Aigleborgne.2981

Agreed, with full dps build, ele goes down a lot faster than anyone else. And when downed, those useless downed skill won't help you. Additionally, you also die more quickly on downed state because lowest health and armor.This is why ele needed downed lava font. It was the only saving grace. Go try to kill those veterans fire djinns and see how it fares now.

Let's say you want to kill Fire Shaman in Iron March, I'm not sure you could do it without toughness unless you are incredibly good at avoid all of his strong attacks.Now, why would you solo him?Because some players want to everything with the profession they chose and they don't want to switch because some others can do the job easier. I am one of those players ? In my case, it is more for RP reason. Switching characters to do one task is against any role play or game immersion.

Lol, sure, dead mobs don't do damage but they are alive when you engage them. If you get CC by some of them and burst to death, you might not able to recover.And if you try to solo some tough champions, you will have to sustain the whole fight. I am not saying toughness and healing are needed, but they make you incredibly resilient and allow you to solo hard content a lot more easily than with viper !Granted, guardian has many sustain options within utilities and traits, so veterans can just rely on them. It's all about having more or less margin for mistakes.

No, there is at least Communal Defenses.If we would got might back, then it would be a straight buff on an already strong trait. I have that feeling that balance in this game is one of the worst I have seen. No discussion between devs and players and even when they do, they don't change their mind. See Removal of falling damage trait. They acknowledged it was important for us, yet they removed them.7 months after, we are still stuck with a very underwhelming trait... Maybe they will start buffing those traits in 2 years!

That is true =) So hilarious that a "lesser" does more damage than the normal version It also last 2 seconds more, was a great skill and sustain tool.

More than that, it is a devastating change. This trait was the only thing that prevented ele from beeing unplayable in solo (power build, of course). I mean, it was almost part of the rotation. Without it, I can't imagine playing power in solo harder content. Going condi bunker seems to be the only way...We lost a very interesting trait for what ? A simple % damage trait, totally uninteresting and not creative at all.

Well, I kinda like the new Flame Expulsion since it affects both condi and power build. Lost of might stacks is an issue though, since it also affect power overwhelming. If you have only 10 might stacks, you loose all stacks AND 300 power bonus. I wonder, what if I build a might stacking machine ? With rune, sigil, and food, I could generate a lot of might. Since expulsion has no CD, it benefits weaver a lot. Will it worth it ? Probably not, but we are stuck with this for 4 months ! However, we lost Downed Lava Font and this is a very strong nerf to sustain in pve solo play (and not only there). It was an incredible surviving tool with downed signet, and even without, it was still a strong DPS rally helper. We gain 10% DPS in return and it is great in group settings, but about solo ? I would choose the old trait any day.

Ok, now I see your point, but it's not about healing (a point where ele is definitly strong), it's about sustaining and there I agree ele is not good if built for power dps. I think the CD is low enough (20s), problem is elsewhere (very low HP and armor). ANet a nerf all great defenses we had (earth focus 5 for example).Earth traitline should be rework to provide more sustain than it currently does (look at warrior defense traitline). Even then it wouldn't probably be enough since most builds have no room for earth. It is true, either you prevent all (or most) hits, either you die. It is something I expect when I play a powerful mage in MMOs. Problem is ANet has also nerfed our damage because it was over-performing, not taking the fact that it was already a trade for our lack of sustain. Now so our damage is on par with others, but sustain is lagging behind. If your attacks combo in water fields, it's the same thing than Aliam did in his video, certainly to do easier on Scrapper (an elite based on sustain, it does help). Agree for power, but for condi builds, it's fine. I never said it could do great DPS with water traitline!I still maintain that as a warrior, I have trouble surviving without defense when soloing champions. Health is is going down slowly but surely, all sustaining skills are just slowly down the process. I guess Adrenaline health is one of the major helper here.And I also struggled with revenant before Devastating rework. It is fine now, but I think Dance of Death is vastly overpowered (don't get me wrong: I love it).

Ok, first you picked a support traitline and a healing grandmaster trait. Second, your full heal only work with allies around you. You will not fully heal if you are alone, far from it: 9230 + 1156 + 1156 + 136 * 6 = 12358 over 18k healthAliam gave us a showcase of a full heal without water traitline. With water: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGAEmAYqHA-e6494+1300+1302+1600 (soothing mist over 10s) = 10 696 over 12k health and with 2 buttons pressed, like warrior.A little less that warrior, but you have to factor recharge: glyph is 20s, shout is 30s. You can get 1302 every 10 seconds (8 if you took arcane) and soothing mist is more likely permanent. Warrior is largely behind if solo. In a group, warrior will be better.Now, how many warriors run tactics ? Exactly like how many ele run water : very few. Full heal? -He starts at 8k-He has barrier GM-He has arcana water dodge trait-He uses 2 blast finishers-He press several button for real overall 10k heal The warrior build would heal for more by pressing 3 buttons at mostHow exactly warrior would heal for more in a solo situation?Unless he is building very defensively with might makes right, adrenaline health and tactics, warrior has basically one heal skill and no way to create water field like ele do.So it sticks to simple healing skills where warrior is not better than ele. How can you miss this? It's basic number comparaison...

Ok, first you picked a support traitline and a healing grandmaster trait. Second, your full heal only work with allies around you. You will not fully heal if you are alone, far from it: 9230 + 1156 + 1156 + 136 * 6 = 12358 over 18k healthAliam gave us a showcase of a full heal without water traitline. With water: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGAEmAYqHA-e6494+1300+1302+1600 (soothing mist over 10s) = 10 696 over 12k health and with 2 buttons pressed, like warrior.A little less that warrior, but you have to factor recharge: glyph is 20s, shout is 30s. You can get 1302 every 10 seconds (8 if you took arcane) and soothing mist is more likely permanent. Warrior is largely behind if solo. In a group, warrior will be better.Now, how many warriors run tactics ? Exactly like how many ele run water : very few.

While there are some truth in your statments, you are clearly over exagerating !What are these "incredible" healing skills other classes seem to have ? Granted a few have very powerful one but not all professions and/or specializations. Our glyph is more than decent and comparable to most other profession healing skills. Our signet can be good too with some builds. Even the cantrip heal has some use in PVE, when fighting some champions that put out 25 stacks of poison, its exceptional condi clear and very low CD can serve at times. Talking about traits, elementalist has water which provides good party healing, and it can be very strong if you add some healing power. But even without healing power, water is still decent and definitly helps when more healing is needed.You can't be serious by saying other professions has incredible healing/life steal traitline... You even dare to say than Engineer can the same with 1 our 2 skills, that profession that need to combo as much as we do, and in some ways, sharing the same issues.@AliamRationem.5172 showed you a way to fully heal within 2 seconds using several skills and combos. Not easy to do at first, but you can become confortable with training. What profession can do the same? I play all of them, and for example, my warrior can't do that, he regenerates over time, but not fully in a few seconds. Same for most of my characters in fact.

Nice performance, but there was no team play? I mean, no one is trying to revive downed players, it would have been a lot easier if you did.

It solely depends on build. While a power build will barely see any difference (no modifier for burning), a condi build with no power/precision will suffer. But for the latter, you have to switch to bleeds: glyph of elemental power cast in earth and even earth shield.

The only I know to stand into lava is having resistance, so it's mainly a revenant and warrior thing. As for immune to burning foes, you can use earth with glyph and stance if you play weaver. But of course, it will take longer to kill.My main complaint is that burning immunity is the most common and maybe the only existing one. Why is there any other immunity?

I know, I have followed your thread since the mirage's one 2 years ago ?I'm playing like you, mainly because of the lack of challenge when in a group.

The former is designed toward raids, not solo content.The latter is not meant to solo group content. Solo open world is referred to most open world stuff, including some champions but definitly not the hardest.This thread fills the gap between the two, allowing you to solo most of the hardest stuff.

Your suggestion is a heavy nerf for solo play.My current build is using 2 conjures (shield and hammer) along with lighting rod. It allows me to chain cc, drop conjure, cast another, pick one on ground, then another. Well, it's a bit messy to play, but very fun.I would rather have ammo on them.

Getting insta down from full health is never fun but you just failed to avoid a big attack. It's fair game!Between dodges, focus 5, virtue of courage passive and active, and easy blind with sword 2 or virtue of justice, it is easy to prevent most damage. If you need more, you can pick valor and/or honor. A fully traited litany of wrath is almost godmode. Yes, you will loose damage, but better than getting killed, especially your case soloing GROUP content. And if not solo, it is easy to rally.I regularly see some dragon hunters getting downed in 10 seconds vs a strong champion when I can survive without much trouble on my leveling elementalist...Guardian defense is exceptional but you need to learn those mechanics and be ready to drop some dps for more defense when it is required. Too many players are blindly following meta builds without any change, and inevitably dying to hard content.Guardian defenses are mostly active, you need to use them at the right moment, which implies knowing your enemies. You can also still get crit cap without retaliation. All other professions do it. FYI, guardian were using valkyrie gear in the past before trait nerf. Reaper might get 35k health, but very few damage prevention. If he play minions, he is playing easy mode because AI is bad in this game. Without minions, its sustain is not great. Warrior can take quite a beating but he needs some passives and/or spellbreaker spec. If not, he is just delaying his death, slowly but surely. If he took those sustain, you will deal far more aoe damage than he will ever do.

Full trailblazer, dire, or apothecary if you want safety.Marshal when you become more confident.Then berserker / marauder / viper when you know your skills and traits. Risk of starting with full dps is to get frustrated and delete character.Some people like to learn the hard way through, so it's more your call.

So for someone that does a mix of mostly PvE and the occasional thing with difficulty (like a raid or a dungeon) would the best course of action be a combination of Viper and Trailblazer? No. Open world trailblazer can be pretty strong, but it's terrible in raids, especially because of toughness (and generally defense from gear that you dont even need) which aggroes a lot of bosses. So Viper and maybe an accessory or two to help me from instantly dying? You wont be instantly dying to anything, condi weaver already has solid defense in its kit.While it is correct, he also has to play perfectly, knowing all his skills and choosing the right utilities and traits for any situation.If not, he will be down in no time with viper gear. Of course lava font can help a lot, but in case of stronger foes, it won't save him.I was soloing ogre wars with my full offensive new ele (level 40). Between weakness, frequent knockdown and ranged attacks, it was a nightmare to stay alive. And I am just mentioning a low level zone!Another example is that event in level 60 ascalon zone where you need to defend a town. Half foes are immune to burning, and many veterans do knockdown plus many aoe. Even my weaver was struggling there. I'm new to weaver, true, but it is surely not that easy, quite the opposite.Shall I start to tell about HoT? Ele with full offensive stats are going to die a lot while learning and it will take a lot of time.Tanking gear gives a much better experience, at least for me because I don't like to die at the first mistake.

I disagree, it is pointless. Confusion need to have its own signature.Mobs should attack a lot faster but it is far too late to change this without affecting everything else.I would double confusion damage on activation skills and remove damage over time. So while mobs attack very slowly, each attack would hurt them a LOT.

It was more designed for solo instance (personnal and living story), and open world (core, HoT, PoF).I guess Draining would be a nice way to get mass life since I will have a lot cc.

Not sure about sigils. Draining and Severance seem good for CC build. But maybe Sigil and Force are better overall. Although Draining is almost mandatory for solo build. About your maths, I think it is overall better to pick Raging Storm. Defensively, Stormsoul can help with dagger or staff along with Lightning Hammer, a lot of sources of stun. I will probably make some tests.

Thank you for your answer. Most cc skills we have do next to 0 damage, so Stormsoul effect would be almost useless (except for LR).I'm thinking of a build centered around LR with dagger/dagger, staff, earth shield, lightning hammer. I was thinking at Stormsoul instead of Raging Storm.

Does Stormsoul increase cc damage skills? What about its synergy with Lightning Rod? I cast earthquake for example, is knockdown applied before damage? And then Stormsoul will increase earthquake and LR. I assume LR always work because it's cast after. But I'm not sure for the cc damage part.