Recruit’s Pack on that character and I already bought the Vigil Maintenance Oil in before. Yet it still shows me that I just have 2 items though I should have the Belt too.

I progressed the Scholar’s Pack collection to 5/8 when I simply played it through without buying those other three items.

1. Tempest (Overall): 2
2. Traits: 2
3. Warhorn: 2
4. Overloads: 2
5. Healing Skill: 2
6. Utilities: 2
7. Elite Skill: 1
8. Animations & sound effects: 1 – nothing special

Offensive utilities won’t work on ele – we would already run around with Arcane stuff and offensive Glyphs if it would make any sense to replace the Cantrips. The elite skill might help out Staff Ele for Static and Meteor just as reduce the recharge on Overloads … if the overloads would be any stronger. I had the feeling that 25% doesn’t seem enough. Maybe it could be fixed by a trait for Shout-CD-reduce. Once you have a Mesmer as an enemy the Overloads are just one more weakness for the elementalist. The healing skill’s cast time is too long for the healing value. In summary the Tempest is ok for PvE but not ready for sPvP or WvW.

Stop making screenshots of my home instance!!!

inb4 we just get a “mute minipets” option I suggest a whole “show minipets” checkbox!

I can act like wielding a spear … lole.

Timberline Falls all the way!

http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/62222654.jpg

My blademaster-mesmer posted already in the mesmer thread. But I heavily rely on mixed sets on all of my characters!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Show-us-your-Mesmer/page/33#post4877507

Glorious Hood, Sylvari T3 Shoulders, Carapace Coat, Carapace Gloves, Vigil Legs, Ascended Boots

Shield fits perfectly to my mesmer imo! I don’t want a mainhand pistol for mine at all ..

Got away from the spellcaster-Mesmer to a duelist/blademaster-Mesmer. Decided to play my headstart Mesmer again for a bit. Here is Tara Airgetlám again!

My newly clothed wizard hailing from ancient Albion! Theres just a cloak missing!

My druidic mesmer, Tara Airgetlám

As long thieves are able to perma-stealth I don’t see a reason to nerf PU in general. Thieves are direct-damage stealthers while PU mesmers are condition damage stealthers.

Personally I would prefer to see a focus on condition damage/especially confusion+retaliation, dazing and more possibilities to transfer conditions/boons.

You’ll actually need a good CPU instead of a good GPU. I’m running R9 290 right now and its really great. But it won’t do a lot to your fps. Instead you should buy a good CPU (Intel or AMD; it doesn’t matter).

Anyway … If you like to play recent MMORPGs a good CPU would be better in any cases for good fps.

AoE damage of Elementalist is too predictable and too easy to avoid. Thus he does not fit the mold. Furthermore the Elementalist does not even feel like a caster due to several reasons.

First off the game is too fast-paced for the Elementalist when wielding a staff. Most classes can easily close the gap of 1200 units. Moreover most skills of the Elementalist are executable while running. A traditional caster is static while doing a lot of damage. A static caster is traditional is a risk/reward role and the Elementalist has only two skills which fit this mold: Meteor Shower and Churning Earth.
And both skills actually do the biggest damage (not sure about Fire Grab right now).

All skills do little damage because the Elementalist is able to execute skills while running and his mobility/survival skills (which is not enough to justify it’s state right now).

No enemy would be standing long enough in a lavafont … Most enemies could easily avoid autoattack of the Staff Elementalist.

D/D and S/D actually feels like an elementalist-dancer which is a combination of an assassin and an elementalist.

I don’t realize Focus as an option for PvP purpose.

Actually the Elementalist just has the highest ranged AoE damage. Not the highest general AoE damage.

I’m used to subs and usually I’m also okay with them … Unfortunately, I don’t think that GuildWars 2 is worth 10 bucks a month at all.

Josh Davis.6015:

I just finished spending a few hours catching up on these responses. There’s a lot of good feedback here…and some…not so much!

I’ve seen quite a few posts mention the lack of bug fix mentions and I wanted to let you guys know that for the most part they’ve simply been excluded from the balance preview. Our designers have been and will continue to work on profession bugs all the way until this build is locked up and ready to ship.

I’ll touch base with the guys on Monday when we get back into the office and see if we’re able to provide any updates.

Thanks again, everyone.

Hey Josh,

I admit my last post was kinda too rude. But I don’t know how you guys at ArenaNet think about this. People are actually investing time into this game for entertainment purpose … Sadly there are some obvious entertainment blocker in this game. Why should a player pick a Staff Elementalist while everbody is crying since years for a developer statement? The preview balances obviously pushed Elementalist players back to Dagger/Dagger or Scepter/Dagger … Everybody knows that there is actually no reason to play Staff or Focus Elementalist in PvP/WvW without playing a supporter. Why is the development of the ranger blocked so hard? Why are several classes not as easy to play as other ones?

You see, the developers earn their money while working at ArenaNet. Thats their job I guess. Players come back after work-off, school, study or other stressful activities and choose to play this “not so much” time-consuming game. I think its even the same to some developers working at ArenaNet.

I guess ArenaNet would love to keep their players and this is not a warning nor it is meant as blackmailing or whatever. But why should players invest more time into GuildWars 2 when professions stay broken after several updates? Months after months? Soon a lot of great new games will be released and … frankly … I don’t see any reason to continue this game at all at this patch-rate. I’ve experienced more than a year full of “ArenaNet-balancing” in GuildWars 2 right now … And I don’t know what the hell is going on over there. Players don’t if their profession works as its intended to be. Whats left is that players keep relying on “meta builds” and this is just the wrong way to treat players.
Why am I not able to play that Staff damage Elementalist as I did in GuildWars 1 and several other games? Why am I not able to play a really awesome Ranger as I did in GuildWars 1? I experienced PvP balancing in GuildWars 1 for several years … And I don’t know what happened to the balancing team and their ideas and PvP-feeling.

And now people see these update-notes which has been already posted by another player on this forums several weeks ago … How did you guys expect the players to react? “Oh great, my Staff Elementalist is fixed”?

Frankly … I will try this update. On the other hand I see that there will be way too many great game releases in 2014. I couldn’t last one more “living world” update as a dedicated WvW player.

Other professions as the Elementalist and Ranger need to buffed to level of the warrior. The build-variety of the warrior is superior compared to the variety of those professions.

Actualy mostly played professions are Necromancers, Thieves, Warriors and Guardians because those professions are really easy to play. Its easy to plan with this character and to find a way for your playstyle. All of those classes have an unbelivable sustain, utility-variety, condition cleanse and all of them are able to deal tons of damage.
I don’t see why an Elementalist, Ranger and Engineer shouldn’t be easy to play as those professions to be honest.

All of those mentioned classes are not overpowered. Instead they are intended to work like this … And I don’t get why other professions shouldn’t work as those professions. Nerfing professions is a bad move to be honest. There is a reason why players don’t play professions as Elementalists or Ranger that often as Warrior. “Mastering” or finding a way to play those classes correctly in most situations needs too much of time effort.

Immobilize is a good control skill. Actually I feel that it SHOULD control your enemy. Every class beside the Elementalist have a really good condition cleanse. It won’t hurt to get one more condition cleanse. Since most players play the warrior I think that the Berserker’s Stance will help too.

I think immobilize is for ranged classes instead of melee classes as the burst Mesmer along with Sword/Sword. I think that the Elementalist’s Elemental Surge completely justifies a lot of immobilize. Anyway its just useful as a staff Elementalist.

I use Elemental Surge on my Elementalist since I was using Evasive Arcane pretty long … And it gets really boring in my opinion. The elementalist lacks on “finishers”. Stunning the enemy and finishing him like a Warrior is not possible with Evasive Arcane beside “Updraft” on Dagger 5.

Instant Immobilize and some more damage seems really cool, especially in groupfights i think that its more useful than Evasive Arcane. Its even useful for stacking chilling on your enemy and you could do some cool combos with “Arcane Power” and “Glyph of Storms” with Elemental Surge. There are some cool combos, you know. Instant immobilize is much more useful as “Signet of Earth” active effect.

Anyway it clearly lacks survivability. Evasive Arcane is great for condition cleanse and additional healing. When going on Elemental Surge you will have to use Arcane Skills … wich means less Cantrips for survivability. Anyway its really fun to have it and it feels powerful along with instant immobilize. I could root up a thief for 5 seconds or longer on one place … But its still not enough for my staff damage :/

… This whole balancing is pointless. Nothing changes anyway. “Big balancing” was promissed and – again – it was … way too less. I hope there is more aside those mentioned points but this is poor.

GODkitten IT THIS IS NO BALANCING. Don’t be shy, ArenaNet. Nerf HARDER. Buff HARDER. This is not consequent enough. Remember Searing Flames Elementalists in GuildWars? Why don’t we have something like this?

Even GuildWars 1 had more build variety right now on Elementalist …

Nothing will change. Thieves will one- or twohit Elementalists, warriors will faceroll them and mesmers will burst them. But hey! Don’t be sad Elementalist-fellows! We still have 4 element attunments which justify the state of Elementalists! Right?! …

No to any thief buffs. The classdesign is hilarious and inconsequent enough.

Actually I hope that it will nerf berserker thieves. Elementalists being twohitted is hilarious. And its not a l2p issue … The whole damagebalancing in GuildWars 2 is actually a big joke.

drkn.3429:

We’re taking damage from confusion on attunement swap. Not sure if it’s related to Elemental Attunement, or simply there. We also take damage from confusion upon dodging with EA; do all other professions (warrior, mesmer, thief, i’m looking at you) take confusion damage on traited dodge?

Confusion deals damage to dodge and weaponswap on every profession. Attunment swap is meant to act as weaponswap.

Mash Hog.5672:

vanensang.1389:

Inconsequent classdesign is the biggest weakness of the elementalist.

There is absolutely nothing which balances the lack of survivability, low health pool, low damage, too situational weaponskills and the weakness of several weapons (focus having too big cooldowns, is not direct enough; staff – WAY too slow or too little damage).

There must be something which balances weakness in general. I just see one thing which “kinda” tries to balance the whole situation as far as I understood ArenaNet by reading patch after patch: 4 elements instead of 2 weaponsets.

Sadly all of those elements are just weaker than usual weaponskills of other professions.

Those are all covered in the main post.
Which mechanic do you think Elementalists should capitalize on as their main “source” of survivability?

Combining traits and utility skills since utilites are always available in every elementstance. Elemental Surge is a great example. You can have a lot of sideeffects with Arcane Skills. Its too hard to get all boon bonuses of Cantrips by speccing in different traits.

Also I think that Lightning Surge should be a stunbreaker again. Nobody uses this skill till today.

The trait “Earth’s Embrace” (Earth3) is not reliable enough. Actually I think that it should trigger on Stun/Knockdown/Sink/Knockback/Pull/andsoon as the warrior’s trait.

Its just too hard to mix up all the different utilities to be efficient enough. Especially when speccing 30 into Arcane its not possible to have even more bonuses for Cantrips.

One of the most important things are that Cantrip-stunbreaker have a too high cooldown. “Endure Pain” on the Warrior has a 60s cooldown without any reduction.
Armor of Earth’ Cooldown is also way too high. Warrior’s “Balanced Stance” has a 40s cooldown and grants additional swiftness.
6s additional Protection and 6s Stability by Armor of Earth every 90s (without Cantrip cooldown reduction) is questionable. You will have 7.75s stability/protection of Armor of Earth if you spec 30 into Arcane. Thats still not enough.

Furthermore conditions are a HUGE issue. Does anybody use “Signet of Water” and it’s active effect? It should clear at least 3 or 4 conditions when activating. Else you will be pushed back into “Evasive Arcane” and Dagger-Offhand again.
Buffing Signets would be a good direction anyway since it would make “Written In Stone” (Earth12) finally viable.

Staff skills need to be faster – as mentioned. Its not possible to make a decent condition cleanse by using Healing Rain (Staff 5, Water). Its too slow and too ineffective for GuildWars 2’s fast paced combatsystem.
Focus skills need a cooldown reduction or better effects.

- – -

To sum it up: There are a lot of possibilities since there are still skills without good functions. Signet of Water’s active effect is useless and Arcane Shield doesn’t is not reactive enough. It needs more damage or a bigger counter so the enemies would watch out for that ability as for confusion.
Trait sideeffects are fine. I see that Arcane Skills are pretty offensive – This is okay … But as an Arcane elementalist its too hard to get good cantrips in your build. Especially if you don’t have a cooldown reduction for Cantrips … Which would bring us back to Water traits.

Inconsequent classdesign is the biggest weakness of the elementalist.

There is absolutely nothing which balances the lack of survivability, low health pool, low damage, too situational weaponskills and the weakness of several weapons (focus having too big cooldowns, is not direct enough; staff – WAY too slow or too little damage).

There must be something which balances weakness in general. I just see one thing which “kinda” tries to balance the whole situation as far as I understood ArenaNet by reading patch after patch: 4 elements instead of 2 weaponsets.

Sadly all of those elements are just weaker than usual weaponskills of other professions.

Malganis.7468:

I’m not understanding why Ele’s have the lowest health, and the lowest armor, but not the highest damage to compensate?

In comparison, Warriors have the highest health, highest armor, and the highest damage, and their trade off is the lowest healing.

THIS. Thieves are unbelievably squishy and do tons of damage. I mean … its legitim isn’kitten As warriors and mesmers they can easily get out of fight or somehow save themselves while still doing a lot of damage. The elementalist is not able to do anything as easy as those mentioned professions. I mean … Why shouldn’t he while being a two- or threehit to other professions anyway? What sense of classbalancing is this?

There is absolutely nothing which justifies the current state of the elementalist. Especially four elements don’t.

silvershadez.8421:

I played Elementalist from day 1. I got any class on 80 right now but I can barely enjoy any other class then my elementalist or my engineer for a longer period of time. I kind of play any aspect of the game but I would say I’m more of a PvPer playing tPvP and WvW in equal parts. I enjoy tPvP more currently because of the blobbing in WvW and the almost not existing roaming community (I don’t enjoy zergs)-

I was using the so famous auramentalist build and even some builds that represent the current ele meta like 1 month after release allready. I was aware back then allready that those kind of builds, especially our mobility would be nerfed badly. So I tried to play around.

It’s just my personal taste but I don’t like D/D. It’s way to predictive and repeative and makes it easy for your enemy to read you.

I honestly believe that there won’t be any major changes soon enough that bring us up the ladder, either by nerfing the other classes down to an acceptable level or by buffing the elementalist. ANet didn’t prove balance was a high priority yet. And alot of decisions and fixes went the wrong way.

I won’t last long in this game anymore anyway, since a very promising AAA title is just around the corner (no not TESO).

To bring me back here ANet should better have some work done, not by creating and promoting new living events, but by actually making the PvP part of this game enjoyable again.

Same feel here, dude. I was investing tons of time in elementalist to be “viable”. After I leveled up two warriors and mained a mesmer I couldn’t believe my eyes what gap and build variety exists between the elemetnalist and other classes.

Every other professions have meta builds and feature of the month rotation builds while every patch promises new builds while old builds are still viable while you don’t have to invest that much time.

I’m working a lot and I’m not willing to invest that much time into the elementalist compared to other professions. I’m not playing 7hrs a day anymore which would give me a lot of time to train myself with my character. Its too easy to look for a meta build as a warrior, mesmer, thief, engineer or whatever. Its too much time.

Speaking about “skill” I have enough if I have enough of time to invest. GuildWars 2 is meant to be a casual MMORPG from the begining. They said it and every content looks like this. A profession which needs a lot of time-investment does not fit here since there is no “warning” when reading the profession description or anything else.

Honestly, I think that the balancing-rollercoaster will go on anyway. Everything will stay the same after the next patch, whatever it might be.
The thief will onehit or twohit elementalist who don’t want to play D/D or S/D bunker builds while still being not bound to the combat due to tons of stealth. Warriors will faceroll anybody with current metabuilds. Mesmers won’t be bound to the combat either due to too many illusions and stealth while still having tons of damagespikes.

Why isn’t the elementalist able to do something special? Obviously ArenaNet thought that 4 element stances would be enough to justify the low damagespikes and sustain of an Elementalist.

Frankly. Thats enough. I already played and enjoyed games which will be released in some weeks. Those are something completely different than GuildWars 2’s “special profession treatment”. No offense, but … I don’t know if ArenaNet is smoking too much pot or whatever when I’m looking at the “promissed big balancing patches”.
When I want challange I can play Baldur’s Gate and goold old MMORPGs as Dark Age of Camelot. But this is a bad joke.

When GuildWars 2 was developed ArenaNet always said that they “want a game which they also want to play”. Patch after patch I’m asking myself if ArenaNet is really playing PvP content at all if they are not streaming on twitch.

Waiting to return back to Camelot. Sadly I lost my cloak in Tyria and I’m searching for it before I’m heading back.

- – - -

Guess I’m too old for bikini-anime looks. Its breaking immersion in my opinion. We never had hoods in GuildWars until one Christmas event I think. Now in GuildWars 2 we have hoods but we don’t have our beloved cloaks.
I reconstructed a fine and classic magician tunic. Crafting this godkitten ascended leggings was a hell of pain. I planned to craft the chest too but I don’t have THAT much money for those parts.
Also I think about farming those Crucible of Eternity shoulders since they look SOMEHOW like a little, little … very little cape. Guess I won’t anyway since it would just mean more farming.

I play an ele because I want to play a caster as in other MMORPGs.

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

P Fun Daddy.1208:

It’s pretty much only good for arcane power. Everything else ends up being really lackluster (who really cares about the small burn or chill? the blind is okay, but the immobilize duration is atrocious), but with arcane power you can easily stack 15 seconds of chill, 25 burn, and five seconds of immobilize.
Even then, its on a 36 second at minimum cooldown.

!

I had no idea it did this! That’s incredible. I’m going to have to give this a shot. Thanks!

[Edit] For theorycrafting: If that’s true… Do you suppose this might work with it:

Start in Earth.
Drop Ice Bow.
Arcane wave (for initial immobilize)
Arcane Power
Ice Storm (still earth attuned).

Each bolt falling (first 5) will cause AoE immobilize with the already-ludacrous damage and guaranteed crit…
That would be pretty lol.

[Edit Edit] If this becomes a ‘thing’ i’m going to dub it the ‘Go-go gadget Icebow’. You all witnessed it. It’s official.

Yes it works with Arcane Wave at least. It should work with Ice Storm too. You could even use Glyph Of Storms.
Its really easy to control stealthed enemies like this in my opinion. I’m running Elemental Surge for several weeks now and it works great. My build was pretty similiar to yours though I didn’t use Flame Axe.
Guess I’m the one and only Elemental Surge-Elementalist on my server right now … Thought my targets are immobilized for at least 4 seconds. It helps to counter Endure Pain and such abilities.
Though Warriors who use Berserker’s Stance won’t have a problem with it at all.

I wasn’t using Arcane Shield actually. I hope that it will work as a better counter against glassthieves.

Edit: I also still have issues with conditions. Cleansing Fire and Healing Rain is not enough.

It feels like an awesome battery skill in WvW zergfights. Since I mostly roam alone I don’t use it at all. During a 1vs1 enemies could easily realize that that battery skill is up right now. So he could easily stop to attack me and leave me with 10% of my hitpoints.

Last time I’ve seen it in action was when one warrior rushed into 5 or 6 other ones, most of them were thieves and I think one mesmer. So the enemies had a huge damage output. So he jumped in, killed one and jumped out of fight using that skill.
It kinda looks really funny when a warrior charges up like a battery when using Defiant Stance.

GS works perfectly with Mobile Strikes. Also you have one more Evade-Skill as a great gap closer.

Axe actually works really nice with “Leg Specialist” since “Throw Axe” triggers within 1/4 second. “Bladetrail” of a Greatsword has an execution timer of 3/4 second.
Of course its easier to use a Shield along with the axe to have more defensive abilities without a huge loss of DPS. Even Mace offhand; Axe mainhand works fine for control purpose.

Unfortunately the Greatsword cooldown-reduction lays in the Arms-traitline.
I think damage-spikes of both weapons, Greatsword and Axe, are pretty predictable.
Good players could easily evade a Hundred Blades-combo or an Eviscerate-combo.
Guess thats also the sense of damage-spikes.

In addition I also think that Greatsword works better against stealthed enemies since Whirldwind Attack (GS3) is a pretty good mobile AoE-attack. Shatter-mesmers mostly use immobilize before their damage-spike. So an evasive attack which saves you from a huge damage-spike while staying there with immobilization.
I think its also much better than Axe5 (Axe-Offhand) since you are not that vulnurable during that skill.

My little champion of the wild! Though having some clipping issues …

Hammer is too slow against a mesmer. I main a Mesmer while I actively play a Warrior (Axe/Mace-S/Sh) and I don’t have huge problems with Mesmers since they are predictable as Greatsword Warriors. Most bad Mesmers expose themselves in a battle by moving completely different than his/her clones.
Though Greatsword is a good option against Mesmers since you get an additional Dodge-skill which is great to avoid damage spikes.
But I think that Shield always does a great job combined with Endure Pain.

If you put enough traitpoints into Defense (At least up to Cleansing Ire) and at least 10 points into Strenght you will have enough condition cleanse along with Berserker Stance or Signet of Stamina . Its the most important thing against Mesmers and Necros.
And try runes and bufffood which reduces condition duration on you.

Also try to strike when they already dodged twice. Do something unpredictable and try to control them.
In my opinion warriors are able to eat tons of damage and conditions and you are still able to dodge a huge damage spike of a mesmer.

I think that ground-target Arcane Wave is really awesome combined with “Elemental Surge”. Its a step into the right direction.

As a PvP/WvW player I don’t play underwater at all.

Since Scepter/Dagger or Dagger/Dagger pushed the Elementalist into a melee combat I think its also a good skill for Staff-wielders now.

manolkata.2038:

I agree with u vanensang.1389 but i love my ele to much just to leave it. Again i wanted to show other ppl that love theyer class(ele) that they should not stop play it just because of other ppl flame or “underpower”.

Well, actually I stopped playing it because I’m working quite a lot. It just costs too much of my time to find a good build and to perfect it compared to a PU/Shatter mesmer or a Condition Warrior or Burst Damage Warrior, you know.
Most players probably already leveled other characters too and I can understand them pretty good if they get frustrated if they get bashed by a thief in hotjoin-PvP or in WvW.

Though I’m interrested into your build since I miss the good old “mage” feeling who wields a staff.

JohnnyZero.5619:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s;4NKVP0h4oK-60;9;4J-J-T28;218;259A5-k6;26TsW6TsWNBGW0-w6;3j-61t1EZ34Ra6Z-870HV8aNX8a;9;9;9;9;9;54-6V

Pretty much Tarcis’ GS/LB sPvP build but with PvE equipment.

Some traits can be changed up due to preference, like 10 point Strength and 10 and 20 point Discipline. The others really make the build and should be left as is.

If you’re having trouble with survivability, swap out Frenzy for Endure Pain/Berserker Stance. I would leave Bulls Rush in, it’s very strong if used well, for offense and defense.

Use Pin Down for setting up 100blades, and be sure to land your Arcing Arrows as often as possible; it hits hard and makes up a good chunk of your damage if used properly. If you haven’t played a grenade engi, this might take some practice.

With all the zerkers gear, this is more of a high risk/high reward play style. If you prefer to play a bit more conservatively, throw some more soldiers gear on.

Thanks, I think its worth a try! More builds are welcome though.

Congratulations. Frankly, I wouldn’t say that Elementalist is useless. Elementalist just costs too much nerves and effort compared to Mesmer, Warrior or Thief.
As a Warrior, Mesmer or Thief you can easily grab a Meta build and have successfull fights.

I don’t aim to start a “Elementalist is underpowered”-discussion by this post. But I still think that the Elementalist has no clear direction and that its too hard to find a really good build for that class.

Hey folks,

I’ve been roaming for ages with my hammer-sw/sh and later mace/shield even while Greatsword Berserkers were a feature of the month-build.
Now I tested several alternative builds like sw/sw-longbow, axe/mace-sw/sh. I’m still pretty bored of the hammer because I played it long enough. Frankly, I would be interrested into the greatsword again.

Frankly, I didn’t find any recent greatsword builds which I find pretty good. Most of them did not feature Cleansing Ire since I encounter pretty often condition builds.
Is hammer still so much superior than greatsword after the last patch?

I’m looking for a build for solo-roaming/hotjoin purpose. I’m not really interrested into WvW-largescale builds, PvE or competetive-groupbuilds.

Some new Traits were actually a good step. But it was not that step which the players expected.

Actually, I don’t see a reason to play my Elementalist at all compared to my Mesmer or one of my Warriors (Yes, I leveled two). I don’t really know what this class is for if it is not able to spike damage, to use his conditions decently beside blinding, or to control decently.

After one year I have the impression that ArenaNet justifies “No damage bursting” or condition overload by argueing with the Elementalist’s 4 Elementstances. If the Elementalist is intended to twist Elements then those skills should harmonize with each other while the chosen role should also be able to play.

Traits are good things which support the player’s playstyle. The only viable weaponsets of the Elementalist are Dagger and Scepter while the Staff is only good for PvE and WvW-zerging purpose. All other classes are able to play their own way with a defensive weapon. Warrior’s shield and Mesmer’s Staff are the best example. Both harmonize with other weaponsets easily. Why isn’t it possible as an Elementalist?
The Staff of the Elementalist, obviously a supportive weapon. A really, really slow one.
Playing as an Elementalist with a scepter/dagger or dagger/dagger + Evasive Arcana is still better and faster. The Staff is way too slow for it’s current skills. I doubt that I have to start discussing the Focus of the Elementalist here too.

If the Elementalist is not intended to twist Elements during the combat then those trait changes were way too weak too – While Fresh Air was a good step.

I’ve always tried to avoid Arcane and Water. But I always ended up with 10 points in Water and 30 Arcane.

In PvP you cannot avoid 30 traitpoints in Arcane. Its not possible at all if you want enough condition cleanse.
You have enough stamina to dodge and you still have a dagger in your offhand. Staff is still too slow, especially for condition cleaning.

Diamond Skin is useless, especially as a Grandmaster trait in Earth. 10% healthpoll is way too easy to break, especially as an Elementalist.

The idea of Auto-condi-cleanse as a Fire-Master trait is a good idea. But there is no other really useful fire-trait.
The idea of +10% damage against burning foes ist also good but the Elementalist is not able to build up enough condition pressure like the Necromancer, Mesmer or even sword/sword Warrior.
You HAVE to compare it to other classes. Condition-pressure is always the same tactic. For every profession. You could have … 2 conditions – Burning and bleeding. And its still not enough because even the Mesmer was able to clean two conditions pretty easy before the patch. Now its even easier.
Thus +25% burning duration is also not really useful. You could have perma-burning with more condition-pressure. But one condition is too easy to clean. You cannot build around burning in PvP-aspects actually.

Actually, I hoped that I would be able to play my Elementalist again. But its still far too worse. Maybe it was a cool change for PvE-players, I don’t know.
But PvP-wise I don’t know why I should play an Elementalist when I even have more fun with a sword/sword Warrior.

4 “Weaponsets” / Earth, Air, Fire, Water do not justify the current state of Elementalist. Absolutely not. All professions have more mobility, all professions could specify themselves on something (Necromancer: Condition-pressure, Warrior: Stunlock, and so on), all professions do have enough sustain and enough damage.
All of them just use 2 weaponsets and do work excelent. Why is it not possible to do the same for the Elementalist?
I don’t know why he should not be able to do a lot of damage with Fire-skills, especially if the Elementalist invests 30 trait-points in FIRE, which actually is a classic damage-spec. If Fire is not a damage-spec then I don’t know why it is in the game at all … Because it does not really enhance the damage of the Elementalist.
Water does work really good. It heals and cures conditions – as it should be.
Arcane also works really good if you specialize your Elementalist on Arcane. You are able to combine all Elements; thats the cause of Arcane as far as I understood.

- – -

I don’t know how to develop games. Actually, you guys at ArenaNet should know it.
My suggestion would be: Rework or enhance the skills of the Elementalist. I also don’t know if something like this is too expensive for you or if you just have way too little time for it.

But I know one thing: The Elementalist class should work like other professions. Thief, Engineer, Warrior, Mesmer, Guardian and so on. I played all of them. I had one good reason to delete my Ranger. Please, don’t push me to delete my Elementalist because I feel that he is useless compared to my Warrior or Mesmer. My other classes have much more possibilities, especially after that patch.

Just passing by.

Its even more ovious to me that ArenaNet does not understand how players want to play their characters. Back during the beta days, while GuildWars 2 was a really hot seat, ArenaNet promissed that 5 weapon-skills, which can not be changed, will still guarantee to play your character how you want it.

I just recall two weaponsets on elementalist not working at all in specific cases.
Staff and focus doesn’t have any space to envolve outside AoEing and defending. Ok, Focus has 8 skills, those are not very much, but the cooldowns are already hilarious.
I can’t use a focus when I want to focus on 1vs1.
Staff elementalists. The only usable places for such elementalists might be the WvW zerg or fighting against easy predictable mobs. There is absolutely no balance between casttime and casting while running.
Every class is able to do that and be really efficient in every aspect of the game. Even staff mesmers would rule staff elementalists while the elementalists still stands over there … waiting for the meteor shower to execute.

Comparing to the warrior the elementalist is a joke if it comes to build variety. GuildWars 2 obviously focuses a community which wants easymode. That game already competes with World of Warcraft drawing a lot of players from that place.
Its really easy to run whatever warrior you want. Sword/Shield? Mace/Shield? Even Offhand Mace and Longbow is usefull enough. Dualwield Swords? No problem, whether in 1vs1 or groupfights.

I remember how ArenaNet introduced GuildWars 2 with “every profession will be able to heal, to deal damage and to survive”.

The warrior is even a decent healer with that shout-trait same as a mesmer is able to do this with mantras and phantasms. Necromancer has an AoE-siphon and an AoE well, oh I don’t know where to start with other classes anyway. Every class is able to support and to deal damage.
Jesus, thats how you should be able to build builds in this game. But what happend with the elementalist? Oh, its already intended that those Staff and Focus skills are more supportive.

Wait … ArenaNet told me before I bought this game – And trust me everything was completely different during Beta days with those professions anyway, don’t start with “you had the possibility to test the game” – that I those 5 weaponslot restrictions won’t affect the build freedom that much?

Sigh … Elementalist and Ranger are those troublemaker professions which don’t allow you to play as you want.

Those supportive skills should be just deleted and implemented anew with traits – as with the warrior and mesmer. You’d have to decide if you want to be a bunker or not instead of being put in a bunker-profession with heavy build-restrictions.
The player already decided what role he wants to play by choosing a specific equipment statset.

Short thing on the “easymode or challanging”-discussion:
Well, I know what challange is from DAoC and Warhammer Online. There is a lot of easymode put in GuildWars 2, but I don’t want to complain right here about this.
While some players say about dodging: You have to dodge at the right moment!
It could mean on the other side: Lol, full damage avoided with one button.

Well, in the end I think that everybody agrees that the challange in GuildWars 2 should rather lie in the game’s combat. In the end I want to face the the player behind the profession instead of the profession itself. While mesmer and warrior have tons build variety the elementalist is put in a specific role as a Mage in World of Warcraft.
Of course, creative builds are awesome – especially if such vary from character to character.
But on the other hand its just obvious thakittens harder with some professions to create a decent build for a specific case as with other ones. And this sucks for the game itself and for my character(s) which I played up till level 80.

I’ve been running a similiar build with Hammer instead of Greatsword and Sword instead of Mace (due to the lack of mobility on Hammer) – and its just awesome since you can combine so much damage and control effects with physical skills as Bull Charge.

Actually, such builds let me really feel that I’m playing a Warrior as its intended to be instead of an Archer-copycat.

Cool fights, seems like those were made during the running match-up.
Greetings from Kodash.

Actually I don’t have a lot of problems. You just need to work with knockback/immobilize/stun and use block/riposte skills while they are stealthed. Its even better when you know the usual stealth timers.

Thieves will get in stealth if you bullcharge or immobilize them. Its just one cooldown – much likely not a high one.
Honestly … I never had a problem with Hammer/Sword-Shield plus 1 or 2 physical utilities. Its easy to control them if they are not stealthed.

Though I know its pretty hard to fight just like a blind berserker against thieves.

You have also tons condition cure … Use it

cool story bro

15chars

Defektive.7283:

peter.9024:

robocafaz.9017:

peter.9024:

Why are you taking sword instead of axe? Considering that you are still in a heavy power build the axe burst is superior to the sword bleeds.

Kaga.7629:

If you’re serious about bow dps, you need the 1200 bow trait to convert your basic shots into 100% finishers ( that you do, of course, thru combushot.)

This build is not cased on condition damage, it’s based on AoE burst (longbow) and mobility (sword.)

If we are talking mobility wouldn’t the GS be a better fit then sword?

Barely more mobility. Sword Leap isn’t affected by cripple or chill (GS is) means it’s a better escape.

Sword Leap you can vault over walls, across bridges etc.

Sword #3 Can crit as high or higher than a full whirlwind (one that hits all attacks).

Sword Has a useable F1, GS doesn’t. (More Cleansing Ire procs).

Sword allows you to pair shield = 3sec block, or Mace for a stun etc.

Sword auto attack does on-par damage to GS (some would argue, better).

I actually run a lot with shield offhand and well … I want to try something new. I like your build so far since I already played bow before that patch – and it worked pretty cool for me.
What do you think about Mace offhand for that build? Guess “Endure Pain” would be a must have then, right?

Aikanaro.2609:

You not gonna believe me, but 20vs20 is THE small scale PvP in this match-up. We are running 15-20 and cannot fight equal numbers, only blobs. And if Kodash are easy to handle sometimes, BB often contains guild groups + randoms (not less than 35). Blobs like that are not possible to kill with such small force.

Stop pushing us in your little SFR world. 20 men are definitely not the smallscale PvP in this match-up if you play WvW outside EU primetime.

Snowstorm.3897:

Moon.6371:

Thank you for the honest, well worded reply, Snowstorm. Your perspective makes sense, I guess I just don`t enjoy enough being part of a big group to pull your excitement and feeling of challenge out of it.

See you on the battlefield, good luck & have fun!

You too man! We all want different things from the game to be sure, enjoy your time in the mists

Now, can I ask, why does it take Xaoc, BOOM and ZBs to fight 20 Scnd+5 BuLL? Really? 80 for 1 guild. Sure, you have 4 guilds on the border, but you’re not running without the other 3 guilds close behind. Message to you, this is not T1, you do not have to blob everything to death. Its pathetic, and it makes your guild(s) look weak.

Well, you might know now what a fullgroup of 5 players thinks when something like this happens to them :P

Personally, I hate it when people hide behind AoE-cap. A lot skills get absorbed in a zerg and it destroys fairness and decent positioning in my opinion.

FINALLY some duelists who respect fair fights.

Thanks to Kessadin of [siN] and that engineer of [DOOM] on Baruch Bay. And of course many thanks to that Engineer of Second Law, also on Baruch! Really awesome fights this morning on SFR Borderlands!

Guess I will login more often this week for this!