While we're on the chart story topic, what the hell is the black citadel? It seems like a crashed future sci-fi ship with a shanty town built up around it
The time of "trading post" I hope so, would be nice to get this economy rolling.
Legend speaks of a "trading post" where players of old could exchange their hard won trophies with one another without fear of duplicity, but I'll believe it when I see it.
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ElldrenIs a woman dammitceterum censeoRegistered Userregular
As someone with a perma-pre character in GW1, the Charr still set me on edge despite everything.
Also the weird Searing-denialism that seems to pop up in Ascalon events and the Catacombs tends to get my goat.
Something that made me laugh way too much: When I asked what the asura lands were like earlier, my friend said "I think they can all be summed up as 'oh god, it's out of controoooollll'".
After having gone there, I must agree. Safety standards are not a highlight of asuran education.
Trading post, last I heard, is randomly on for ~50% of players. I've had it down mostly, but Sunday it was up for me. It's a really nice system, hopefully they get it working 100% this week.
Really, if they fixed the grouping issue when doing dungeons (where you end up in the wrong instance, though logging on as a different character real quick seems to work sometimes) and the trading post, they'd basically 90%+ of my issues with the game so far. Everything else is small little tiddly bits.
The Great DAMNED STEAM SALES AND WII/U Backlog Just Finished: Borderlands (waste of $7)/Mario Brothers U/The Last Story/Tropico 4 Currently Playing: NS2/ZombiU/PlanetSide 2/Ys/Dota2/Xenoblade Chronicles On Hold: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/GW2/Scribblenauts Coming Next: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/X-Com Classic
Don't feel *too* bad, there are plenty of friendly Skritt factions you can go snuggle with.
The Great DAMNED STEAM SALES AND WII/U Backlog Just Finished: Borderlands (waste of $7)/Mario Brothers U/The Last Story/Tropico 4 Currently Playing: NS2/ZombiU/PlanetSide 2/Ys/Dota2/Xenoblade Chronicles On Hold: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/GW2/Scribblenauts Coming Next: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/X-Com Classic
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eeSanGI slice like a goddamn hammer.Registered Userregular
So it's been 2 days since I spent 800 Gems on Fine Transmutation Stones and I still haven't gotten them despite having lost the Gems. I sent in a ticket and I hoped I would get them when the Trading Post came back up but no luck so far.
I'm pretty sad that my support priority seems so low despite having spent real money on this.
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
So it's been 2 days since I spent 800 Gems on Fine Transmutation Stones and I still haven't gotten them despite having lost the Gems. I sent in a ticket and I hoped I would get them when the Trading Post came back up but no luck so far.
I'm pretty sad that my support priority seems so low despite having spent real money on this.
Everyone has spent real money on this.
I believe the compromised accounts are still priority #1 at the moment.
So it's been 2 days since I spent 800 Gems on Fine Transmutation Stones and I still haven't gotten them despite having lost the Gems. I sent in a ticket and I hoped I would get them when the Trading Post came back up but no luck so far.
I'm pretty sad that my support priority seems so low despite having spent real money on this.
Everyone has spent real money on this.
I believe the compromised accounts are still priority #1 at the moment.
Not sure what you're implying with this, that my additional money spent on Gems is inconsequential since everyone paid for the game?
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
So it's been 2 days since I spent 800 Gems on Fine Transmutation Stones and I still haven't gotten them despite having lost the Gems. I sent in a ticket and I hoped I would get them when the Trading Post came back up but no luck so far.
I'm pretty sad that my support priority seems so low despite having spent real money on this.
Everyone has spent real money on this.
I believe the compromised accounts are still priority #1 at the moment.
Not sure what you're implying with this, that my additional money spent on Gems is inconsequential since everyone paid for the game?
I think it's the priority of ArenaNet's support team to return stolen accounts to their rightful owners. Once they've plugged that particular security breach they'll move on to dealing with problems like yours.
At least you can still play the game you paid for, right?
So it's been 2 days since I spent 800 Gems on Fine Transmutation Stones and I still haven't gotten them despite having lost the Gems. I sent in a ticket and I hoped I would get them when the Trading Post came back up but no luck so far.
I'm pretty sad that my support priority seems so low despite having spent real money on this.
Everyone has spent real money on this.
I believe the compromised accounts are still priority #1 at the moment.
Not sure what you're implying with this, that my additional money spent on Gems is inconsequential since everyone paid for the game?
I think your just being impatient. No implications here.
Blame the people who failed to use proper security with their accounts instead of A.Net. Because people continued using passwords that were insecure and using the same information across games, despite several warnings from fellow gamers & the developer.... the rest of the support tickets will be dealt with as a low priority until those are cleared up.
My wife and I have been having a blast. The ability for me to keep playing one character and then drop back and play with her is a huge boon. I am so happy I don't need "Regular Character", "Wife Alt", "Friend Alt". The level scaling stuff is brilliant.
This. This so much. I totally feel you on the "wife alt" thing bro.
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
I feel WuvWuv should be giving more experience then it does right now.
It is chaotic and extremely fun, but for the time you invest in PvP events, which can take a somewhat long time, the rewards don't seem to be worth it. Instead of somethig like 327 experience for a fort takeover, I feel that should be ramped up to 500-600 xp. Instead of 214 for a logging/supply base it should be ratched up to 300-350 xp. Am I the only one who thinks this way?
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Does anyone know if there is a place with the Sylvari racial weapon T2 where you can see the blade?
I wrote up a little guide explaining my elementalist build for gw2guru because the sub-forum was pretty crap, and I'm hoping it will cub some of the complaints there. Here it is under the spoiler for any ele's interested.
Scepter/Dagger Arcane Combo
This build takes heavy advantage of Combo Field and Combo Finishers, specifically blast finishers. If you are unfamiliar with Combo Fields and Combo Finishers, please take a look at this wiki page. Utilizing these combos will allow your team to output significantly greater damage, and luckily for us elementalists we don't need to rely on teammates to do massive damage with combos.
We will be focusing on the Fire Field -> Blast Finisher combo to stack might on our elementalist. You will have the ability to stack Might (Power) with this combo, which will significantly increase the amount of damage you do.
Weapon Selection
As the name suggest, this build utilizes the Scepter and Dagger as weapon. Let me break down the skills I use most.
Fire Attunement: All skills. Main source of Combo
Water Attunement: Mostly only to heal/drop conditions. Will switch in and 5/4/3 real quick.
Air Attunement: Default/Starting Attunement. Using all skills
Earth Attunement: Used against high toughness targets and to build our combo higher when fire grab is on cooldown.
Dragon Tooth and Fire Grab are your two biggest hitters. But as you likely already know, they are very hard to hit with. With positioning though we can increase our chances of these two devastating skills of hitting our target. After the Utility section I will describe the combo.
Utility Skills
Heal: This is going to be personal preference. I like the large heal that places a buff on you. This build is bursty and most fights will be over before you get the benefit of the signet heal in my opinion. I have tried both and I don't really see a clear advantage, other than the channel heal sucks for my playstyle.
Utility 1: Mist form. There is no arguement. All elementalists need this skill. If you don't have it, then thieves and warriors will destroy you over and over and is the #1 reason why some of you complain so much about Hundred Blades. It breaks stun and makes you invulnerable.
Utility 2: Arcane Blast. This is a high damage attack that always crits and has a short cooldown. It also has the Combo: Projectile Finisher attribute, making it very powerful.
Utility 3: Arcane Wave. This is a high damage AE attack that always crits and dictates how often we do our combo. It has a Combo: Blast Finisher attribute and is the skill we use to time when to go into Fire attunement and do our combo.
Ultimate: I personally like the Glyph of Elementals. Preferebly Air Elemental, as the RNG stun on it can help land your Dragon Tooth for you. I want to start playing with the Fiery Greatsword as I believe that is a Blast Finisher and has some good damage output, but I am unfamiliar with the weapon skills as of this time.
The Combo
Okay, now that we got a brief overview of the skills out of the way, lets talk about "The Combo" I've been alluding too. You are going to use Fire Field (Fire Attunement, Dagger skill #4) to place down a Combo Field. You will then use Blast Finishers (Dragon Tooth, Pheonix, Arcane Wave, Earth Quake, Churning Earth) to build stacks of Might on you. You can get up to 17-20, but most of the time you will be around 9-12 stacks. The combo itself will do upwards of 12k damage, and after that Dragon Tooth's and Fire Grab will crit for 4k or so.
The base combo that we can use every time Arcane Wave is up
Fire Field -> Pheonix -> Dragon Tooth -> Arcane Wave -> Arcane Blast
Fire skill 4 -> Fire Skill 3 -> Fire Skill 2 -> Utility 3 -> Utility 2
This Combo comes out very quickly as you can cast Arcane Wave and Arcane Blast at any time, during other skills and even when you are knocked down and maybe while stunned.
If that doesn't give you enough juicy Might Stacks for you, switch into Earth while the fire field is still up and bust out Earthquake and Churning Earth for more stacks. So the Combo looks like
The fire field lasts just long enough for that full combo. If you are slow, have high latency, or are interrupted in anyway then you won't get the full combo off. It works very well in PvE to do the entire full combo.
Tips to land the Combo
Landing this in PvE is extremely easy. It will also kill anything in one combo so long as you keep your gear up to date (no less than 8 levels below you for any piece, keep weapons as close to your level as possible). Landing it in PvP is a little more difficult though as you will likely protest.
Landing in PvE. This is where Lightning Attunement becomes the Default attunement to be in, to set the combo up, and to switch back to as it's damage is entirely based off your Power attribute.
The Set up for PvP
The basic Jist for the set up is simple. Knock them down with Updraft, and Ride the Lightning back to them quickly. As you are riding in, switch to fire immediately and bust out the combo. If you can, try to do the setup after they have exhausted their endurance. If you just straight up do it right away, they are most likely going to roll out of your combo and half of the skills will get evaded. You will still get the might stacks, so it's not a total loss but they will get out of it with most of their health intact, and if you had just waited for them to roll you would have outright killed them in the combo.
Start in Air Attunement Blast them with Lightning Strike and Blinding Flash them whenever you think they are going to do a strong hit. Dodge roll other strong hits and to make them remember they can dodge also to try and social engineer it out of them. When you are ready, unleash the fury.
Now the Combo chain looks like this.
Updraft -> Ride the Lightning -> Fire Attunement -> Fire Field -> Pheonix -> Dragon Tooth -> Arcane Wave -> Arcane Blast
At this point, if all your skills landed, then they are either dead or forced to blow all defensive cooldowns. Unfortunately Updraft has a longer cooldown than the combo, so this can only be an opener, unless the fight lasts 40+ seconds
okay, let's talk about Traits and pvp Runes
Traits
I've been running a 30/10/0/0/30 build lately. There is some leeway here, and I've been thinking about dropping some Arcane to put into somewhere else. I'm reluctant to put more into Air for precision because two of our skills have 100% crit rate no matter what (the Arcane skills).
Fire: MORE POWER!! 30 points here is good. You will notice that I don't have a trait selected in that build link, that's because it's old and doesn't have the 5% extra damage to burning targets. The big one being getting a might stack for every fire skill we cast, just stack it up higher baby.
Air: Without 10 in air, you'd have like 0% Crit rate with the runes I use, and that's just not fun.
Arcane: Lower cooldown on arcane skills so we can do the combo more often. Get a might buff when we switch to fire (and more importantly a protection buff when switching to earth). The 3rd skill you can feel free to switch around, or even drop 10 points and put somewhere else.
PvP Runes
I'm boring and despite making this guide lack creativity, so I go with Divinity. Give us 60 to all stats so a good balance between damage and survivability. Get the Power-Toughness-Vitality neck, without it you only will have 12k health and Warriors will down you in one Eviscerate. For weapons, I use 5% Damage on the Scepter, and 60% Chance to remove condition on Dagger. We only have one condition drop in Water Skill #5, so I hope that the 60% chance is good enough to drop bleed stacks off me. Don't know if it works that well though.
Well, my attentions span is starting to wain, so I'm going to wrap it up here. I plan to make updates later, and I plan on putting together some videos showing how the combo works and what you can expect out of it. I will also try to update to give tips on how to fight certain professions. Keep in mind though that I am nowhere near as good as some of the people that PvP a lot more than me, but I think my advice is still good and worth having. It's much better than whining about how shit elementalist damage is, because that is just not true.
If you would like some advice in game, you can reach me at Myrkur.7049. I play an Elementalist named "Jaryn Har" on Gates of Madness, so if you see me in game give me a /wave.
And one last thing. I'm looking for a condition damage build with high toughness and vitality. Show me what you've got, because I haven't been able to make one work nearly as well as my Arcane Dynamo. Also, I could use tips on how to defeat Guardians (is it even possible?! GOD) and Mesmers (one beat the shit out of me last night, soooo gotta learn what the hell was going on in that matchup).
Thanks guys, and check back later for Videos of the combo in practice. Also ask me anything I guess.
Does anyone know if there is a place with the Sylvari racial weapon T2 where you can see the blade?
I have seen quite a number of sylvari NPCs carrying the sylvari racial weapons. The blade is a sort of blue/crystalline looking blade. You can probably find some in Grove or Caledon.
I'm totally digging my Charr story (20 necro) and I was pretty shell shocked from the Searing event from Prophecies. I immediately rolled a new guy and stayed pre for a long time.
I don't need to be the good guy, there's a reason the Charr intro videos all have variations of stabbing humans. Screw those Flame legion guys, we killed their pathetic gods and these ghosts are just par for the course. Once we take care of them and the elder dragons it's going back to business as usual.
DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
I really want to like this game, but I feel like I'm too dumb to "get it." I rolled a human, did my story quest stories and some of the hearts on the map, and now I'm too low level to move to the next zone. How are you staying "in the curve" of progression so you don't have to back-track to other starting zones or World v. World to earn XP?
I just feel like running around, waiting for events to pop or back-tracking to other starting zones is doing it wrong.
Do All the hearts in your starting zone! I know I had a bit of trouble keeping up with the storyline level at first but once I started running from heart to heart, picking up waypoints and vistas on my way I managed to catch up without going to other zones.
Queensdale can be a bit tight on the levels. As Fireflash said, definitely do all the hearts, picking up events as you go along (don't have to wait around for them unless you know a cool one is about to start). Get all the points of interests and vistas and such. Gather all the crafting materials you see as well (also worth xp). If you're still short, try a spot of crafting. However, going to another starting zone isn't backtracking as such though, with down leveling and map completion rewards, and skill points there too, it's still worth going to them.
Fantasyrogue on
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Does anyone know if there is a place with the Sylvari racial weapon T2 where you can see the blade?
I have seen quite a number of sylvari NPCs carrying the sylvari racial weapons. The blade is a sort of blue/crystalline looking blade. You can probably find some in Grove or Caledon.
I've seen the t1 around plenty but not the tier2. Is the blade the exact same on the tier 2? The hilt is definitely different.
So it's been 2 days since I spent 800 Gems on Fine Transmutation Stones and I still haven't gotten them despite having lost the Gems. I sent in a ticket and I hoped I would get them when the Trading Post came back up but no luck so far.
I'm pretty sad that my support priority seems so low despite having spent real money on this.
Everyone has spent real money on this.
I believe the compromised accounts are still priority #1 at the moment.
Not sure what you're implying with this, that my additional money spent on Gems is inconsequential since everyone paid for the game?
I think your just being impatient. No implications here.
Blame the people who failed to use proper security with their accounts instead of A.Net. Because people continued using passwords that were insecure and using the same information across games, despite several warnings from fellow gamers & the developer.... the rest of the support tickets will be dealt with as a low priority until those are cleared up.
I'm a fanboi, but I'm going to disagree. I think that A-net is starting to get themselves into some trouble. The lack of two-factor authentication on launch, when that is now a market STANDARD, was a major problem.
And then having a gem store which will take your money and not provide you with your purchase? That's completely and totally unacceptable. Consumers don't allow that from anyone. If you buy something digitally and still don't have access to it a few days later, you get pissed, and rightfully so.
I love this game, but A-net has some serious problems it needs to work out, and work out within the next couple days, or it's going to burn them badly. The launch has been pretty smooth and lots of people can play the basic game without major problems, which is pretty ahead of the curve for an MMO launch. Some key features are sorely lacking (fully functioning gem shop, functioning trading post, grouping getting people on the right server). I'm still positive this is going to be a great game, but everyone is waiting to see whether A-net can get this together quickly.
Anyway, my point was: Dude totally has a legitimate and solid reason to complain. The company took his money and didn't give him anything for it. Needs to be fixed. And other people need to know that they might not want to use the gem shop till it's sorted. I've bought some gems and everything worked for me, but I'd be super pissed too if I had that problem.
What is this I don't even.
+1
DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
Queensdale can be a bit tight on the levels. As Fireflash said, definitely do all the hearts, picking up events as you go along (don't have to wait around for them unless you know a cool one is about to start). Get all the points of interests and vistas and such. Gather all the crafting materials you see as well (also worth xp). If you're still short, try a spot of crafting. However, going to another starting zone isn't backtracking as such though, with down leveling and map completion rewards, and skill points there too, it's still worth going to them.
I did all of that, and 100%'ed the zone. My story quest then had my move one zone south of the swamp, and the very FIRST quest I got there had me fighting enemies anywhere from 15 (I was 14) to 20. The next two hearts were 16 and 18, respectively. After completing the quest I wasn't anywhere near 16. It seems like every heart jumps two levels at a time, and I'm lucky to even get 1/2 a level in doing one of the quests.
Now, I'm 17 and every quest and area in this zone where I "should" go next are in the 20's. I can solo one monster at a time but anything else is impossible.
It really feels like I'm missing something when the first heart is my level, then the next one is two levels higher and I'm not even close to closing the gap. I wish the game did a better job of pointing out where to go and what to do next. It's hand-holding, sure, but it's super unclear to me what I should be doing when. The scouts do a good job uncovering zones and showing me quests, but I'm still under-leveled. And when I manage to close the gap, I'm still vastly under-leveled for whatever comes "next."
And then I see all these people in their 40's and I just feel like a failure because there's something I'm not getting.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I really want to like this game, but I feel like I'm too dumb to "get it." I rolled a human, did my story quest stories and some of the hearts on the map, and now I'm too low level to move to the next zone. How are you staying "in the curve" of progression so you don't have to back-track to other starting zones or World v. World to earn XP?
I just feel like running around, waiting for events to pop or back-tracking to other starting zones is doing it wrong.
I hear the human starting zone is rough but also don't be afraid to go to a higher level zone. You can handle stuff 5 levels higher than you without too much trouble.
Also after the starting zone you will almost certainly be leveling in multiple zones of the same level range unless you do a lot of crafting.
Queensdale can be a bit tight on the levels. As Fireflash said, definitely do all the hearts, picking up events as you go along (don't have to wait around for them unless you know a cool one is about to start). Get all the points of interests and vistas and such. Gather all the crafting materials you see as well (also worth xp). If you're still short, try a spot of crafting. However, going to another starting zone isn't backtracking as such though, with down leveling and map completion rewards, and skill points there too, it's still worth going to them.
I did all of that, and 100%'ed the zone. My story quest then had my move one zone south of the swamp, and the very FIRST quest I got there had me fighting enemies anywhere from 15 (I was 14) to 20. The next two hearts were 16 and 18, respectively. After completing the quest I wasn't anywhere near 16. It seems like every heart jumps two levels at a time, and I'm lucky to even get 1/2 a level in doing one of the quests.
Now, I'm 17 and every quest and area in this zone where I "should" go next are in the 20's. I can solo one monster at a time but anything else is impossible.
It really feels like I'm missing something when the first heart is my level, then the next one is two levels higher and I'm not even close to closing the gap. I wish the game did a better job of pointing out where to go and what to do next. It's hand-holding, sure, but it's super unclear to me what I should be doing when. The scouts do a good job uncovering zones and showing me quests, but I'm still under-leveled. And when I manage to close the gap, I'm still vastly under-leveled for whatever comes "next."
And then I see all these people in their 40's and I just feel like a failure because there's something I'm not getting.
You basically have to do a fair amount of crafting/gathering and hunt events to keep up in levels early on, or hit the other starter zones. Around 35ish or so there are more zones than you get levels from, but before that you will always be underleveled unless you spend some times crafting and actually hunting events. If you want a craft with easy exp, get cooking. You basically put in karma/money, and get exp out of it with some wikiing for which karma vendor sells what ingredient at some points.
Queensdale can be a bit tight on the levels. As Fireflash said, definitely do all the hearts, picking up events as you go along (don't have to wait around for them unless you know a cool one is about to start). Get all the points of interests and vistas and such. Gather all the crafting materials you see as well (also worth xp). If you're still short, try a spot of crafting. However, going to another starting zone isn't backtracking as such though, with down leveling and map completion rewards, and skill points there too, it's still worth going to them.
I did all of that, and 100%'ed the zone. My story quest then had my move one zone south of the swamp, and the very FIRST quest I got there had me fighting enemies anywhere from 15 (I was 14) to 20. The next two hearts were 16 and 18, respectively. After completing the quest I wasn't anywhere near 16. It seems like every heart jumps two levels at a time, and I'm lucky to even get 1/2 a level in doing one of the quests.
Now, I'm 17 and every quest and area in this zone where I "should" go next are in the 20's. I can solo one monster at a time but anything else is impossible.
It really feels like I'm missing something when the first heart is my level, then the next one is two levels higher and I'm not even close to closing the gap. I wish the game did a better job of pointing out where to go and what to do next. It's hand-holding, sure, but it's super unclear to me what I should be doing when. The scouts do a good job uncovering zones and showing me quests, but I'm still under-leveled. And when I manage to close the gap, I'm still vastly under-leveled for whatever comes "next."
And then I see all these people in their 40's and I just feel like a failure because there's something I'm not getting.
How many dynamic events are you hitting? I've found that getting caught up in a chain of them is the best way to level.
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
I wrote up a little guide explaining my elementalist build for gw2guru because the sub-forum was pretty crap, and I'm hoping it will cub some of the complaints there. Here it is under the spoiler for any ele's interested.
Scepter/Dagger Arcane Combo
This build takes heavy advantage of Combo Field and Combo Finishers, specifically blast finishers. If you are unfamiliar with Combo Fields and Combo Finishers, please take a look at this wiki page. Utilizing these combos will allow your team to output significantly greater damage, and luckily for us elementalists we don't need to rely on teammates to do massive damage with combos.
We will be focusing on the Fire Field -> Blast Finisher combo to stack might on our elementalist. You will have the ability to stack Might (Power) with this combo, which will significantly increase the amount of damage you do.
Weapon Selection
As the name suggest, this build utilizes the Scepter and Dagger as weapon. Let me break down the skills I use most.
Fire Attunement: All skills. Main source of Combo
Water Attunement: Mostly only to heal/drop conditions. Will switch in and 5/4/3 real quick.
Air Attunement: Default/Starting Attunement. Using all skills
Earth Attunement: Used against high toughness targets and to build our combo higher when fire grab is on cooldown.
Dragon Tooth and Fire Grab are your two biggest hitters. But as you likely already know, they are very hard to hit with. With positioning though we can increase our chances of these two devastating skills of hitting our target. After the Utility section I will describe the combo.
Utility Skills
Heal: This is going to be personal preference. I like the large heal that places a buff on you. This build is bursty and most fights will be over before you get the benefit of the signet heal in my opinion. I have tried both and I don't really see a clear advantage, other than the channel heal sucks for my playstyle.
Utility 1: Mist form. There is no arguement. All elementalists need this skill. If you don't have it, then thieves and warriors will destroy you over and over and is the #1 reason why some of you complain so much about Hundred Blades. It breaks stun and makes you invulnerable.
Utility 2: Arcane Blast. This is a high damage attack that always crits and has a short cooldown. It also has the Combo: Projectile Finisher attribute, making it very powerful.
Utility 3: Arcane Wave. This is a high damage AE attack that always crits and dictates how often we do our combo. It has a Combo: Blast Finisher attribute and is the skill we use to time when to go into Fire attunement and do our combo.
Ultimate: I personally like the Glyph of Elementals. Preferebly Air Elemental, as the RNG stun on it can help land your Dragon Tooth for you. I want to start playing with the Fiery Greatsword as I believe that is a Blast Finisher and has some good damage output, but I am unfamiliar with the weapon skills as of this time.
The Combo
Okay, now that we got a brief overview of the skills out of the way, lets talk about "The Combo" I've been alluding too. You are going to use Fire Field (Fire Attunement, Dagger skill #4) to place down a Combo Field. You will then use Blast Finishers (Dragon Tooth, Pheonix, Arcane Wave, Earth Quake, Churning Earth) to build stacks of Might on you. You can get up to 17-20, but most of the time you will be around 9-12 stacks. The combo itself will do upwards of 12k damage, and after that Dragon Tooth's and Fire Grab will crit for 4k or so.
The base combo that we can use every time Arcane Wave is up
Fire Field -> Pheonix -> Dragon Tooth -> Arcane Wave -> Arcane Blast
Fire skill 4 -> Fire Skill 3 -> Fire Skill 2 -> Utility 3 -> Utility 2
This Combo comes out very quickly as you can cast Arcane Wave and Arcane Blast at any time, during other skills and even when you are knocked down and maybe while stunned.
If that doesn't give you enough juicy Might Stacks for you, switch into Earth while the fire field is still up and bust out Earthquake and Churning Earth for more stacks. So the Combo looks like
The fire field lasts just long enough for that full combo. If you are slow, have high latency, or are interrupted in anyway then you won't get the full combo off. It works very well in PvE to do the entire full combo.
Tips to land the Combo
Landing this in PvE is extremely easy. It will also kill anything in one combo so long as you keep your gear up to date (no less than 8 levels below you for any piece, keep weapons as close to your level as possible). Landing it in PvP is a little more difficult though as you will likely protest.
Landing in PvE. This is where Lightning Attunement becomes the Default attunement to be in, to set the combo up, and to switch back to as it's damage is entirely based off your Power attribute.
The Set up for PvP
The basic Jist for the set up is simple. Knock them down with Updraft, and Ride the Lightning back to them quickly. As you are riding in, switch to fire immediately and bust out the combo. If you can, try to do the setup after they have exhausted their endurance. If you just straight up do it right away, they are most likely going to roll out of your combo and half of the skills will get evaded. You will still get the might stacks, so it's not a total loss but they will get out of it with most of their health intact, and if you had just waited for them to roll you would have outright killed them in the combo.
Start in Air Attunement Blast them with Lightning Strike and Blinding Flash them whenever you think they are going to do a strong hit. Dodge roll other strong hits and to make them remember they can dodge also to try and social engineer it out of them. When you are ready, unleash the fury.
Now the Combo chain looks like this.
Updraft -> Ride the Lightning -> Fire Attunement -> Fire Field -> Pheonix -> Dragon Tooth -> Arcane Wave -> Arcane Blast
At this point, if all your skills landed, then they are either dead or forced to blow all defensive cooldowns. Unfortunately Updraft has a longer cooldown than the combo, so this can only be an opener, unless the fight lasts 40+ seconds
okay, let's talk about Traits and pvp Runes
Traits
I've been running a 30/10/0/0/30 build lately. There is some leeway here, and I've been thinking about dropping some Arcane to put into somewhere else. I'm reluctant to put more into Air for precision because two of our skills have 100% crit rate no matter what (the Arcane skills).
Fire: MORE POWER!! 30 points here is good. You will notice that I don't have a trait selected in that build link, that's because it's old and doesn't have the 5% extra damage to burning targets. The big one being getting a might stack for every fire skill we cast, just stack it up higher baby.
Air: Without 10 in air, you'd have like 0% Crit rate with the runes I use, and that's just not fun.
Arcane: Lower cooldown on arcane skills so we can do the combo more often. Get a might buff when we switch to fire (and more importantly a protection buff when switching to earth). The 3rd skill you can feel free to switch around, or even drop 10 points and put somewhere else.
PvP Runes
I'm boring and despite making this guide lack creativity, so I go with Divinity. Give us 60 to all stats so a good balance between damage and survivability. Get the Power-Toughness-Vitality neck, without it you only will have 12k health and Warriors will down you in one Eviscerate. For weapons, I use 5% Damage on the Scepter, and 60% Chance to remove condition on Dagger. We only have one condition drop in Water Skill #5, so I hope that the 60% chance is good enough to drop bleed stacks off me. Don't know if it works that well though.
Well, my attentions span is starting to wain, so I'm going to wrap it up here. I plan to make updates later, and I plan on putting together some videos showing how the combo works and what you can expect out of it. I will also try to update to give tips on how to fight certain professions. Keep in mind though that I am nowhere near as good as some of the people that PvP a lot more than me, but I think my advice is still good and worth having. It's much better than whining about how shit elementalist damage is, because that is just not true.
If you would like some advice in game, you can reach me at Myrkur.7049. I play an Elementalist named "Jaryn Har" on Gates of Madness, so if you see me in game give me a /wave.
And one last thing. I'm looking for a condition damage build with high toughness and vitality. Show me what you've got, because I haven't been able to make one work nearly as well as my Arcane Dynamo. Also, I could use tips on how to defeat Guardians (is it even possible?! GOD) and Mesmers (one beat the shit out of me last night, soooo gotta learn what the hell was going on in that matchup).
Thanks guys, and check back later for Videos of the combo in practice. Also ask me anything I guess.
Thank you for this. I've got a lvl 25 Ele (who I haven't touched since like Day2... ouch), so I'll certainly give this a read once I get a no-shit chance to actually sit down, read, and absorb it all.
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DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
Queensdale can be a bit tight on the levels. As Fireflash said, definitely do all the hearts, picking up events as you go along (don't have to wait around for them unless you know a cool one is about to start). Get all the points of interests and vistas and such. Gather all the crafting materials you see as well (also worth xp). If you're still short, try a spot of crafting. However, going to another starting zone isn't backtracking as such though, with down leveling and map completion rewards, and skill points there too, it's still worth going to them.
I did all of that, and 100%'ed the zone. My story quest then had my move one zone south of the swamp, and the very FIRST quest I got there had me fighting enemies anywhere from 15 (I was 14) to 20. The next two hearts were 16 and 18, respectively. After completing the quest I wasn't anywhere near 16. It seems like every heart jumps two levels at a time, and I'm lucky to even get 1/2 a level in doing one of the quests.
Now, I'm 17 and every quest and area in this zone where I "should" go next are in the 20's. I can solo one monster at a time but anything else is impossible.
It really feels like I'm missing something when the first heart is my level, then the next one is two levels higher and I'm not even close to closing the gap. I wish the game did a better job of pointing out where to go and what to do next. It's hand-holding, sure, but it's super unclear to me what I should be doing when. The scouts do a good job uncovering zones and showing me quests, but I'm still under-leveled. And when I manage to close the gap, I'm still vastly under-leveled for whatever comes "next."
And then I see all these people in their 40's and I just feel like a failure because there's something I'm not getting.
How many dynamic events are you hitting? I've found that getting caught up in a chain of them is the best way to level.
Anytime I see one pop up, I do it. I've done a fair amount of them, and a few of them twice just because "they were there." Some events I don't understand, like "The Swamp Lies Dormant" or "The Seraph Control Centaur Lands" so I gave up trying to figure them out.
To be fair though I've done a fair amount of gathering (I have a nice collection of copper, iron, and silver) and some wood, but have not tried crafting anything yet. Honestly though, I was just planning on selling the materials (if, you know, the trading post wouldn't shit itself every 15 minutes) but I don't like the idea of being "forced" to craft something to level.
We need to be careful telling players who started up after head start about our experiences leveling.
It's a completely different world when you're in Queensdale today. There's 5% the dynamic events there were on launch day. I know most of my speed leveling takes place when I fall in with a zerg that's just washing over a combat hub, killing hundreds of mobs and usually triggering and finishing 5 DE's in a row. If you're just showing up in a starter area, the game looks MASSIVELY different, and there just don't seem to be DE's anywhere.
Queensdale can be a bit tight on the levels. As Fireflash said, definitely do all the hearts, picking up events as you go along (don't have to wait around for them unless you know a cool one is about to start). Get all the points of interests and vistas and such. Gather all the crafting materials you see as well (also worth xp). If you're still short, try a spot of crafting. However, going to another starting zone isn't backtracking as such though, with down leveling and map completion rewards, and skill points there too, it's still worth going to them.
I did all of that, and 100%'ed the zone. My story quest then had my move one zone south of the swamp, and the very FIRST quest I got there had me fighting enemies anywhere from 15 (I was 14) to 20. The next two hearts were 16 and 18, respectively. After completing the quest I wasn't anywhere near 16. It seems like every heart jumps two levels at a time, and I'm lucky to even get 1/2 a level in doing one of the quests.
Now, I'm 17 and every quest and area in this zone where I "should" go next are in the 20's. I can solo one monster at a time but anything else is impossible.
It really feels like I'm missing something when the first heart is my level, then the next one is two levels higher and I'm not even close to closing the gap. I wish the game did a better job of pointing out where to go and what to do next. It's hand-holding, sure, but it's super unclear to me what I should be doing when. The scouts do a good job uncovering zones and showing me quests, but I'm still under-leveled. And when I manage to close the gap, I'm still vastly under-leveled for whatever comes "next."
And then I see all these people in their 40's and I just feel like a failure because there's something I'm not getting.
The areas themselves are not very linear and the story quests seems to have you running all over the place, so look out for that. In the beginning of the game, I 100%ed the Charr starting zone and 2 cities and did a fair bit of crafting. With the occasional dip into low level areas for completion/ playing with friends I've been able to stay ahead of the level curve since. Though it's my experience that it can pay off to be a couple of levels above a zone minimum to the be able to get through it effectively.
Anyone have some necro build advice? I'm around lv 38, and I want to get things straight before I get the lv 40 trait book.
Right now, I'm going primarily condition damage, boon duration, and vitality.
Trait priority is Curses (10), then Death Magic (10), then Blood Magic (8).
I primarily use a staff to lay down marks, and my skills are:
Consume Conditions (healing)
Epidemic
Blindness well
Vulnerability well
Turning conditions into boons on allies well
Plague for elite skill.
Since I don't have the ground targetable skill for wells yet, I basically target a mob, run in, lay down the regen/bleed then chilling/poison marks, then one of the wells, then blast mark to inflict weakness and blindness of everything in that circle. Then I use epidemic to spread the conditions to the other mobs in the area within range. Most mobs tend to melt nicely with all the conditions stacked on them.
I'll switch to my off hand which is an axe and warhorn combo, axe for DPS and warhorn solely for the stun. I'll dps until 8s pass and I can switch back to the staff, where I'll repeat it all over again. I'll switch to plague or the class skill for tougher fights.
I guess my main question is, at Lv 40, when I can start putting 20 pts into a tree, should I go heavy in one tree (Curses I'd imagine), then put 10 in a separate tree? Or continue off with 10, 10, 10 in the trees I'm using now? Should I drop death magic for Spite for the power + condition duration?
XBL\PSN\Steam\Origin: Evigilant
0
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Queensdale can be a bit tight on the levels. As Fireflash said, definitely do all the hearts, picking up events as you go along (don't have to wait around for them unless you know a cool one is about to start). Get all the points of interests and vistas and such. Gather all the crafting materials you see as well (also worth xp). If you're still short, try a spot of crafting. However, going to another starting zone isn't backtracking as such though, with down leveling and map completion rewards, and skill points there too, it's still worth going to them.
I did all of that, and 100%'ed the zone. My story quest then had my move one zone south of the swamp, and the very FIRST quest I got there had me fighting enemies anywhere from 15 (I was 14) to 20. The next two hearts were 16 and 18, respectively. After completing the quest I wasn't anywhere near 16. It seems like every heart jumps two levels at a time, and I'm lucky to even get 1/2 a level in doing one of the quests.
Now, I'm 17 and every quest and area in this zone where I "should" go next are in the 20's. I can solo one monster at a time but anything else is impossible.
It really feels like I'm missing something when the first heart is my level, then the next one is two levels higher and I'm not even close to closing the gap. I wish the game did a better job of pointing out where to go and what to do next. It's hand-holding, sure, but it's super unclear to me what I should be doing when. The scouts do a good job uncovering zones and showing me quests, but I'm still under-leveled. And when I manage to close the gap, I'm still vastly under-leveled for whatever comes "next."
And then I see all these people in their 40's and I just feel like a failure because there's something I'm not getting.
How many dynamic events are you hitting? I've found that getting caught up in a chain of them is the best way to level.
Anytime I see one pop up, I do it. I've done a fair amount of them, and a few of them twice just because "they were there." Some events I don't understand, like "The Swamp Lies Dormant" or "The Seraph Control Centaur Lands" so I gave up trying to figure them out.
To be fair though I've done a fair amount of gathering (I have a nice collection of copper, iron, and silver) and some wood, but have not tried crafting anything yet. Honestly though, I was just planning on selling the materials (if, you know, the trading post wouldn't shit itself every 15 minutes) but I don't like the idea of being "forced" to craft something to level.
You are not forced to craft. Jump into the next level zone and have an alternate next level zone. Switch between the two. It's that simple.
I feel WuvWuv should be giving more experience then it does right now.
It is chaotic and extremely fun, but for the time you invest in PvP events, which can take a somewhat long time, the rewards don't seem to be worth it. Instead of somethig like 327 experience for a fort takeover, I feel that should be ramped up to 500-600 xp. Instead of 214 for a logging/supply base it should be ratched up to 300-350 xp. Am I the only one who thinks this way?
IMO you actually get very fast exp in WvW, because it's not the exp from capping stuff that adds up, it's the fact that you get dynamic event exp constantly for "repelling the enemy attackers," and things of that nature. I seem to blow through exp every time I do WvW.
0
DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
Queensdale can be a bit tight on the levels. As Fireflash said, definitely do all the hearts, picking up events as you go along (don't have to wait around for them unless you know a cool one is about to start). Get all the points of interests and vistas and such. Gather all the crafting materials you see as well (also worth xp). If you're still short, try a spot of crafting. However, going to another starting zone isn't backtracking as such though, with down leveling and map completion rewards, and skill points there too, it's still worth going to them.
I did all of that, and 100%'ed the zone. My story quest then had my move one zone south of the swamp, and the very FIRST quest I got there had me fighting enemies anywhere from 15 (I was 14) to 20. The next two hearts were 16 and 18, respectively. After completing the quest I wasn't anywhere near 16. It seems like every heart jumps two levels at a time, and I'm lucky to even get 1/2 a level in doing one of the quests.
Now, I'm 17 and every quest and area in this zone where I "should" go next are in the 20's. I can solo one monster at a time but anything else is impossible.
It really feels like I'm missing something when the first heart is my level, then the next one is two levels higher and I'm not even close to closing the gap. I wish the game did a better job of pointing out where to go and what to do next. It's hand-holding, sure, but it's super unclear to me what I should be doing when. The scouts do a good job uncovering zones and showing me quests, but I'm still under-leveled. And when I manage to close the gap, I'm still vastly under-leveled for whatever comes "next."
And then I see all these people in their 40's and I just feel like a failure because there's something I'm not getting.
How many dynamic events are you hitting? I've found that getting caught up in a chain of them is the best way to level.
Anytime I see one pop up, I do it. I've done a fair amount of them, and a few of them twice just because "they were there." Some events I don't understand, like "The Swamp Lies Dormant" or "The Seraph Control Centaur Lands" so I gave up trying to figure them out.
To be fair though I've done a fair amount of gathering (I have a nice collection of copper, iron, and silver) and some wood, but have not tried crafting anything yet. Honestly though, I was just planning on selling the materials (if, you know, the trading post wouldn't shit itself every 15 minutes) but I don't like the idea of being "forced" to craft something to level.
You are not forced to craft. Jump into the next level zone and have an alternate next level zone. Switch between the two. It's that simple.
But I don't know what those are! That's my problem!
Posts
A-Net says on today's update that they're bringing it up for everyone so this might be it!
Was enough for me to make 40s in 5 minutes so YAY
The time of "trading post" I hope so, would be nice to get this economy rolling.
Legend speaks of a "trading post" where players of old could exchange their hard won trophies with one another without fear of duplicity, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Also the weird Searing-denialism that seems to pop up in Ascalon events and the Catacombs tends to get my goat.
After having gone there, I must agree. Safety standards are not a highlight of asuran education.
Really, if they fixed the grouping issue when doing dungeons (where you end up in the wrong instance, though logging on as a different character real quick seems to work sometimes) and the trading post, they'd basically 90%+ of my issues with the game so far. Everything else is small little tiddly bits.
Just Finished: Borderlands (waste of $7)/Mario Brothers U/The Last Story/Tropico 4
Currently Playing: NS2/ZombiU/PlanetSide 2/Ys/Dota2/Xenoblade Chronicles
On Hold: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/GW2/Scribblenauts
Coming Next: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/X-Com Classic
I used to have pet rats and I loved them dearly.
Then I remembered the wild roof rats that broke into my attic, chewed the head off my childhood pound puppy, named Bowser, and shit in the neck stump.
So yeah, I can still kill the little fuckers. But I do feel kinda bad.
Just Finished: Borderlands (waste of $7)/Mario Brothers U/The Last Story/Tropico 4
Currently Playing: NS2/ZombiU/PlanetSide 2/Ys/Dota2/Xenoblade Chronicles
On Hold: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/GW2/Scribblenauts
Coming Next: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/X-Com Classic
I'm pretty sad that my support priority seems so low despite having spent real money on this.
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
I made friends with one of them, but I got most of them killed
All in a day's work
Everyone has spent real money on this.
I believe the compromised accounts are still priority #1 at the moment.
Not sure what you're implying with this, that my additional money spent on Gems is inconsequential since everyone paid for the game?
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
I think it's the priority of ArenaNet's support team to return stolen accounts to their rightful owners. Once they've plugged that particular security breach they'll move on to dealing with problems like yours.
At least you can still play the game you paid for, right?
I think your just being impatient. No implications here.
Blame the people who failed to use proper security with their accounts instead of A.Net. Because people continued using passwords that were insecure and using the same information across games, despite several warnings from fellow gamers & the developer.... the rest of the support tickets will be dealt with as a low priority until those are cleared up.
Guild Wars 2: Tyreh, asura Warrior
This. This so much. I totally feel you on the "wife alt" thing bro.
GW2 makes me so happy.
Nintendo Network ID: imperialparadox | 3DS FC: 2294-4029-6793
XBL Gamertag: Paradox3351 | PSN: imperialparadox
It is chaotic and extremely fun, but for the time you invest in PvP events, which can take a somewhat long time, the rewards don't seem to be worth it. Instead of somethig like 327 experience for a fort takeover, I feel that should be ramped up to 500-600 xp. Instead of 214 for a logging/supply base it should be ratched up to 300-350 xp. Am I the only one who thinks this way?
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Scepter/Dagger Arcane Combo
This build takes heavy advantage of Combo Field and Combo Finishers, specifically blast finishers. If you are unfamiliar with Combo Fields and Combo Finishers, please take a look at this wiki page. Utilizing these combos will allow your team to output significantly greater damage, and luckily for us elementalists we don't need to rely on teammates to do massive damage with combos.
We will be focusing on the Fire Field -> Blast Finisher combo to stack might on our elementalist. You will have the ability to stack Might (Power) with this combo, which will significantly increase the amount of damage you do.
Weapon Selection
As the name suggest, this build utilizes the Scepter and Dagger as weapon. Let me break down the skills I use most.
Fire Attunement: All skills. Main source of Combo
Water Attunement: Mostly only to heal/drop conditions. Will switch in and 5/4/3 real quick.
Air Attunement: Default/Starting Attunement. Using all skills
Earth Attunement: Used against high toughness targets and to build our combo higher when fire grab is on cooldown.
Dragon Tooth and Fire Grab are your two biggest hitters. But as you likely already know, they are very hard to hit with. With positioning though we can increase our chances of these two devastating skills of hitting our target. After the Utility section I will describe the combo.
Utility Skills
Heal: This is going to be personal preference. I like the large heal that places a buff on you. This build is bursty and most fights will be over before you get the benefit of the signet heal in my opinion. I have tried both and I don't really see a clear advantage, other than the channel heal sucks for my playstyle.
Utility 1: Mist form. There is no arguement. All elementalists need this skill. If you don't have it, then thieves and warriors will destroy you over and over and is the #1 reason why some of you complain so much about Hundred Blades. It breaks stun and makes you invulnerable.
Utility 2: Arcane Blast. This is a high damage attack that always crits and has a short cooldown. It also has the Combo: Projectile Finisher attribute, making it very powerful.
Utility 3: Arcane Wave. This is a high damage AE attack that always crits and dictates how often we do our combo. It has a Combo: Blast Finisher attribute and is the skill we use to time when to go into Fire attunement and do our combo.
Ultimate: I personally like the Glyph of Elementals. Preferebly Air Elemental, as the RNG stun on it can help land your Dragon Tooth for you. I want to start playing with the Fiery Greatsword as I believe that is a Blast Finisher and has some good damage output, but I am unfamiliar with the weapon skills as of this time.
The Combo
Okay, now that we got a brief overview of the skills out of the way, lets talk about "The Combo" I've been alluding too. You are going to use Fire Field (Fire Attunement, Dagger skill #4) to place down a Combo Field. You will then use Blast Finishers (Dragon Tooth, Pheonix, Arcane Wave, Earth Quake, Churning Earth) to build stacks of Might on you. You can get up to 17-20, but most of the time you will be around 9-12 stacks. The combo itself will do upwards of 12k damage, and after that Dragon Tooth's and Fire Grab will crit for 4k or so.
The base combo that we can use every time Arcane Wave is up
Fire Field -> Pheonix -> Dragon Tooth -> Arcane Wave -> Arcane Blast
Fire skill 4 -> Fire Skill 3 -> Fire Skill 2 -> Utility 3 -> Utility 2
This Combo comes out very quickly as you can cast Arcane Wave and Arcane Blast at any time, during other skills and even when you are knocked down and maybe while stunned.
If that doesn't give you enough juicy Might Stacks for you, switch into Earth while the fire field is still up and bust out Earthquake and Churning Earth for more stacks. So the Combo looks like
Fire Field -> Pheonix -> Dragon Tooth -> Arcane Wave -> Arcane Blast -> Earth Attunement -> Earthquake -> Churning Earth
The fire field lasts just long enough for that full combo. If you are slow, have high latency, or are interrupted in anyway then you won't get the full combo off. It works very well in PvE to do the entire full combo.
Tips to land the Combo
Landing this in PvE is extremely easy. It will also kill anything in one combo so long as you keep your gear up to date (no less than 8 levels below you for any piece, keep weapons as close to your level as possible). Landing it in PvP is a little more difficult though as you will likely protest.
Landing in PvE. This is where Lightning Attunement becomes the Default attunement to be in, to set the combo up, and to switch back to as it's damage is entirely based off your Power attribute.
The Set up for PvP
The basic Jist for the set up is simple. Knock them down with Updraft, and Ride the Lightning back to them quickly. As you are riding in, switch to fire immediately and bust out the combo. If you can, try to do the setup after they have exhausted their endurance. If you just straight up do it right away, they are most likely going to roll out of your combo and half of the skills will get evaded. You will still get the might stacks, so it's not a total loss but they will get out of it with most of their health intact, and if you had just waited for them to roll you would have outright killed them in the combo.
Start in Air Attunement Blast them with Lightning Strike and Blinding Flash them whenever you think they are going to do a strong hit. Dodge roll other strong hits and to make them remember they can dodge also to try and social engineer it out of them. When you are ready, unleash the fury.
Now the Combo chain looks like this.
Updraft -> Ride the Lightning -> Fire Attunement -> Fire Field -> Pheonix -> Dragon Tooth -> Arcane Wave -> Arcane Blast
At this point, if all your skills landed, then they are either dead or forced to blow all defensive cooldowns. Unfortunately Updraft has a longer cooldown than the combo, so this can only be an opener, unless the fight lasts 40+ seconds
okay, let's talk about Traits and pvp Runes
Traits
I've been running a 30/10/0/0/30 build lately. There is some leeway here, and I've been thinking about dropping some Arcane to put into somewhere else. I'm reluctant to put more into Air for precision because two of our skills have 100% crit rate no matter what (the Arcane skills).
Fire: MORE POWER!! 30 points here is good. You will notice that I don't have a trait selected in that build link, that's because it's old and doesn't have the 5% extra damage to burning targets. The big one being getting a might stack for every fire skill we cast, just stack it up higher baby.
Air: Without 10 in air, you'd have like 0% Crit rate with the runes I use, and that's just not fun.
Arcane: Lower cooldown on arcane skills so we can do the combo more often. Get a might buff when we switch to fire (and more importantly a protection buff when switching to earth). The 3rd skill you can feel free to switch around, or even drop 10 points and put somewhere else.
PvP Runes
I'm boring and despite making this guide lack creativity, so I go with Divinity. Give us 60 to all stats so a good balance between damage and survivability. Get the Power-Toughness-Vitality neck, without it you only will have 12k health and Warriors will down you in one Eviscerate. For weapons, I use 5% Damage on the Scepter, and 60% Chance to remove condition on Dagger. We only have one condition drop in Water Skill #5, so I hope that the 60% chance is good enough to drop bleed stacks off me. Don't know if it works that well though.
Well, my attentions span is starting to wain, so I'm going to wrap it up here. I plan to make updates later, and I plan on putting together some videos showing how the combo works and what you can expect out of it. I will also try to update to give tips on how to fight certain professions. Keep in mind though that I am nowhere near as good as some of the people that PvP a lot more than me, but I think my advice is still good and worth having. It's much better than whining about how shit elementalist damage is, because that is just not true.
If you would like some advice in game, you can reach me at Myrkur.7049. I play an Elementalist named "Jaryn Har" on Gates of Madness, so if you see me in game give me a /wave.
And one last thing. I'm looking for a condition damage build with high toughness and vitality. Show me what you've got, because I haven't been able to make one work nearly as well as my Arcane Dynamo. Also, I could use tips on how to defeat Guardians (is it even possible?! GOD) and Mesmers (one beat the shit out of me last night, soooo gotta learn what the hell was going on in that matchup).
Thanks guys, and check back later for Videos of the combo in practice. Also ask me anything I guess.
I have seen quite a number of sylvari NPCs carrying the sylvari racial weapons. The blade is a sort of blue/crystalline looking blade. You can probably find some in Grove or Caledon.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
I don't need to be the good guy, there's a reason the Charr intro videos all have variations of stabbing humans. Screw those Flame legion guys, we killed their pathetic gods and these ghosts are just par for the course. Once we take care of them and the elder dragons it's going back to business as usual.
I just feel like running around, waiting for events to pop or back-tracking to other starting zones is doing it wrong.
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
Steam Friend code: 45386507
Doesn't work... thus why I am asking...
I've seen the t1 around plenty but not the tier2. Is the blade the exact same on the tier 2? The hilt is definitely different.
I'm a fanboi, but I'm going to disagree. I think that A-net is starting to get themselves into some trouble. The lack of two-factor authentication on launch, when that is now a market STANDARD, was a major problem.
And then having a gem store which will take your money and not provide you with your purchase? That's completely and totally unacceptable. Consumers don't allow that from anyone. If you buy something digitally and still don't have access to it a few days later, you get pissed, and rightfully so.
I love this game, but A-net has some serious problems it needs to work out, and work out within the next couple days, or it's going to burn them badly. The launch has been pretty smooth and lots of people can play the basic game without major problems, which is pretty ahead of the curve for an MMO launch. Some key features are sorely lacking (fully functioning gem shop, functioning trading post, grouping getting people on the right server). I'm still positive this is going to be a great game, but everyone is waiting to see whether A-net can get this together quickly.
Anyway, my point was: Dude totally has a legitimate and solid reason to complain. The company took his money and didn't give him anything for it. Needs to be fixed. And other people need to know that they might not want to use the gem shop till it's sorted. I've bought some gems and everything worked for me, but I'd be super pissed too if I had that problem.
I did all of that, and 100%'ed the zone. My story quest then had my move one zone south of the swamp, and the very FIRST quest I got there had me fighting enemies anywhere from 15 (I was 14) to 20. The next two hearts were 16 and 18, respectively. After completing the quest I wasn't anywhere near 16. It seems like every heart jumps two levels at a time, and I'm lucky to even get 1/2 a level in doing one of the quests.
Now, I'm 17 and every quest and area in this zone where I "should" go next are in the 20's. I can solo one monster at a time but anything else is impossible.
It really feels like I'm missing something when the first heart is my level, then the next one is two levels higher and I'm not even close to closing the gap. I wish the game did a better job of pointing out where to go and what to do next. It's hand-holding, sure, but it's super unclear to me what I should be doing when. The scouts do a good job uncovering zones and showing me quests, but I'm still under-leveled. And when I manage to close the gap, I'm still vastly under-leveled for whatever comes "next."
And then I see all these people in their 40's and I just feel like a failure because there's something I'm not getting.
I hear the human starting zone is rough but also don't be afraid to go to a higher level zone. You can handle stuff 5 levels higher than you without too much trouble.
Also after the starting zone you will almost certainly be leveling in multiple zones of the same level range unless you do a lot of crafting.
You basically have to do a fair amount of crafting/gathering and hunt events to keep up in levels early on, or hit the other starter zones. Around 35ish or so there are more zones than you get levels from, but before that you will always be underleveled unless you spend some times crafting and actually hunting events. If you want a craft with easy exp, get cooking. You basically put in karma/money, and get exp out of it with some wikiing for which karma vendor sells what ingredient at some points.
How many dynamic events are you hitting? I've found that getting caught up in a chain of them is the best way to level.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Thank you for this. I've got a lvl 25 Ele (who I haven't touched since like Day2... ouch), so I'll certainly give this a read once I get a no-shit chance to actually sit down, read, and absorb it all.
Anytime I see one pop up, I do it. I've done a fair amount of them, and a few of them twice just because "they were there." Some events I don't understand, like "The Swamp Lies Dormant" or "The Seraph Control Centaur Lands" so I gave up trying to figure them out.
To be fair though I've done a fair amount of gathering (I have a nice collection of copper, iron, and silver) and some wood, but have not tried crafting anything yet. Honestly though, I was just planning on selling the materials (if, you know, the trading post wouldn't shit itself every 15 minutes) but I don't like the idea of being "forced" to craft something to level.
It's a completely different world when you're in Queensdale today. There's 5% the dynamic events there were on launch day. I know most of my speed leveling takes place when I fall in with a zerg that's just washing over a combat hub, killing hundreds of mobs and usually triggering and finishing 5 DE's in a row. If you're just showing up in a starter area, the game looks MASSIVELY different, and there just don't seem to be DE's anywhere.
The areas themselves are not very linear and the story quests seems to have you running all over the place, so look out for that. In the beginning of the game, I 100%ed the Charr starting zone and 2 cities and did a fair bit of crafting. With the occasional dip into low level areas for completion/ playing with friends I've been able to stay ahead of the level curve since. Though it's my experience that it can pay off to be a couple of levels above a zone minimum to the be able to get through it effectively.
Right now, I'm going primarily condition damage, boon duration, and vitality.
Trait priority is Curses (10), then Death Magic (10), then Blood Magic (8).
I primarily use a staff to lay down marks, and my skills are:
Consume Conditions (healing)
Epidemic
Blindness well
Vulnerability well
Turning conditions into boons on allies well
Plague for elite skill.
Since I don't have the ground targetable skill for wells yet, I basically target a mob, run in, lay down the regen/bleed then chilling/poison marks, then one of the wells, then blast mark to inflict weakness and blindness of everything in that circle. Then I use epidemic to spread the conditions to the other mobs in the area within range. Most mobs tend to melt nicely with all the conditions stacked on them.
I'll switch to my off hand which is an axe and warhorn combo, axe for DPS and warhorn solely for the stun. I'll dps until 8s pass and I can switch back to the staff, where I'll repeat it all over again. I'll switch to plague or the class skill for tougher fights.
I guess my main question is, at Lv 40, when I can start putting 20 pts into a tree, should I go heavy in one tree (Curses I'd imagine), then put 10 in a separate tree? Or continue off with 10, 10, 10 in the trees I'm using now? Should I drop death magic for Spite for the power + condition duration?
You are not forced to craft. Jump into the next level zone and have an alternate next level zone. Switch between the two. It's that simple.
IMO you actually get very fast exp in WvW, because it's not the exp from capping stuff that adds up, it's the fact that you get dynamic event exp constantly for "repelling the enemy attackers," and things of that nature. I seem to blow through exp every time I do WvW.
But I don't know what those are! That's my problem!