Guild Wars 2

Branden Gee.2150:

Thanks for reporting this! This looks like a scaling issue where the effect is scaling the character’s size but the skill itself is not scaling. A fix for this will require some design work so I can’t say a whole lot in regards to when it could be fixed.

Please no

Don’t fix the effect scaling or mess with the animations, don’t do any of that work

Just make it so all the models become those standard human frame models like in wvw, when doing sPVP

That’s all, no work, just get it done or kiss goodbye to any PVPer taking GW2 seriously when gameplay is affected by roleplaying factors like asura vs norn race choice

A year on, I think it’s time to admit the sPVP side has not become an e-sport.

Conquest didn’t work.

Time to try something new?

It is beautiful indeed, by far the most beautiful MMO.

I play in 1440p with everything cranked up and it even puts most single player games to shame.

lowest health + lowest armor = needs something else

- highest condition removal/immunity
or
- highest mobility
or
- highest damage
or
- highest evade
or
- you get the idea

There has to be a reward for the risk, that’s the key issue with ele

The argument of jack of all trades is a bit strange: we’re the specialists at having the lowest health and the lowest armor – a true jack of all trades has medium health and medium armor

The jack of all trades is, in fact, the engineer

Defensive boonspam, no ICD on cleansing water and RTL mobility was a potent combination to stay out of trouble despite the inherent fragility

Now that those have been reduced, something else needs to be added

Start there, solve the actual issue, bandaids don’t really help long-term

Also, have some beer and pizza

I’m rationally not scared of it

For it to work against retaliation, retal would have to be a condition, which it isn’t

But maybe it should be?

That’s a discussion worth having

JonPeters.5630:

xiv.7136:

JonPeters.5630:

Summation of high risk concerns for elementalist.

………..

I still believe there is work to be done at the grandmaster tier in Fire at the very minimum and that Air and Water are the only truly good grandmaster choice right now. There are also still a handful of just terrible traits that will still get looked at, but we felt like we were already bordering on changing too much.

Thanks,

Jon

P.S. bug fix for Lingering Elements is coming on Nov. 26th as well.

Thanks for participating in the thread, let’s get a good and meaningful discussion that will help you guys enact positive and balanced changes. Don’t be afraid of changing too much when a lot needs changing.

First of all, try Diamond Skin at 80% and see if anyone takes it. 90% is kind of pointless, esp for a grandmaster trait. I don’t even know if it’ll see much play at 80%.

Cooldown reduction traits don’t mean the same for elementalist as for other classes, we’re not weaponswappers who use 2 weaponsets (and some classes use 1 for 80% of the time), we swap attunements constantly. No one is going to take 20% in all lines, that would make for a horrible spec. Make them stronger in the 30% region for specialisation at the master trait level, or more accessible to open up some 2/2 options.

Cantrip mastery is one of those things that needs to be accessible. Elementalists need survivability options since glass cannons are as glass as they get, and they don’t do the damage of other class specs. The reliance on cantrips is a symptom of a different survivability problem with eles, not the problem itself. Speaking of which, LF stunbreaker, needed, come on it’s obvious that it needs it, it’s blink.

Also I think you need to have at least one attunement per weapon giving some decent single target damage. Looking at staff personally but those autos are just wack.

Also revisit some of that D/D stuff. I don’t know if you play D/D but it’s just not up to par right now, it needs roamer capability or what is it for.

Right now I am thinking 85% on diamond skin as high health eles could break this at 80% imo.

Also thinking 25% cooldown on the alacrity traits so we can move slowly. If we go 30% and have to nerf after that I would not be happy. The diamond skin thing is possible for dec 10th. The cooldown thing on alacrity traits is more likely to be the following patch because it has a lot of testing requirements that concern me.

Jon

Cool cool

Oh and that superspeed thing in air, think about bumping up duration if you want to keep it as is, it’s just too short

Beer time

JonPeters.5630:

Summation of high risk concerns for elementalist.

………..

I still believe there is work to be done at the grandmaster tier in Fire at the very minimum and that Air and Water are the only truly good grandmaster choice right now. There are also still a handful of just terrible traits that will still get looked at, but we felt like we were already bordering on changing too much.

Thanks,

Jon

P.S. bug fix for Lingering Elements is coming on Nov. 26th as well.

Thanks for participating in the thread, let’s get a good and meaningful discussion that will help you guys enact positive and balanced changes. Don’t be afraid of changing too much when a lot needs changing.

First of all, try Diamond Skin at 80% and see if anyone takes it. 90% is kind of pointless, esp for a grandmaster trait. I don’t even know if it’ll see much play at 80%.

Cooldown reduction traits don’t mean the same for elementalist as for other classes, we’re not weaponswappers who use 2 weaponsets (and some classes use 1 for 80% of the time), we swap attunements constantly. No one is going to take 20% in all lines, that would make for a horrible spec. Make them stronger in the 30% region for specialisation at the master trait level, or more accessible to open up some 2/2 options.

Cantrip mastery is one of those things that needs to be accessible. Elementalists need survivability options since glass cannons are as glass as they get, and they don’t do the damage of other class specs. The reliance on cantrips is a symptom of a different survivability problem with eles, not the problem itself. Speaking of which, LF stunbreaker, needed, come on it’s obvious that it needs it, it’s blink.

Also I think you need to have at least one attunement per weapon giving some decent single target damage. Looking at staff personally but those autos are just wack.

Also revisit some of that D/D stuff. I don’t know if you play D/D but it’s just not up to par right now, it needs roamer capability or what is it for.

Some of the changes are good, but overall this is not enough and old mistakes are still in.

Some of the balancing factors in arcane are really unnecessary
Rewards for being squishy need to be appropriately strong
The option to be mobile and survivable needs to return

RTL revert needs to happen
Stunbreak on LF needs to happen

Reverting past mistakes for the sake of better balance should not be an obstacle.

Windows 8.1 continues to impress

Ridiculous post tbh

An entire build based around being able to run away once per minute, using a convoluted combo.

Sad.

Here’s the even worst part: a warrior/thief will still catch you.

I solo’ed Jon Sharp’s shout-stunlock warrior on my condition staff 30-earth elementalist.

Sorry guys.

you seem like an ideal candidate for a razer naga

Prepare for disappointment, unless they add something last minute for ele’s

Shocking Aura: Added the shocking aura buff to the skill fact.
Elemental Attunement: Normalized this trait so that each boon can apply up to 5 allies within a 240 radius.
Evasive Arcana: Normalized the radius of each spell created to 180.
Persisting Flames: The duration increase for fire fields is now consistent.
Burning Fire: This trait now lists the proper skill names in its description.
Written in Stone: Fixed an issue which caused Signet of Air to lose its effect partially though the skill’s recharge.
Glyph of Storms: This skill now properly displays the duration of each spell.
Geyser: Increased the base radius to 180. Increased the radius when equipped with the blasting staff trait to 240. Fixed a bug so that the water field radius would match the increased radius with the blasting staff trait.
Water Blast: Increased the healing stat scaling from 10% to 25%. Slightly decreased base heal at low levels but it will heal for same base at level 80.

The rest is random conjure weapon changes

I was one of the first (and only) people to complain about the nerfs that started 3 months ago – people didn’t believe it, but 3 months on, I was right to be worried:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Prepare-for-serious-nerfs-next-week/first

Right now, it’s going to take a lot more than conjures and minor tweaks to get the elementalist back in fighting shape, especially for s/tPVP.

On the list of what is simply needed:

- Abilities usable in mistform again, cd reduction
- Stunbreak back on lightning flash
- Rework of glyphs and elementals
- Tornado made to be like necro elite with HP/toughness boost
- RTL nerf totally reverted
- ICDs on cleansing water and evasive arcana removed
- Significant buffs to staff reliability and front-loading (making lava font instant with a big first tick for example)
- Making investments in fire/earth traits to give much stronger results
- Major changes to traits in water/arcana lines to make more things baseline or at least more easily accessible

Ironically I think the only thing that doesn’t really need changes is conjures. I mean, who picked an ele to not use the attunements and abilities, and instead conjure up a weaker single-weapon warrior/ranger/whatever. Unless they make conjures more like engi kits, I don’t see the point.

UK here, same issue

same problem here

My D is just fine.

But I wouldn’t say no to a little buffing.

The problem with celestial is simple.

Low power.

While it is true all experienced staff elementalists know this stuff, the video is very well made and shows all the basic stuff to how staff eles work, making it invaluable to anyone toying with the idea of playing a staff ele.

I salute you for making this video and hope all budding elementalists watch it and take notes.

Well done!

EDIT: I just had a thought. This is the exact sort of thing which should be stickied, along with daphoenix’s d/d guide. Isn’t that what stickies are for?

Good on ya man, keep on having fun and enjoy

It’s a lopsided match-up and none of the 3 servers wants that. Have fun, keep things light and order a pizza.

Yaro.3251:

xiv.7136:

Here’s a much better video, enjoy the uninterrupted footage of our much smaller group wiping your BLAK + other guilds + pugs + siege zerg over and over and over:

http://youtu.be/sRJNvHMmUPo

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did

Holy c rap, dat acs at the start of Garri fight… xD

They probably went “Oh, oh, wait, I know! Let’s put 5-6 acs down here and watch they melt trying to get to us! Geeeenius!”

haha yeah xD

I like this one because the popcorn in it looks tasty

Werra.8173:

The other night, we came BLAKs + PUs. You [FG] always say you are 30 but you are a huge noob zerg. We have no respect for your guild. Thanx for loot bags. Stop dreaming, come back to reality, you just are a huge blob being insincere. We will never do any GvG against you, you are the kind of guild to say you are 30, but 40 in reality, and we wanted to anticipate. You have a poor reputation.
Thx bye and stop crying, come give us bag in game plz .

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w248/jueanderson/2222_zps501a61f3.jpg

http://youtu.be/sRJNvHMmUPo

Lots of excuses and backtracking coming from BLAK, but we can all see the videos.

After all the trolling and baiting, the backpedaling on the GvG, ambushing us with a zerg, actually dropping siege to fight us while having superior numbers at a waypointed garrison, and still wiping, over and over and over.

There’s no way left for BLAK to weasel out of this one.

Opetru.5940:

Just for your eyes : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11bc6i_blak-roll-on-fg-piken-square_videogames#.Ucwf2vkURQC
As you can see, BLAKs weren’t a lot

What’s really funny is that in your own video:

- It’s obvious you outnumber us by a huge amount, and actually surround us with sheer numbers, there’s far more blue/gold names than red names – and even then it still takes you a very long time, and many losses, to eventually get us downed

- Your chat box shows your guys telling the blob in /say to blob up on the tag, indicating that you’re gathering the entire borderlands on top of you

- It’s obvious that you’re preparing to ambush us at the meeting spot where you have scouts since you buff and move to the choke point before we’re there

- Despite continuing with your superior numbers, we wipe you every single time after that, when we’re not being ambushed in a spot chosen by you next to your respawn

Here’s a much better video, enjoy the uninterrupted footage of our much smaller group wiping your BLAK + other guilds + pugs + siege zerg over and over and over:

http://youtu.be/sRJNvHMmUPo

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did

Jue.6493:

SolarSpark.6729:

Jue.6493:

superbutt.6475:

Just to recall precisely events, at the first fight, we were arround 50 players (38 Black + 12 PUGs) maybe a bit more.
The fight was balanced, and we kicked your kitten so hard.

Then, we meet in east fort, we are still arround 50, and you are at lease 70/75. We are being wiped.

Then near Garison, you are even more dudes, you brought all server. Yeah we lost, but at least we didn’t run and fought hard.

Bring more people next time, oh no wait, you can’t, 80/100 is the server limit.

See ya, sweet dreams.

Sorry guys, Here are the screenshots of your [BLAK] Representatives confirming 37 players. You just said yourself your around 50 players. Good one, Looking forward to the video. Enjoy.
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w248/jueanderson/2222_zps501a61f3.jpg

We offered you the chance to do exclusive guild only three times, you declined them all and now your are whining about us having friendlies with us? You could of taken up the offer any time that night but you refused. Now you must taste you own medicine.

Dat paint skills Awesome haha

You can’t beat good old MS Paint.

lovely MS Paint work right there

We all had some good laughs tonight at BLAK’s expense

BLAK’s pattern of behaviour:

- whisper FG asking for a fight at even numbers, FG agrees
- then refuse to do GVG at even numbers (which is fine) but ask the FG warband to meet up at north of map, FG agrees
- instead ambush FG guild warband + pugs with 2 guild warbands + pugs
- get their 2 guild warbands + pugs wiped on the 2nd fight
- get their 2 guild warbands + pugs + siege (yes, siege) wiped
- get their 2 guild warbands + pugs + siege wiped again
- get their 2 guild warbands + pugs + siege wiped and start hiding in garrison for waypoint respawn spam
- get their 2 guild warbands + pugs + siege wiped and disappear

Fun fights, thanks for an awesome, hilarious and epic evening of WvW

People who think Fresh Air resets the cooldowns of all your air abilities, that’s clearly not what it does. It only recharges the attunement. Otherwise, yes, that would be completely insane.

Cantrips not breaking stuns is a big deal guys. Those stun breaks have saved me, and you, countless times.

Given what is happening with necros and other classes with torment, and other classes like warriors (who are getting very significant buffs), ele’s are ending up relatively weaker.

You can make the argument that the cast/recast reductions for staff make up for it, but it doesn’t fix stuff like fire 2 delay, air 2 missing etc.

Not a total disaster, but comparing to others, some very real nerfs there.

All I can say is… be ready.

Expect things like lightning flash no longer stunbreaks, bountiful power reduced to 1% per boon, and no real buffs to damage, etc etc

This forum is going to be a mess in a few days time.

Going into any room, anywhere, and just saying “I am better than you all” will make you rather unpopular rather fast.

Is this surprising? Hardly. Imagine your immediate reaction to someone else if they did that. What would be your thoughts.

If you prove you’re good, whether in a cooperative or competitive scenario, then you might get some admiration mixed with envy. But just saying it? Nah.

Simply put, it’s the gameplay.

The smoothness and precision of combat, the way it feels just right and rewards skill and a bit of piano-play.

I can’t play Skyrim any more because backstabbing as a thief in GW2 feels much twitchier, more precise and more satisfying. Meleeing in even single player games (not to mention any MMO out there) just doesn’t feel as smooth and clear as in GW2.

I could say it’s world vs world, guildies, the large scale events, the graphics/music, etc, but really it’s just that. It’s the gameplay.

I think air attunement should allow us to fly. It shouldn’t be called air attunement for nothing.

And earth attunement should allow us to be underground and untargettable for the duration. Like a mole.

or just let it be done with addons/API, the way the events/wvwmap addons are now

Kodiak, it’s obvious you don’t know how to play an elementalist, while there are others in this thread who do.

Your recommendations to go mainstats condi/heal/x are as poor as the people advocating full berzerker gear.

I stand by my simple, short first answer:

xiv.7136:

cavalier/knight for wvw, PVT if you are super-paranoid

zerk if you enjoy waypointing often

Kodiak.3281:

covenn.7165:

Kodiak.3281:

The other half of the problem is anyone with GvG experience will tell you that combo fields get dropped like MAD. In the murder ball (where both sides are clashing) you have no hope of planning a proper Combo field.

I disagree. The good GvG groups coordinate combo fields in a planned and effective manner.

I 100% agree. None of them are throwing down Water Fields in the murder ball to heal with compared to the more powerful utility like Necro Wells or Frost Fields. All that’s kept in the back. The other guy was making it sound like nothing but Water Fields get dropped on a big ball and everyone gets healed instantly so therefore any other kind of healing is pointless which just isn’t the case. Most GvG groups I run with or seen tend to do a Commander in the back that becomes the Support pile you back into if you need healing/support which is where most of the water fields and blast finishers are going off while the murder ball area (where your forces are engaging theirs) tend to be more along the lines of wells and other forms of large CC (frost field, static field, etc).

Kodiak, it’s obvious you lack experience of world vs world in organised groups. Do some, and then come back with build/gear suggestions.

CC by mobs isn’t too crazy. Some mobs will stunlock you, but you have a proactive trinket on a 5 second cooldown. It’s called dodge. If you get hit with CC, you will have several stunbreaks in your utilities, and possible even on your weapon skills.

Mobs will also put conditions on you. That’s why you have condition removal also. Make some decisions, actually know what you’re fighting and play the game properly.

Don’t blame the game for your own failings. It’s a L2P issue.

Autoattacking mobs endlessly till they (or you) die of boredom belongs in other games.

At least here the mobs fight back to a semi-reasonable degree, even if they are still super easy to kill.

Aeonblade.8709:

Mirta.5029:

Vayne.8563:

Eventually they’ll be able to…who knows what the next generation will bring…or the one after.

well both Xbox one and Playstation 4 decided to put hardware worse than my laptop bought at 2010. They’re far from handling MMOs.

Yes and two of the biggest next gen MMO’s coming out for PS4 and Xbox One proves you wrong honestly. Both of those new consoles are better than my 4 year old desktop by leaps and bounds, and it runs GW2 on medium settings.

I think you underestimating the hardware Sony and Microsoft are putting into their new consoles.

Guess which next-gen console this refers to:

- “8-core Jaguar about half the performance of a current-gen Core i7”

- “GPU equiv to $150 PC graphics card”

- “In short, then, today’s PCs will stomp all over the Xbox One (and PS4) in terms of raw computation power.”

oh crap the answer is in the quotes

Vayne.8563:

xiv.7136:

Project Titan was scrapped.

A month ago, they downsized the team on it and decided to start back on square one with the concept.

Really? I hadn’t heard this.

Press release from late May 2013. Titan project reset, team downsized. Think Duke Nukem.

Project Titan was scrapped.

A month ago, they downsized the team on it and decided to start back on square one with the concept.

I’m guessing it was WoW mechanics in space, and in 2013 that just wouldn’t fly. WoW’s game mechanics are old and tired, the only people still playing WoW are the slow movers who got left behind. Either that or it was MMOFPS like Destiny. Just not as good. Either way, Titan scrapped.

GW2 is the best MMO out there, with the best gameplay (and graphics/art). It’s not perfect, but nothing ever is.

Kodiak.3281:

Area Healing (Blast Finisher) = 1543 vs 1380 a 12% increase
Geyser (Skill) = 3262 vs 2649 a 23% increase
Soothing Mist (Trait) = 136 vs 95 a 43% increase
Healing Ripple (Trait) = 2419 vs 1602 a 51% increase
Regeneration (Boon) = 275/tick vs 166/tick a 65% increase

I’m very aware of those numbers.

It’s obvious you lack actual combat experience in organised wvw if you think those numbers make any difference. You’re gonna be fighting at least 30 guys (and at most 60+) coming at you with tons of damage and cc, extra ticks of 100 aren’t going to change the outcome.

- Soothing mist is tiny. 95 vs 136 is not going to save you anyway. It’s ok for a minor, but in actual fights, your ether renewal is going to save you, not this.

- Regeneration. The melee get theirs mainly from the guardians. Everyone in your warband should have it running anyway. 166 vs 275 isn’t going to save you, or anyone else. 10 melee blasting water fields will.

- Healing ripple is once every 9 seconds. It only benefits you (if you’re positioned correctly and not running inside the melee ball) and it’s a difference of 800HP every 9 seconds. Again, it’s not going to save you.

- Condition damage. Really? Do I need to even explain why this is bad when earth staff is pretty much purely for the cripple, aura and blast finisher. When every decent enemy group has condition removal coming out of every orifice?

Damage? Fire. (no, not Air, Air is pretty much static field attunement) 25 stacks of might. Direct damage that can’t be cleansed off.

You want to support your team, support them with fields for them to finisher on. Support them with CC. And support them with your own survival.

Support them with actual damage; not half-condition damage that gets insta-cleansed, low power and no crit. Power is a crazy stat, there’s a reason why 25 stacks of might is de rigeur in organised fights.

Cavalier + Knights. Power/precision/critdamage and toughness like crazy.

Staff ele is easily one of the most powerful specs in wvw, possibly the most powerful aside from a blind-necro. It has teeth, support and survivability all at the same time.

You can watch the video in my sig. Well timed CC, high AOE damage, support fields, and survival.

Kodiak.3281:

For Group Ele Support I rock a 0/0/10/30/30 build.

Gear I use Vitality/Healing/Condition (from CM Explorable).
Jewelry I use Tough/Heal/Condition (Passiflora Jewelry).
Weapon I use Vitality/Healing/Condition (from CM Explorable).
Runes I use 2/2 Superior Water, 2/2 Superior Monk, 2/2 Major Monk

This gives me a good mix of Vitality, Toughness, a lot of +Healing and +Condition. This is good because often times you will be focused when they see you in the back. If anything I’d say it’s a bit light on Toughness but with the amount of Protection you should have going on in the group ball you should be fine (where as by comparison there’s no way to gain more HP via buffs).

Power vs Condition: Most of our damage when doing support will come from doing conditions such as spamming Eruption. I find many times in WvW I end up sitting in Earth waiting to blow up an Eruption -> Geyser style combo or other various combos from people around me so making our primary combo ability do even better is always good. Also if you end up sieging walls, placing an Eruption along the edges will put 6 stacks of a very strong bleed now on a lot of targets because the size of it is massive.

The only real use we have for Power is destroying Siege equipment with our Fire AOEs which is good but base attacks are sufficient for that. Power based attacks typically synergize much better with Crit/Crit Dmg which we just can’t bring enough of in this build to very be noticeable. If you’re really a stickler for having more Power you could go with Cleric (Tough/Power/Heal) Jewelry and Weaponry probably.

Healing Power: This is pretty self explanatory. You’ll be dishing out a lot of AOE regeneration which benefits greatly from healing power.

Arcane Wave vs Third Cantrip: Cantrips are certainly powerful in this build but in a group support play Blast Finishers are huge. They let you blow up anything from Static Field (AOE Swiftness) to the more standard Lava Font (AOE Might) or Geyser (AOE Heal). Being able to Blast Finish on demand is pretty great and worth the loss of a Cantrip.

Utilities: Mist form should be pretty obvious why we take it. Cleansing Fire is fantastic because of Soothing Disruption and Cleansing Water. It basically means one button you remove 4 Conditions, Break Stun, gain Regeneration and Vigor which makes it one hell of a cool down. It also lights nearby people on Fire which with our Condition damage actually deals respectable damage.

Ultimate: The ultimate you could swap out if you prefer. Tornado is a great alternative if people bunch up on you because you can drop a Water Field and then Tornado spewing out Healing Bolts. Avatar of Melandru is another great alternative if you’re a Human because you get an AOE condition removal, AOE Protection and AOE Healing abilities.

woah woah woah

woah

never do this, everything you wrote here is completely wrong

a) healing power is awful for us. For guardians, sure, I can see it. We gain so little benefit from it, it’s a useless stat. It increases our healing by around 20% with maxing out healing power. Pointless. Never take it.

b) condition damage is awful on staff eles. Our big damage comes from direct damage, power is the best stat for that, stack it, in any build. We have 4 attunements, use them all.

c) get toughness. If you aren’t awful at playing an ele and specced right, your condi removal should make extra vitality past 15k or so unnecessary. Toughness will save you, over and over and over.

d) some people might mix valkyrie and celestial. This is because it gives up some specialisation for a mix of stats, but (and this is key) retains high crit damage %. The focus is on balance, but condition damage and healing? No.

cavalier/knight for wvw, PVT if you are super-paranoid

zerk if you enjoy waypointing often

Stealth water-condition glamour-grenades guardian with a pet

and 100 blades

yeah

TESO has all my alarm bells ringing.

- A team of randoms brought together by Zenimax to cash in on the franchise made by Bethesda.
- Ridiculous promises made about freedom to loot everything, stealth everywhere, etc etc
- Design decisions from 2008
- Leaked footage showing a pretty crappy engine and WoW-type gameplay

Honestly, it’s because they can.

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

There are other games to play, single player games that are excellent like Far Cry, Bioshock, Metro, etc etc

It’s a much healthier way to game than playing a MMO every day for hours because you need to keep up with the gear rat race.

I think we can all agree the ascended debate was way overblown back when it was raging.

Ascended items have been in for ages now and it hasn’t made any difference at all.

That GW2 is number 1 is basically the only correct thing in that list.

like

no

don’t