Zhaid Zhem.6508

If it works a bit like mesmer : you have #1-3 for melee/block etc and #4-5 for mid-range, control, or melee/range between elements, it would be cool.

If it's pur melee with some leaps, no, no need.

Reading this thread feels like Elem is so OP we need to handicap ourself. :#

Otherwise, I think there is a misunderstanding. Scepter is an useless weapon outside FA weaver.

But Condi elem isn't weak no matter the weapon. First, most of people play condi with dire/trailblazer, and so you're already a cancer bunker for most of players. Second, signets and overloads are sufficients to apply condi and kill, you should just need some condi cover and CC, you can have that with warhorn for example.

Actually I think core* FA scepter is harder than Condi tempest with no mainhand weapon, because your damage mainly comes from weapons, and scepter has been forgotten since Hot. (edit, I forgot they buffed Shatterstone like 4 times in 3 months)

It isn't impossible to kill (A good gale + dragon's tooth + phoenix) but without weaver traits and dual attacks you lose half your DPS and sustain. Or even without Air overload against greedy players.

In fractals it will always be "monopoly", we're just looking for the most effecient and safer composition for 99% of fractals and instabilities possible combinations.

You have only 5 players, you need a package of effective assets to adapt: boonstrip, wall, protection, heal/regen, cleanse ...and big fat red numbers. Once you have the Ren+FB+dps no one is relogging, arguing or doing math about the good classes and builds for this fractal with these instabilities, and later on this one, and this one, and this one ....

If you nerf FB, buff chrono etc, you will just switch the "monopoly", everyone will adapt fast to the "new meta" and re-equip their blinders.

We've already seen it at the very beginning of pof:

"Hey guys, look at FB+Ren, it sounds great, join us" "Meh too weird, no time, need chrono."

Some weeks later SC record 100CM with Commander Ren and Berserker FB, next day "Quick, get in the hype train, leave your useless chrono".

For raids ... and strikes... we have already more margin + you already know what you are getting into. And I agree we could have some balance with forgotten specs, like herald, tempest, scrapper, necro; all playable but in the second league. It's been years we're asking for power buff or alacrity/quickness on tempest. :anguished:

May be look at Liberator's vow + stalwart speed traits, too powerful imo.

That why they should give tempest's aura traits to Core ele, buff them a bit; and make something else with these shouts and overload.

Why Core ele has traits one trait per spec on auras, but only has 1 or 2 auras per build ? Why on tempest I have to build specs mainly for one trait (cf Earth)?

My issue with tempest : it steals one of the specifity of core elem, makes it mainly a medium for added effects with more auras : heal, protection, etc and so make core elem a very poor design.

You actually don't really care if you spread fire or frost auras, the added effects become more important than the aura's effect itself. Shocking aura is the exception (and the reason fresh-air tempest is abusive)

Imagine if necro's minions earned many and stronger effects with Scourge (Litteraly traits about minions in e-spec), and so devs slowly nerfs core traitlines because "Scourge is OP" !? It's the same here.

Give elemental bastion and invigorating auras to core specs ; delete unstable conduit. Problem solved; no more spammy fresh-air support tempest and Core would actually have a correct support build you could improve in a way with tempest/weaver.

Give some auras in traits and skills instead of shouts/traits; make shouts, overload and related traits useful for their own effects rather than be a random medium to spread auras, and so added effects; damage Buffs, heal, alacrity/stab, etc.

> @"BRNBRITO.9624" said:

> > @"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:

> > This isn't true for fractals. Even in raids (but you'd want a druid anyway).

> > Yes, on paper, you win DPS against a golem; but in situation you lose a lot of utilities or you need to reconsider roles for alls and lose DPS.

> Was a pretty short comment and forgot to say i was more of a Fractal player.

>

> Not sure how much changed but NA was basically 99% HB/DivRen/BS/2DPS for pugs, and HealRen + QB always was/is more dps than that AFAIK (highest dps being no healer at all), but people tend to just copy/paste builds with 0% BD and trying to memorize a 1-2-3 rotation when things are not that simple, and that's when it goes downhill, can't just copy-paste if you don't have the same experience/awareness and realistically pull 50% of golem benchmark and constantly get lost on skill priorities.

>

> No doubt that HB + DivRen is more convenient to just run through stuff daily when pugging, but about "win dps against a golem and lose utility" it'll depend on what kind of parties are people playing with as well as what fractals/instabilities, there's no point running so much support when bosses are basically perma-cc'd and phases are just a few seconds, which is true for a lot of Fractals, but indeed it's a lot of difference from group to group, i remember so much people would get stuck on Siren's Reef last boss because they just refuse to adapt and change a skill/trait... One fractal that a lot of support/survivability is always welcome IMO is Mai Trin.

>

> Crazy stab uptime on Skorrvald also isn't really needed if people know what they're doing, the anomalies barely have time to attack once, and 33% phase is fast enough that just F3 Tome on QB was enough stab, definitely harder if people are doing 10k ish dps, but the dps checks to skip mechs on GW2 tend to be easy.

>

> I guess there isn't much of a TL;DR, you need to know how to adapt to every situation by knowing the fractal/instabs, your class as well as other classes and what can others bring in case you're stuck or having a hard time with something, gearing is easy once you're doing Fractals/Raids so it's always worth a shot trying build variations of a class you already know the basics, as well as gearing other classes and learning them even if just a little bit, and experience will come with time.

The point is not that I, or you,

>need to know how to adapt to every situation by knowing the fractal/instabs, your class as well as other classes and what can others bring in case you're stuck or having a hard time with something....

But how much you trust others to do the same.

If you trust everyone, you don't need healren at all for cms ; ventari is counterproductive, you don't need to waste 10sec on ventari and a trailine for scholar threshold or cleanse you already have otherwise.

If you don't trust enough players, who for a good part got carried until 250kp and beyond (but it's not the intention, it's just the pug meta) you better want margins of error and an accessible package of utilities in scheduled roles before noticing daily fractals, instabilities and inexperience/laziness of somes, rather than lack of alacrity, or/and so quickness, mights, fury, buffs, cc, dps and debate in each fractals who does what, what gear, what classes ...

May be it depends in what you means it's _better_. In a miracle world with invested, smart and supportive players, perhaps.

After years of pugs, of "metas", and thousands of runs you don't live in this world anymore.

> @"BRNBRITO.9624" said:

> Even though Heal ren + Quickbrand is better than Healbrand + Diviner ren, most people don't know/understand that and just copy whatever they see the most, so Diviner is your best bet for PvE.

This isn't true for fractals. Even in raids (but you'd want a druid anyway).

Yes, on paper, you win DPS against a golem; but in situation you lose a lot of utilities or you need to reconsider roles for alls and lose DPS.

If you play Ventari/Kalla you can apply perma alacrity, more Mights as you can take LL over RR, and healing, bubble etc. But you'll lose Charged mist(Invocation traitline) and so less soulcleave's summit or CC; or Assassin's Presence (Devastation traitline); you'll bring less "power"buffs overall. While HFB can still play with Bane signet.

Then, it starts to be complicated when you need to bring Stab or you need to bring boonstrip (Skorvald, chaos, instabilities with boons, some encounters with boons) because you need to change a legend for Jalis or Mallyx and so you lose a big part of the support, your main build is ruined.

Or you ask your qFB or DH to bring a lot of stab, (mantra/shouts/f3 are less convenient than jalis on Skorvald for example) the war to go Spb, or you have a reaper may be, or a chrono etc, to remove boons ; it's already unnecessarily complicated and annoying.

Plus, hFB has a faster and easier access to a burst of heal or aegis, cleanse, stab, anti-proj, etc without breaking rotation and role for too long, while Ren can be stuck with low energy, or legend swap's CD the desired moment.

Plus, you should prefer the extra BD of a hFB rather than a healRen; Fury/mights can be very low with a qFB in pug, same for quickness on differents phases or with a lazy ren (and quickness > alacrity) same for stab, resistance ...

Plus if you think spirits are not worth : delete the ren and take a DPS. Ren is not a cushynumber only for the "sacred and mandatory" alacrity. (But I got you, most of people won't believe it and still ask for the laziest ren ever rather than a DPS)

HealFb+(diviner)Ren is a safer and stronger choice, because it responds to more situations overall : differents compositions, fractals, instabilities, differents skill levels of players.

I'm okai, most of people c/p compositions or build without really knowing why at the moment.

For exemple Ren+Fb was already a thing at PoF release even before Diviner gear, easier and with a stronger package of utilities than Chrono+druid; but it takes months and videos of sacred guilds for players to understand it and stop laughing at you.

Lesson : they understand it with time, experience and of course testimony/explanation.

Lesson 2 : there is nothing to understand of "Heal ren + Quickbrand", because we already have the experience to say the opposite is a better choice almost everywhere. At least for PUG.

If you play with static you should consider no healer at all.

FB's tome of resolve #4+#5 + breakrazor + soulcleave's summit = overheal without losing any buff and dps. You don't need Ventari.

We don't talk about scepter ? :anguished:

Staff, okai, but scepter is below everything; if you don't play it with weaver and maximum candies (food, infusion, etc) in PvE / WvW you can't play it. In pvp it's even worse than staff, I'm not even sure dragon's tooth does 25% on a light golem.

Still bugged.

? I'm not sure we see the same things lol.

Actually minions* are almost useless, even with death magic traitline.

Sure you can have pets tanking for you, it's good when you want to solo some bosses and Hero Point, but for 98% of your time you can just replace them by GS #4 or well of Darkness to apply blindness/chill and have 4-5 utility skills for better dps and sustain.

Wait ... !?

Kralkatorrik's mother is alive ?

> @"Ardyth.9286" said:

> > @"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:

> > Make sure you are running your guild XP booster, birthday/celebration boosters if you have them, and utilities and foods. The food and utilities XP boost is generally from from kills, so make sure you're killing the white and yellow mobs. Also, don't forget about the raptor, springer, skimmer, and jackal mount treats. You get mastery experience for eating ONE while on each mount each day in the desert maps. On my alt account, it worked out to over 40k free XP per mount each day.

> >

> > So the first question is, do you have any achievements in those maps left to complete? Don't forget map completion. For me, Dragonfall was the the fastest map for me to complete the skimmer training.

>

> Ok, I have to ask...How do you get food/utilities to boost XP and the treats? I'm anxious to achieve masteries on my new griffon mount.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Experience

Buy consumables on trading post, for example Glazed Pear Tart + Flask of Pumpkin Oil

It's fine.

Woven strike + cleansing water is a strong synergy but in your build you don't really have switness so it's a bit useless.

About persisting flames; same you don't really have power plus none of your fire field pulse Burning (or take Focus instead of x/dagger). Pyromancer's puissance, even If I don't really like the gimmick, should be more interesting.

About fractals, if you want to go really high you should try to gradually remove healingpower/vitality/toughness and Water spec.

An other issue you don't notice (Or I didn"t read it, sorry) : Auto-condition / transfer gimmick.

On golem; yes you can apply to yourself twice 2*20sec bleeding + 2*20sec torment and transfer them to the foe; and it's a very important part of the dps.

But in situation : you have 10 light fields + random condi cleanse every second you don"t even finish to cast BiP you have already lost the auto-conditions ...

Same for condi reaper, half the bleedings come from whirl combos in the ice field ...

Benchmark is already not really high, but it's even worse with players arround.

>Hsc always considered as a secondary healer

>Who in the right mindset will ever want a secondary healer over the hfb while he can run one healer one bs one alac and two dps

I'm not sure to understand.

HSc is considered as a secondary healer ... for raids. Not in fractals.

The barrier is a strong mechanic, it really helps for Scholar runes for example, or ignore some attacks/aoe etc, plus obviously you are the rez machine.

The "issue" with healscourge : you shine with newbies, but you're almost useless with regulars, when FB, druid etc still have offensives buffs ...

I don't think HSC needs to share more boons, like quickness/alacrity, or you just kill chrono/FB/Ren ; but it could get some improvements to vampiric presence ( ¼ icd instead of ½ ), Sage Sand "people in sand shades earn concentration and expertise", or apply a "vampiric aura" when you use BiP etc. Not "mandatory buffs" like banners, but things that compensate a little.

Glyph of Elemental power gives +25% to each strikes, not to each skills.

Plus you can be sure fresh-air trait or fresh-air tempest will be nerf the next balance patch. See how many complaints there is in pvp, no matter how unpopular tempests are in AT compared to necro, fb ...

Because it never finished to kill elem last most popular build.

Decrease the CD of Polaric Leap : all problems solved.

The difference between condi and power QFB ?

Power : Bane signet, better burst

Condi : small delay for burst, better dps, bane signet but at the cost of dps loss. The virtues variant over Zeal is not so bad either, for fractals with a lot of mobs, adds etc, and offers the related trait to the wall or the hallowed ground; it depends of habits, playstyle, needs...

If you're playing with good players, a guild, for a fanzy record of speedrun, you should go power.

If you pug, who cares really ? cFB is bursty by nature, the 1-2 sec to tick the burning is negligible in most of groups, and more than offset by the DPS. I have already seen Condi QFB, top dps in short fights/phases, but players were still complaining "power > condi" ... come on ... really ?

Otherwise, DPS isn't everything ; because you don't play "healer" it doesn't mean you can't support, you can't cast the oasis, or f3 bubble, stab etc.

Weaver/ele can have the best mitigation in the entire game. Weaveself, protection (40% with tempest), earth lane, frost aura, Grinding stones, ... or even barriers, Stone resonance, lava skin, bolstered elements, runes of weaver ...

You actually need to build for it, to anticipate, and press skills, it's not easy, it's not viable everywhere, but that's how you make the difference between young elementalists pressing skills randomly like they do with necro/reaper, but die by 2hko, and others elementalists who cram the class.

Plus, if you die with a trailblazer/dire gear ... I don't know ...

> @"lysico.1297" said:

> On the barrier build (first one), why not use sword over dagger?

It depends if you play pvp or wvw. Sword and dagger don't have the same tools and gameplay.

IMO dagger/x is better for roaming due to range and radius, leaps, self buff, projectil block, strong "one hit" ... You see less and less sword weavers in WvW, they all go dagger/x except condi ones : sword has less mobility and cleave so it's harder to keep pressure on most of classes or on contrary to avoid pressure ... In pvp the approach is different, the point is to contest the node.

The con : people get used to it and know better how to counter. :anguished:

Or something like the heal shout.

The range increase or decrease at each pulse. Same for damage/condition per pulse. So actually you could hit something sometimes rather than needing the foe to be afk or greedy.

Take a breakstun or something with stab.

Kits are fun at first and useful for group instances, but on my experience you become too lazy to use them in OW; PF is great enough to cleanse everything.

You got them all.

After, you have acronyms for each class sometimes ; DH, SB, no necro, ...

> @"otto.5684" said:

> > @"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:

> > > @"otto.5684" said:

> > > > @"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:

> > > > > @"Shao.7236" said:

> > > > > > @"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:

> > > > > > > @"Shao.7236" said:

> > > > > > > > @"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:

> > > > > > > > IMO the reason herald is bad today is because they have removed the very essence of Herald : boons and boon duration (F2).

> > > > > > >

> > > > > > > ??? What.

> > > > > > >

> > > > > >

> > > > > > ??? What.

> > > > >

> > > > > "The Legendary Dragon Stance version does not add concentration; instead, it gives +20% duration to any boons applied, regardless of the source. This can go above the boon duration cap, allowing up to +120% boon duration."

> > > >

> > > > ???And.

> > >

> > > The problem is not boon duration. It is what type of boons and how often. Fury, reg and protection are common boons. You ain’t going to see play time for these. No quickness or alacrity so no support option. The Might Herald Provides is too little to matter.

> > >

> > > IMO, if power herald is to be a thing in group pve, it needs a bit higher damage and the ability to stack 25 might to 5 players. This could easily give it a spot in grouped pve.

> > >

> > > For damage, IMO it needs to be tied to herald utilities. It has some, but it needs more.

> >

> > It has never been.

> > See it like a support support. Not a pillar.

> > +50% BD, even 33% was huge back in the days. Also because we didn't have diviner and harrier but only commander and some runes, but even today it means chrono can go full berserker/assassin, same for FB, Ren; and it helps everybody to maintain 25 mights, fury, retaliation, protection, ... You should say "Yeah but we already do" but this isn't true, there are always hollows in buffs, because druid is shifted or Ren doesn't know where are F- keys, especially in pugs or for some classes like Weaver with few to no self-buff.

> >

> > If you add more Damage to be a correct DPS you will only bring down an other DPS in the list and hear new complaints. If you add a support niche you steal nobody; it will just be like the second healer : not "mandatory" but comfortable.

>

> I am not sure what you are looking for. I gave you a support niche; stacking might. Boon duration improvement is not a support niche. It is mostly irrelevant. It was at HoT release, but that was 5 years ago. The game changed a lot since then. And without some extra damage, it won’t matter, cuz Druid, FB and renegade can stack 25 might. So the might stacking alone is not enough. You need both. And healing would not work, cuz, again FB and renegade can do that, while stacking might and quickness/alacrity. Healing is not a niche. Though healing + 25 might + 100% reg + 100 protection could theoretically work as Druid alternative.

If you ignore voluntarily all the points yes.

> @"otto.5684" said:

> > @"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:

> > > @"Shao.7236" said:

> > > > @"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:

> > > > > @"Shao.7236" said:

> > > > > > @"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:

> > > > > > IMO the reason herald is bad today is because they have removed the very essence of Herald : boons and boon duration (F2).

> > > > >

> > > > > ??? What.

> > > > >

> > > >

> > > > ??? What.

> > >

> > > "The Legendary Dragon Stance version does not add concentration; instead, it gives +20% duration to any boons applied, regardless of the source. This can go above the boon duration cap, allowing up to +120% boon duration."

> >

> > ???And.

>

> The problem is not boon duration. It is what type of boons and how often. Fury, reg and protection are common boons. You ain’t going to see play time for these. No quickness or alacrity so no support option. The Might Herald Provides is too little to matter.

>

> IMO, if power herald is to be a thing in group pve, it needs a bit higher damage and the ability to stack 25 might to 5 players. This could easily give it a spot in grouped pve.

>

> For damage, IMO it needs to be tied to herald utilities. It has some, but it needs more.

It has never been.

See it like a support support. Not a pillar.

+50% BD, even 33% was huge back in the days. Also because we didn't have diviner and harrier but only commander and some runes, but even today it means chrono can go full berserker/assassin, same for FB, Ren; and it helps everybody to maintain 25 mights, fury, retaliation, protection, ... You should say "Yeah but we already do" but this isn't true, there are always hollows in buffs, because druid is shifted or Ren doesn't know where are F- keys, especially in pugs or for some classes like Weaver with few to no self-buff.

If you add more Damage to be a correct DPS you will only bring down an other DPS in the list and hear new complaints. If you add a support niche you steal nobody; it will just be like the second healer : not "mandatory" but comfortable.