15 replies to this topic

[boydous]

Hey fellow GW2'ers

Fire Offhand Focus skill

http://wiki.guildwar...iki/Fire_Shield

Question:

Does it apply burning when someone attacks you or if they are within "range" of the shield

[coglin]

If its anything like frost aura, which the descriptions are very very similar, so I would confidently say it only applies when they hit you.

[LethalConcept]

coglin, on 15 June 2012 - 09:52 AM, said:

If its anything like frost aura, which the descriptions are very very similar, so I would confidently say it only applies when they hit you.

Fire Shield Envelop yourself in a shield of fire that Burns foes.

Frost Aura Protect yourself with frost armor. While active, it Chills foes that hit you.

Magnetic Aura Reflect projectiles with magnetic energy.

Shocking Aura Envelop yourself with electrical energy that Stuns nearby foes if they attack you.



Actually, both Frost and Lightning Aura states "when hit" Fire shield doesnt, which leads me to believe it just burns on contact, dont quote me on that tho, but im just thinking if they actually wanted it to be a on hit like the other auras, shouldnt it have the same description?

[coglin]

Not only is the tool tip slightly different, but the fact that the others are titled auras and it is titled "shield" would also indicate a difference.

[FullName]

I used focus loads over the BETA, and my experience with it was it only burns when someone hits you, another thing to note is going invulnerable with Obsidian Flesh or Mist Form then using Fire Shield doesn't seem to burn people when they hit you.

[mrbig]

fire shield sets you on fire, like guardian Zealot's flame.

Imo ele's  auras needs tons of rebalancing: especially fire shield is kinda useless and has a very ridicolous CD, even when traited.

[Lord Xaldin]

Oh fire shield... y u no block?

[frags]

FullName, on 15 June 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

I used focus loads over the BETA, and my experience with it was it only burns when someone hits you, another thing to note is going invulnerable with Obsidian Flesh or Mist Form then using Fire Shield doesn't seem to burn people when they hit you.

Full,

How did you like the focus? Utility, damage, etc? Have not played an elementalist but will be trying one next event with a Dagger/Focus.

[FullName]

frags, on 15 June 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

Full,

How did you like the focus? Utility, damage, etc? Have not played an elementalist but will be trying one next event with a Dagger/Focus.

I preferred Focus to OH Dagger, it's less offensive but provides really great utility with Obsidian Flesh's invulnerability, and Magnetic Wave + Swirling Winds for destroying/reflecting projectiles (nothing funnier than using Magnetic Wave and seeing a Thief eat his own Hasted double Unload and take himself down to -30% hp), Gale provides a nice single target ranged knockdown, which helps with spiking and chasing fleeing targets, Fire Shield is especially nice when fighting hundred blades warriors, if you can survive the HB then they will have a very long burn to deal with afterwards.

Overall, both Focus and OH Dagger are viable, and both complement MH Dagger/Scepter well, think about the build your trying to make, if your lacking survivability consider OH Focus, for more offense take OH Dagger, I was running a S/F build with high toughness, healing and condition damage, low power, precision and medium vitality (13-14k hp), with Cantrips utilities, and a mix between defensive and reduced cooldown traits, and was pretty much invincible 1v1, 2v1 I could last forever unless both enemies were very heavy DPS and played well, and could last about 30 seconds to a minute in 1v3+ situations (often got messages from warriors, thieves etc, saying they just couldn't kill me with full burst specs), I didn't do much damage (more pressure/slowly wearing the target down between their heal CD), but that wasn't it's purpose anyway, I played the build with the concept of delaying the enemy team at spawns/objectives, focusing particularly dangerous DPS targets (eg burst warriors/thieves/ele's) and keeping them occupied away from the objectives, holding objectives for as long as possible whilst outnumbered etc, I found this made the combat much more fun and intense to play as I could really get the feeling for how good my opponent was then play of their weaknesses (Hundred Blades + Eviscerate Warriors were so easy to read), as apposed to bursting down targets in 3-10 seconds all day.

I'll have some footage up soon of the build, but because most fights would last well over the 3 minute mark, I've got over 8 hours of uncut footage from just Sunday night and 2 hours of cut footage to edit/cut down to at most 20 minutes.

Builds I used:
http://www.gw2builds...0-8.1.9.2.6.0.8
(space in Arcane is for Arcane Shielding trait, for shield at 25% health, isn't listen on the calculator)
&
http://www.gw2builds...0-8.1.1.3.9.2.6

I tried a build with D/F below, I found it good, lots of Fire Shields/auras for burns and Glyph of Elemental Power for either more burn, cripple, chill or weakness (depends on opponent) stacking power / condition damage primarily, vitality / toughness secondary, but overall I proffered my above builds:
http://www.gw2builds...7.6.9.8.11.6.11

Hope that helps

Edited by FullName, 15 June 2012 - 06:55 PM.

[Anlyon Spellrage]

Fire Shield is bordering on useless. The huge CD doesnt justify the 1-3 seconds of burning you'll apply to most enemies. It was great against Unload and Hundred Blades, but you have to time it nigh on perfect, and even then, they'll probably just condition remove.

Firewall is in the same category. You'll be lucky if you get more than 2 seconds of burning from it. I think the size is fine, and even the duration it hangs around is great, but people just move out of it. Infact most people are constantly on the move.

I imagine it'd be okay for NPCs who stand still, so I guess its tricky to balance, but i think a 3 sec burn every second you stand in it is fine.

[FullName]

Anlyon Spellrage, on 15 June 2012 - 07:35 PM, said:

Fire Shield is bordering on useless. The huge CD doesnt justify the 1-3 seconds of burning you'll apply to most enemies. It was great against Unload and Hundred Blades, but you have to time it nigh on perfect, and even then, they'll probably just condition remove.

Firewall is in the same category. You'll be lucky if you get more than 2 seconds of burning from it. I think the size is fine, and even the duration it hangs around is great, but people just move out of it. Infact most people are constantly on the move.

I imagine it'd be okay for NPCs who stand still, so I guess its tricky to balance, but i think a 3 sec burn every second you stand in it is fine.

I kind of agree here, I'll quickly give my impression of these 2 skills

I personally found the burning to last plenty of time, and wasn't using +burn duration sigil or runes, it's definitely useful when stacking condition damage anyway, all you need is to maintain the burn duration on the target, re-apply it as it wears off instead of stacking a 20s burn (unless you know they can't cleanse), I tried to not stack it higher than 5 seconds at any time as when the enemy cleanses, it doesn't hurt your cooldowns etc, as an example, I wouldn't use Fire Shield if the target is already burning, another example with S/F:
Fire Shield > Earth Attunement > Stone Shards + Hurl (is better than) Fire Shield > Flame Strike

Also keep in mind blinding, stun, daze, knockdown, launch, block, block/destroy/reflect projectiles, kiting, dodging and invulnerable all essentially stop the skill working, so when using Fire Shield, using any of these skills isn't optimal:

Dagger:
Shocking Aura (stun)
Updraft (launch)
Earthquake (knockdown)

Scepter:
Blinding Flash (blind)
Dust Devil (blind)

Focus:
Comet (daze)
Swirling Winds (vs range) (destroy projectiles)
Gale (knockdown)
Magnetic Wave (vs range) (refect projectiles)
Obsidian Flesh (invulnerable)

Utilities:
Mist Form (invulnerable)
Arcane Shield (block)
Signet of Air (blind)
Fortify (conjure shield) (Invulnerable)
Magnetic Surge (conjure shield) (daze)

Wind Blast + Static Field (conjure hammer)

Elites:
Tornado (launch)
Glyph of Elementals - Air Elemental (stuns)

It's a little annoying so many skills can disrupt the skills effect, It would be much better if blind, invulnerable, evade, block and destroy/reflect projectiles still allowed the effect to apply the burning, and yeh I do agree the cooldown could do with being reduced, probably to about 30/35sec.

With Fire Wall, it's really useful to use in group situation, drop it infront of your ally ranger when he uses Rapid Fire, or Thief using Unload etc, and watch the target get loads of burn, it even can combo quite well with Burning Speed, to create another wall of fire when the first wears of, the cooldown on Fire Wall is quite respectable too at 20 second CD (about 16s traited), 8 second duration, anyway overall I like Flame Wall, not that it couldn't be improved... maybe a larger length on the wall or something.

I don't really think either skill really needs a major re-work or replacing, however I wouldn't be surprised if A-net does this during iteration, as both skills would probably come out better for it afterward.

Edited by FullName, 15 June 2012 - 09:02 PM.

[Elemental Gearbolt]

FullName, on 15 June 2012 - 08:53 PM, said:

snip

Used flamewall both defensively and offensively, in the first case I'd simply move around it while casting, it was extremely useful against meles and any mele range caster, they'd quickly take huge amount of dmg at 600+ burning dmg for second.

Offensively I have used flamewall as combo initiator with shard stones and dust devil to spread burning around cap points, I have used flamewall frequently during cap point assault , not only the dmg of projectiles increase but they also cause burning, fire shield and other aura type skills are quite powerful when treated, I have used fire embrace and elemental shielding along with signets to keep protection boon up, it's hard to believe that people think flamewall is UP, it's quite possible to snare a target on it for increased dmg...

[alberthyc]

i was using dagger/focus build on 2nd beta weekend, first time playing, so i'm totally not familiar with trait stuff, my main trait is just preset 30 10 10 10 10, even so, i found d/f offers a lot more surviability then rest of the combination, the water attunement just offers a lot of control, daze, chill, and knowdown from air attunement, the 4 sec invulnerability is invaluable. D/F requires constant attunement switching to play it well, make sure every skill is in CD

after lots of pvp and some study of the skill and traits, this is the build i'm gonna try for next BWE, this is signet build

http://www.gw2tools....aXaa;bcaa;YfgUY

notice i have no points in air, but i still get speed boost from the signet of air just as in the trait
and on very activation of signet, there's a fire field activated, synergize with the condition dmg boost the earth trait
you can go with d/d as well, gives you one more frost aura then d/f and more mobility

Edited by alberthyc, 15 June 2012 - 11:30 PM.

[frags]

FullName, on 15 June 2012 - 06:48 PM, said:

I'll have some footage up soon of the build, but because most fights would last well over the 3 minute mark, I've got over 8 hours of uncut footage from just Sunday night and 2 hours of cut footage to edit/cut down to at most 20 minutes.

Builds I used:
http://www.gw2builds...0-8.1.9.2.6.0.8
(space in Arcane is for Arcane Shielding trait, for shield at 25% health, isn't listen on the calculator)
&
http://www.gw2builds...0-8.1.1.3.9.2.6

I tried a build with D/F below, I found it good, lots of Fire Shields/auras for burns and Glyph of Elemental Power for either more burn, cripple, chill or weakness (depends on opponent) stacking power / condition damage primarily, vitality / toughness secondary, but overall I proffered my above builds:
http://www.gw2builds...7.6.9.8.11.6.11

Hope that helps

Great insight! I appreciate the time Full. I am looking at a defensive/survival type build (30 into Earth, Armor of Earth, etc) and that info was what I was looking for. I would be interested in checking out some videos if you pop them up. Just let me know and thanks again.

Edit: cutting down quote.

Edited by frags, 16 June 2012 - 03:19 AM.

[FullName]

frags, on 16 June 2012 - 03:19 AM, said:

Great insight! I appreciate the time Full. I am looking at a defensive/survival type build (30 into Earth, Armor of Earth, etc) and that info was what I was looking for. I would be interested in checking out some videos if you pop them up. Just let me know and thanks again.

Edit: cutting down quote.

No worries, always happy to give my experiences!

If your looking at defensive/survival, I would definitely recommend Armor of Earth (&/or the Earth trait equivalent) it seems people really underestimate the power of Stability and Protection, if you can maintain your protection buff for the majority of the fight with high toughness stats, that's just loads of mitigation (I had around 2.3k toughness without Rock Barrier, 13-14k hp, only really sychronised spikes of 2+ heavy DPS characters could kill me fast, I even got caught by 2 Hasted HB Warriors at one point, popped up from the initial knockdown with about 30% hp left, GoEH and I'm back to like 90% ready to use Obsidian Flesh on the next burst, it's really fun to survive things like this and watch DPS characters get infuriated and chase me down, mashing their skills etc, meaning I can lead them away from my team and stop them affecting the game etc.

Stability is just awesome, I found it crucial to my build, when fighting anyone with frequent knockdown/launch/pull/fear/daze/stun (loads of professions/builds use these, very frequent in general combat & spikes) there's nothing more useful than to negate their effects, and as I had both the utility and trait for Armor of Earth, I had the option of using it in specific situations (fighting a Tornado Ele and standing inside his tornado for profit and lols, or standing inside an enemy guardians bubble and watching him go "WTF!") and gaining it at 50% life to avoid big spike damage during lockdown, and both can be stacked, if I use Armor of Earth then take hits and reach 50% health, it doubles up and lasts twice as long so neither is wasted. Another thing that Armor of Earth is useful for is getting your heal off without being interupted, so gaining it at 50% life (when you generally need to heal) essentially ensures your heal with go off when you need it, also consider using Quick Glyphs with GoEH to have your heal up as much as possible.

With OH Focus, I always see people assuming it's useless compared to OH Dagger, but I just can't seem to give it up, even just having Obsidian Flesh for "oh snap" moments makes the Focus my primary choice for OH (although Ride the Lightning is crazy amazing. I find it's a tie up between RtL and OF)

With the footage, I'm still working through it (other commitments, work etc) but as soon as I get the first vid up (hopefully some time next week), I'll send you a PM with the link if you like?
or you can just keep an eye on my channel > http://www.youtube.c...gr8SUc0Q/videos (only Thief footage from BWE1 currently), I'll also be posting it in the Ele footage thread

Edited by FullName, 16 June 2012 - 01:36 PM.

[frags]

FullName, on 16 June 2012 - 01:28 PM, said:

No worries, always happy to give my experiences!

...

With the footage, I'm still working through it (other commitments, work etc) but as soon as I get the first vid up (hopefully some time next week), I'll send you a PM with the link if you like?
or you can just keep an eye on my channel > http://www.youtube.c...gr8SUc0Q/videos (only Thief footage from BWE1 currently), I'll also be posting it in the Ele footage thread

Sounds great; sent you a pm. PS: Ironic that you also play a thief Edit: condensing quote.

Edited by frags, 16 June 2012 - 06:07 PM.