Curse

KingAlkaiser · Nov 30, 2010, 04:05 AM // 04:05

Hello please forgive me for lack of "lingo" and what not but I just got back to guild wars and was testing out new fun builds for my elementalist what do you guys think?

ward against hard ( ice)
ward against elements
ward against melee
earth attunement
ward of stability ( i f hate getting knock down )
ward against foes ( is this useless? sound like a POS skill to me tho )
rez skill
and finally maelstorm to help interrupt

sorry for not being able to post skills link.

is a full support ward build viable for PvE normal?

tuna-fish_sushi · Nov 30, 2010, 04:18 AM // 04:18

Don't forget the PVE wards Ebon Battle Standard of Honor/Wisdom, those are very powerful.

Zanagi Kazuhiko · Nov 30, 2010, 05:06 AM // 05:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by tuna-fish_sushi

Don't forget the PVE wards Ebon Battle Standard of Honor/Wisdom, those are very powerful.

That and remember some wards don't stack...there's a cap.

Bandwagon · Nov 30, 2010, 06:48 AM // 06:48

Pure Warding is definitely not viable in PvE ever since the imbagon came to be. Stick to straight damage/ or ER protting.

There is always space for a good PvE ward though (Honor and Wisdom come to mind here as they either up your damage or allow you to use your big attacks more often (and the help the party as well)

Klance · Nov 30, 2010, 06:52 AM // 06:52

Honestly, a build focused on wards is not really viable.

They suffer from a number of problems:

1. They require your party to be IN them to take effect, meaning that if an enemy uses an aoe spell your heroes must stay in the ward for it to take effect, but your party will take far less damage if they simply move our of the aoe (ie: spread out) and thus move out of the ward.

2. They are stationary and have a moderate to long cooldown so you can't really use them in every encounter.

3. Armor enhancing skills do not stack beyond +25 armor (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Armor_rating), so stacking +armor wards is quite pointless. Also their effects can generally be replicated (stand your ground for +24 armor which is close to the max, aegis for the 50% block which is superior to ward against melee).

Therefore a bar filled with ward spells is highly ineffecient, you should simply bring 1-2 good wards to support your team with and run other skills on your bar. The good ones are the PvE Ebon Vanguard Wards (especially Honor and Wisdom), since their effects are so strong.

gremlin · Nov 30, 2010, 07:04 AM // 07:04

Thought along similar lines myself and I was going to use the necro circles of power as well.
One build where you control the battlefield to hinder enemies and aid the party.
The only time it really worked was in the gayla hatchery mission keeping the baby turtles alive.

A mixture of wards and area effect damage works fine though, slow them down so they are in the effect longer.

Mouse at Large · Nov 30, 2010, 08:01 AM // 08:01

TBH, wards are kind of ....meh. The only time I have used a ward recently was in BLA (pre-nerf) because I knew that myself and the rest of the group would be spending a reasonable time in the same spot.

Kronk_Shaan · Nov 30, 2010, 02:46 PM // 14:46

You can run almost anything you want on your bar and survive most places. A lot of it will depend on what heroes/hench you bring and their skill sets. When Sorrow's Furnace was first released, I used to run a ward build, and it was fun. Made some people nervous as they didn't get why I was right up behind the tank, but after some killing they got it. Just let tank get all aggro first before running in.

I played an E/N and would drop a melee and ele ward, and when the first thing died drop well of blood then well of power when the next thing died. I found it worked well.

Nowadays, I would go with what tuna-fish said and bring 1 or 2 of the ebon standards along with the melee ward (or ele if lots of ele damage) and possibly stability if in an area with a lot of knockdown.
I would go with the assassin support for the 3rd PvE only skill so you have additional pressure for healers. If you are going all earth, I would bring churning earth and unsteady ground (elite) and you still have 1 (maybe 2) slot free to play with. Which could be earth attunement or eruption (yay blind).

Depends on play style, but it can be a lot of fun if your looking for something different than what everyone else is doing...and it does work.

Bring some minions to wall them, a panic mesmer so you can laugh at them, watch them fall down and go poof.

Ok Dont Panic · Nov 30, 2010, 07:03 PM // 19:03

Wards can be great, if your team is mainly caster then having wards against melee is very useful. Squishy casters are squishy. But as stated above having a bar dedicated to them is going to a) be a drain on the team over a period of time [either them waiting for you, or the team having a significant lack of damage] and b) so very dull you want to start playing another char.
If you want to take Wards/Wells that focus on AoE effects that are stationary pick them based on the area and spread them out around the team.

A team with Honor Wisdom and Courage (3 humans) is usually going to be stronger than a team with one person using all three.

If the designated "warder" or "weller" is dead then the defence of the team goes down and the point of having the wards/wells becomes redundant.

These skills are very useful. They slow down, weaken, stop them using enchants/shouts give degen or Bolster damage armor / skill recharge.

But having them on a team should be tactfully used so that they arent relied upon or interfere with any particular bar

Calista Blackblood · Nov 30, 2010, 07:33 PM // 19:33

The safest option if you must run wards(they are brilliant but circumstantial)is to use them to fill up spare slots in your builds. They all work fine with 8 earth magic which can be done on any caster worth having /E secondary for,even on a hero.

The previous poster also had a good point. If your team has a reliance on wards/wells, don't put them all on one bar expecially the 3 common PvE wards.

tcratty · Nov 30, 2010, 08:04 PM // 20:04

overkill you dont need all that

LifeInfusion · Dec 02, 2010, 02:15 AM // 02:15

You don't need to bring wards that much since if your team is any good you will be moving quite a bit. You need damage.

The wards can't match a Soul Twisting Rit or Imbagon for mobility...

If you want to bring wards bring Ebon Vanguard of Wisdom and Honor (+damage) I guess. Ward against melee is ok, but you need points in earth. Ward of Stability I could see using in places with AoE KD, but other than that, no.

EDIT: If you bring Honor then it is useless unless you have rangers or paragons in your team since you'll be in the midline. Ward Against Harm is a waste of attribute levels when you could bring Ebon Battle Standard of Courage.

I'm thinking:

E/any
12+1+1=14 Earth
12+1=13 Energy storage

1 "You Move Like a Dwarf!" (better than magnetic surge most of the time)
2 Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support (stapled to the bar)
3 Unsteady Ground [Elite]
4 Glyph of Lesser Energy
5 Ward Against Melee
6 Ebon Vanguard Standard of Wisdom
7 Earth Attunement
8 Churning Earth/Res

3 PVE Skill quota: check.

AP version:

E/any
11+1+1=13 Earth
10+1=11 Energy storage
10 Deadly Arts

1 "You Move Like a Dwarf!" (better than magnetic surge most of the time)
2 Ash blast (Eruption could be put in here)
3 Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support (stapled to the bar)
4 Assassin's Promise [Elite]
5 Glyph of Lesser Energy
6 Ward Against Melee
7 Ebon Vanguard Standard of Wisdom
8 Churning earth

The problem is earth does like 13 damage out of the 40 listed damage unless you have cracked armor (which means you do about 20-30).

Also see: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...1&postcount=33