104 replies to this topic

[SuperNova]

Zehkari, on 11 September 2012 - 07:40 PM, said:

Tried it and liked it.

My only concern is from using signet of fire for PvE and PvP I have noticed the range on it is pretty poor, when the tooltip points out 1200 range, which is exactly the same as signet of earth the two are completely different on range. Can anyone confirm that signet of fire range is a tooltip error or the range is actually bugged?

Yeah that's pretty interesting.  I've just tested it at the golems in the mists and SoF is definitely failing to hit at the same range as SoE and SoW.

Almost like it's 900 range instead of 1200 maybe.  Further testing suggests it's even lower than 900 range...

Edited by SuperNova, 11 September 2012 - 10:03 PM.

[SuperNova]

nukularpower, on 09 September 2012 - 10:15 PM, said:

I've gotta say that just putting a staff on this build is fun as hell.  Signet of Earth/Water makes Earth 2 amazingly easy to land, and with this build, it does 10k bleed damage ALONE.  That plus Earth 5 (another immobilize) gives another 5kish worth of bleeds, plus 7.5k from fire signet.. those 3 skills are enough to kill someone with no cleanse alone.

Recommend trying it.

So I tried out a build based around it tonight...yeah you're right it has real potential.  I started to mess around with the build and I think maybe 0/0/20/20/30 could work nicely.  I dropped SoW for Cleansing Fire as well.

I'm gonna give staff a real go but trying to get away from the 30 Earth/Signet crutch.

[Riyus]

for what is the focus essential here in the offhand?

[SuperNova]

The focus gives defences that you don't get with the dagger or staff, especially with earth 4 and air 4 which basically negates ranged attacks for 10 seconds, and earth 4 also doubles up as extremely good condition removal.  Earth 5 then gives a 4 second invulnerability for the times when you get caught by a heartseeker spamming thief and are about to choke on some 10K+ crits.  Air 5 is just very useful for runners or people trying to get a heal off.

Edited by SuperNova, 13 September 2012 - 10:44 AM.

[Rhaerion]

Awesome build supernova this is a really good spvp build you made here.I might even argue it's possibly our meta in spvp :]
It feels very powerfull and has great synergy, if only our other builds worked this nice.

Edited by Rhaerion, 13 September 2012 - 11:47 AM.

[SuperNova]

Yeah it feels strongest to me.  I think our main problem is the glass cannon builds are too much glass and not enough cannon.  30 in earth seems like the safest way to make a build that can take hits and dish out the damage, even though it's condition damage.  Keeping the signets with written in stone is a big bonus.

I was running around in pvp today with 12800 health and an earth/water build with a huge amount of toughness - that was pretty fun as well but felt like it lacked enough damage to kill quickly enough even though it felt more like it had 30k health.  Instead of 10K SoF I was getting around 6K, which is a large drop to be honest.

This one is working best though I feel because it can take a hit and dish some good damage out.  I might give it a go with Shaman amulet instead of Carrion.

Edited by SuperNova, 13 September 2012 - 01:24 PM.

[Riyus]

i feel pretty immobile with this build, also you need to have time to kill someoen with it, if you get adds which makes it 1v2 or higher, you are just dead you cannot kill them and you cannot escape.

can you make a vid of your gamestyle with this? what are your combos?

Edited by Riyus, 13 September 2012 - 03:49 PM.

[Azraell]

When selecting gear for this build, am I stacking condition or power or 50/50? I understand each piece should also have decent vitality.

[SuperNova]

Condition damage is the best, power is "ok".  For me however the bonuses are more worth it, ie the 20% fire and chill duration on the elementalist gear.  Vitality is ok again - what would be really great would be Condition damage/Vitality/Toughness amulet but there isn't one.

@ Riyus I'll see what I can do regarding a video, but I'm working pretty hard and don't have a huge amount of time (hence why I'm only Rank 10 still:p).

Edited by SuperNova, 13 September 2012 - 10:19 PM.

[DenkaSaeba25]

Really nice build, tried and appreciated. The only thing i changed was Signet of Water for a stun breaker (i use Mist Form, usually), because i had issues with warriors (and who hasn't? )

[Phuriocity]

SuperNova, on 06 September 2012 - 11:20 PM, said:

I absolutely 100% believe that this is the strongest 1v1 build in the entire game that I have seen so far and something very like it will be proven to be the best by some player who is a lot better than me.

It will include SoF, guaranteed.

I have nothing against your build, I made one similar myself a few weeks ago and played it for awhile, but my necro absolutely eats this build alive, inside and out. My dagger offhand has a shorter cooldown than your SoF, so I give you YOUR burn right back.

Just wanted to say there is no "best 1v1 build," there will always be counters.

[SuperNova]

Necro is one of my most difficult 1v1 if not the most.  Obviously you can't beat everything all the time or it would be broken however you still have to hit with dagger 4 attack - not an easy thing to do as I have double blind and knockdown myself.

But yeah, a well played necro can give me fits.

[Westibone]

I have been playing Mesmer most of the time, up to Rank 20, and have gotten somewhat bored and wanted to try something else.  Knowing that Elementalist has a pretty high skill cap, and that I enjoy the complexity, I made one and gave this build a try.  I liked it a lot.  I was fumbling all over the place at first, of course, but after a couple hours when I memorized the skills and got attunement swapping down, this build worked very well.  

I actually had a couple people comment that I was giving them a lot of trouble.  I understand why people like the flashiness of dagger in the offhand, but the focus is definitely the way to go.  It was apparent to me that I really needed the defense that it offers.  E4 was awesome to stick it to the ranged classes.  After playing Elementalist for a while, I can really sympathize for those who want a base health increase.  I think they are really in need of one.  

Good job on coming up with this fun build.

[AetherMcLoud]

Westibone, on 19 September 2012 - 01:19 PM, said:

I have been playing Mesmer most of the time, up to Rank 20, and have gotten somewhat bored and wanted to try something else.  Knowing that Elementalist has a pretty high skill cap, and that I enjoy the complexity, I made one and gave this build a try.  I liked it a lot.  I was fumbling all over the place at first, of course, but after a couple hours when I memorized the skills and got attunement swapping down, this build worked very well.  

I actually had a couple people comment that I was giving them a lot of trouble.  I understand why people like the flashiness of dagger in the offhand, but the focus is definitely the way to go.  It was apparent to me that I really needed the defense that it offers.  E4 was awesome to stick it to the ranged classes.  After playing Elementalist for a while, I can really sympathize for those who want a base health increase.  I think they are really in need of one.  

Good job on coming up with this fun build.

It's not so much the flashyness of the dagger offhand, it's the mobility. Also fire shield pretty much sucks on the focus. But it's air and earth skills are great. Focus really needs some mobility skill though, even if it's just swiftness.

[Westibone]

AetherMcLoud, on 19 September 2012 - 02:10 PM, said:

It's not so much the flashyness of the dagger offhand, it's the mobility. Also fire shield pretty much sucks on the focus. But it's air and earth skills are great. Focus really needs some mobility skill though, even if it's just swiftness.

Yes, I did feel pretty slow, you are right.  I guess I am very used to swapping weapons out of combat on the mesmer to gain swiftness from temporal curtain, so it's not so bad for me.

I agree that the fire shield is lackluster.  I think it should give 5 or so seconds of protection, similar to chaos armor for the Mesmer.  It's almost not worth the button press, even with the added benefits from the Aura traits.  

Also, I was using Runes of the Undead, and the Sigil of Superior Battle, so my bleeds were ticking for 120's, and my burns were in the 700's.  That really puts a lot of pressure on the opponent, especially if they are lacking good condition removal.

[SuperNova]

Fire shield will undoubtedly get buffed sooner rather than later - it does look more like a filler than a proper Fire 5 skill.  It would be nice to have a better combat log to see what kind of damage it was doing back to unload thieves etc though.

[Ibioc]

Isms, on 06 September 2012 - 08:28 PM, said:

Honestly you're missing out on half of your build's potential. I do run a focus aura build in tournaments and it works very well. You are slightly tanky, but more focused on shutting down potential threats with constant stuns, chills, knockdowns, etc.
http://gw2skills.net...sjYH7Oudk7MMYWC

Your goal here is to stay with your team and keep up perma swiftness, fury, and protection on the group, as well as the benefits from the auras themselves. DPS is not your concern with this build, but more of a byproduct. It's your job to lock down the most potential threats with your chills, and lock down targets with knockdowns and immobilizes. I honestly feel this build is more like a mesmer in GW1 than anything else in this game, as it is a cruel build to play. I'd avoid the scepter at all costs with this build, as the dagger lightning aura stun is too important, and dagger water has too many chills to pass up.

As far as your title goes saying (if you're having trouble), this is by far the most difficult build of any class I've come across, as the micro management is seemingly infinite in size. But it's a whole lot of fun to play.

This is pretty much my target build, for non sPvP (I use more in earth instead of water for sPvP)I like that it is flexible between all available ele weapons and also healing.  Can be a powerhouse in WvW

[Drekor]

I enjoyed the build... ended up modifying runes and sigils though. Sigils I went agony+smoldering and runes I went 2x Krait, 2x Afflicted, 2x Lyssa. Which signficantly boosted durations of E1 bleeds(+50%) and the burn(+20%)

[WCH]

Can anyone repost the build?

[Myan]

WCH, on 03 October 2012 - 02:01 AM, said:

Can anyone repost the build?

I think it was something like http://www.guildhead...LGoGax0azszMVbV

[SuperNova]

Pretty much that one except I got rid of Lava Tomb for the extra duration on SoF with "Burning Fire".

[hell]

Isms, on 06 September 2012 - 08:28 PM, said:

Honestly you're missing out on half of your build's potential. I do run a focus aura build in tournaments and it works very well. You are slightly tanky, but more focused on shutting down potential threats with constant stuns, chills, knockdowns, etc.
http://gw2skills.net...sjYH7Oudk7MMYWC

Your goal here is to stay with your team and keep up perma swiftness, fury, and protection on the group, as well as the benefits from the auras themselves. DPS is not your concern with this build, but more of a byproduct. It's your job to lock down the most potential threats with your chills, and lock down targets with knockdowns and immobilizes. I honestly feel this build is more like a mesmer in GW1 than anything else in this game, as it is a cruel build to play. I'd avoid the scepter at all costs with this build, as the dagger lightning aura stun is too important, and dagger water has too many chills to pass up.

As far as your title goes saying (if you're having trouble), this is by far the most difficult build of any class I've come across, as the micro management is seemingly infinite in size. But it's a whole lot of fun to play.

Could someone please explain how you would keep perma protection on the group with this build (or even swiftness/fury)?

[Ephex]

I used Signet Aura daggers back in my sub-rank 15's when everyone was easy. With low toughness, no condi removals or stun/immob breaks, and absolutely no healing, I don't see this build doing well at all against r20 players and up. Now at rank 32, I have come to find that Healing Ripple and Cleansing Wave are absolute must traits, as switching to Water accomplishes 2 things with zero global cooldown or cast time.

[LUDAK987654]

there was a similar build in one of betas i  think from one of the german players i think,if i remember correctly was this
(http://gw2skills.net...YjwGrNObk2MqYWC)
not sure about amulets tho but its not relevant...

well regardless of few trait changes,

main point for using d/d with signets is that d/d has
faster auto attack so more heals from  Sor
best aura u can have is on air dagger 3(shocking aura)
d/d has 2 auras on weapon set
most of auras work only at close range so d/d is best choice

some ppl go with water and monk runes for higher 50%boon duration with arcane trait line  since its said that prot is best buff in game

[dynia666]

SuperNova, on 06 September 2012 - 08:13 PM, said:

You do realise that it can have permanent swiftness?  What you mean is it doesn't have ride the lightning...well yeah.



So people are blowing their condition removal on one fire condition?  First I saw it.

If they know ele with condi build they do or other I do it when I see ele with fire signet best way to play every class in every build to know counter them

[rizipt]

It happens often enough that I bait a condition swipe by generating burning with auto attack.  A second swipe so close to the first is not as common so chances of you getting an extended duration burn is much higher.  Some classes will swipe a condition or have one removed by an ally without any conscious thought.  You don't want to have someone get lucky on you, so do what you can to make that one stick.

[SuperNova]

Earth signets has 5 conditions they can put on you in seconds - actually 6 if you include the cripple on attunement and 7 if you go 10 in Water.

You *might* cleanse the SoF if you are lucky, but you'll still have a ton of other stuff on you.  It's a solid build - tbh I haven't played pvp in weeks because it's boring frankly but if I was I can assure you I'd still be playing this at rank 20+ and doing fine with it.

[PinCushion]

I've recently swapped to a build very similar to this from various D/D builds.  With D/D I could accomplish some pretty amazing things, but I had to work my tail off to do ANYTHING with it.  The plus was that I could work my tail off and stop a zerg in WvW in its tracks.  The minus was I had to work equally hard just to 1v1 a random newbie.  The mobility was turning into a hinderance because I'd frequently overshoot targets or get stuck on nothing due to RTL/Magnetic Grasp bugs.

This build is not quite as effective in WvW since there's less AoE, but it's so much easier to play.  The difficulty scales up depending on how skilled your opponent is, rather than just being hard all the time.  For random newbs I can SoF and Earth auto attack them until they die.  It's pretty sad.  Against skilled opponents I have to stance dance and really work my CC to stay ahead of the curve, but that's part of the fun.

Have you considered swapping the elemental elite for Tornado to get more Stability up-time and CC?  Tornado is pretty clunky, but since I don't have RTL the 15 seconds of Stability could come in very handy for running away if friends show up.

[SuperNova]

I considered Tornado for the stability alone tbh, as it would let me keep Signet of Water.  The most recent build I was going with Cleansing Fire as it gives a lot for one ability, especially as the damage gets better with a condition build.

One of the things I dislike most about the build (and the game overall) is that it makes you want to go "all in".  Written in Stone is a great talent but it just makes you want to take all 4 signets to be fully effective.  It really pigeonholes your build and style of play.  Same with might/cantrips etc.

[PinCushion]

I disagree.  I use 4 signets, but it isn't because of Written in Stone.  Written in Stone combos with Signet of Restoration very well, and is integral to the build.  Signet of Fire provides a lot of damage, but the passive bonus is simply "nice."  The other passives I find underwhelming.  I'll probably swap 1 or 2 of the others out for cantrips, and I'm still trying to find a way to squeeze Conjure Earth Shield into a build without it being terrible.