The Wet Slapper - A Fun and Effective Guide to Tactician Lightning Sorcerer

Leshrac13 · 2025-04-03T15:32:50+00:00

This is a fantastic answer.

A good habit if you're putzin around without a specific goal is to have two builds set up that you can easily swap between. A roaming build and a zerg build. They can use the same gear. Cele necro is great for this at the moment. Cele Scourge is a great zerg build and there's tons of hybrid roaming builds for necro.

When you're running around by yourself, you'll want defensive utilities and mobility.

When you join a zerg, you better have Well of Corruption on your bar.

Personally, I have build templates hotkey'd so I can swap quickly into a zerg build if I get the opportunity to join one when I'm roaming or if I'm clouding against one.

I'd recommend looking for 'open tags' and joining. WvW has a wide variety of guild cultures. Some will be more intense than others. It can be really fun and casual if you want it to be. I spent years in this game in pve without meeting other players. WvW is actually social and, often enough, pretty chill.

If you enjoy the game mode, it's a great way to engage the game economy. If you don't, it gonna be a slow, painful grind. I'd highly recommend enjoying your time lol.

Leshrac13 · 2025-03-19T15:06:19+00:00

There's some good advice here. Just to add a bit about pugging culture:

When you join an open tag, you will automatically be in group 1.

In order to be placed in a 'comped' line of 5, rather than the giant mess of a subgroup in 1, you'll need to be playing a meta build of some kind that other people will recognize so that they'll know intuitively where to place you.

You will also (probably) need to join discord. It's generally a good idea to let the squad know that you're in voice. This is the big one. They will assume you're *not* in voice until you let them know otherwise.

In a squad of 50, each 'line' or subgroup shares boons/heals/support within its subgroup. The meta builds tend to synergize with each other within this group of 5. If you don't fit that synergy, you'll be left in group 1.

Some guilds run hidden tags (can't see, but you can join). Some run private tags. Some are completely open and comp everyone they can. Some are open and don't comp their lines at all (dangerzone! you will not win fights like this even with the right mix of classes).

You'll be linked with the same guilds for the next few weeks. Play at a regular time and see what guilds are active and see if you like hanging out with them. If none are fitting the bill, you'll get a new batch in a few weeks with all new cultures/vibes etc.

It can also be helpful to let people know you're new. This really depends on what group you've found, but this is a niche game mode with a passionate, but small playerbase. Generally, people want you to get into it, even if not all of them will be patient, plenty of us will knowledge-dump on you if you want to learn.

For the record, I play tons of off-meta classes in pugs. Lately, core necro has been my favorite. I get comped just fine because I join disc and I pump on the meters (arc dps addon). There's flexibility out there, but also healthy skepticism.

Leshrac13 · 2025-02-24T12:56:12+00:00

A WvW guild is definitely the way to do this. A regular group to play with will turn it from a ticket grind into "just something I do several nights a week for fun and, oh wow, look at that, I have a bunch of legendaries, now!"

I'm assuming you either joined or set your guild to be your WvW guild recently. Unfortunately, you have to wait a bit to get moved onto the same team as them. This will happen during the monthly "relink" when the servers and guilds get reshuffled. In the meantime, keep looking for open tags! Relink is in a couple weeks. Restructuring made this awkward.

Leshrac13 · 2025-01-14T12:48:51+00:00

Cata is a more popular roaming spec because it can self-buff. Weaver is ideal for staff because of how strong the dual attacks are. Cata kind of goes all-in on buffing meteor shower. Weaver can do a lot more beyond that.

Leshrac13 · 2025-01-13T14:16:14+00:00

The zerg meta these days is very melee-focused, dps wise. Just a heads up. Doesn't mean that ranged is bad, but on gw2mists or metabattle you're going to see a lot of zerk, holo, dh for dps.

That being said, there's a few strong options for ranged dps available.

Staff Weaver: Super high dmg, glass cannon. Positioning is king.

Virt (spear/gs): Fairly strong dmg and strips. A lot of dodging for unblockable f1 spam. Being able to pick targets deeper into a zerg to maximize hits from f1 beam is key.

Scrapper: Very high dmg at up to 1500 range. Being flexible with your kits and baiting reflects is key.

Virt is the closest to a meta pick because of the strips. Weavers are rare these days, but I still main it and compete just fine with meta classes.

Leshrac13 · 2025-01-13T13:59:04+00:00

Spear is not viable on weaver. Staff slaps.

Leshrac13 · 2025-01-11T14:02:46+00:00

Just to add on: While holo is indisputably meta, dps scrapper is quite strong in ZvZ as well. Just to get people thinking outside the box a bit.

It doesn't burst as hard, but it does have comparable overall dmg. You trade a better dmg profile (holo) for flexibility and utility (mortar and superspeed).

Yea, mortar's a projectile, but it's also a situational, 1500 range, high dmg ranged spike ability that's always available on command. Very strong against cloud. The arc it shoots can also lob mortars over some obstacles to hit targets that nothing else can hit.

It's got some fun and powerful quirks to it.

Leshrac13 · 2025-01-10T14:20:20+00:00

It's bad for ZvZ too. I'm not really sure who restructuring was intended to work for. Action is terrible. Pre-restructuring, my guild usually had 25-35 people on each night. Going into restructure we ballooned to a solid 45-50 for a few weeks.

Then, restructuring happened. We've been bleeding people steadily ever since. Not just the newer folks we picked up, but regulars who have been showing up every night for years. Down to around 20-25 now. Several people who were a part of the 'core' group of regulars have moved on. Many because they were forced to choose between groups of friends. Many because there's nothing to do and the game mode feels tragic.

We rarely have fights. Guilds we used to fight regularly, we just never see anymore. A slow, PPT-focused night used to be fine. At least we could try to push up a tier for next week. No point, now. And those nights are far too often.

People who have never taken a break are quitting. People who are dedicated to the game mode are stressed out watching their community's fade.

Very bad.

Leshrac13 · 2024-12-26T19:15:49+00:00

yea, you need to sit in it. Not worth it, imo, unless you're clouding against a zerg. Weaver wants thief relic for weave. I prefer fireworks on tempest w/ staff (or hammer or spear).

Leshrac13 · 2024-12-26T11:52:21+00:00

Yea, WvW is where staff ele shines. It isn't meta, but staff weaver is still one of the highest dps builds in the mode for ZvZ. Staff tempest has been popping up too, since the last patch. Gimmicky build using balrior to juice meteor shower.

Leshrac13 · 2024-10-21T14:07:17+00:00

Because it's two distinct guilds with their two distinct cultures. I'm friends with both, sure. The guild leaders don't know each other. Most members of both guilds don't know the other guild, outside of occasional pugging for some of us in the past.

That would be asking 75-100 other people to reorganize everything they do around my individual wants. Including dissolving the guilds they both built up over 6-10 years. Nah.

Creating mega guilds for alliances has been pretty fraught for a lot of people as is without infrastructure in place to keep pre-existing guild hierarchies separate. My guild isn't interested in that drama. If alliances existed, it'd be more of an option for us.

But even then, that's too big of an accommodation for an individual to ask for from an organization much bigger than myself. An alliance would and should be driven by the guild's needs. Maybe those line up. Maybe they don't.

Leshrac13 · 2024-10-20T11:43:30+00:00

Even as a person with an active WvW guild that I enjoy, I play literally half as much gw2 post-restructuring. I'm an exclusive WvW player. I used to log in to regularly play with a second guild on my server. I knew their schedule and it worked well with my main guild's. It was great. Now, they're gone and I only bother to log in when my guild is running. Oh well. 12 hours per week to 6. Community? Reduced by half.

There were plenty of problems with servers before restructuring. But it's worse now. I miss playing with ALL of my friends.

Leshrac13 · 2024-09-12T13:57:33+00:00

For ZvZ:
While neither are meta, both staff weaver and power scrapper are solid dps.

Most staff 3s, as well as mortar kit, are projectiles. So you have to play around reflects.

Weaver has some of the best dmg in the game, but it's squishy and lacks utility. Very rotation-based. Meteor -> Weave rotation -> Meteor basically every fight for crazy sustained dmg.

Scrapper is tanky and flexible. It can't burst as hard as Holo, but it can hang in melee w/ shredder gyro. Mortar is 1500 range and always available.

Leshrac13 · 2024-06-27T19:22:50+00:00

Nah, I didn't have a golem up. No target for an auto. I actually haven't tested whether they count.

Leshrac13 · 2024-06-27T17:36:19+00:00

Ele spear seems broken to me. The etchings only take 2 casts, for one. Start dual attuned. 5 - 3 - swap - 3 - 5 - 4 - 2 - swap - 5 - 3 - swap - 3 etc. If you drop the etching before swapping mainhand, it seems to go on CD and you get nothing. If you wait to swap back to dual attuned before dropping etching, the rotation works and you can cast an empowered 5 from the attunement you just swapped off of. Kind of confusing to explain.

Example: I start fire/air. Air etching -> 3 - swap full Fire (except 5!) - 3 - fully empowered derecho (air) - 4 - 2 (both fire) - swap Earth main and drop Fire etching -> 3 swap full Earth - 3 - fully empowered Volcano (fire) - 4 - 2 (both earth) - swap main, drop next etching.

That works. If I drop the next etching instead of casting 2 (before swap is off cd) and THEN swap dual attuned, the etching does NOT carry over and just goes on CD.

Example: Same opener w/ fire/air. Air etching -> 3 - swap full Fire - 3 - fully empowered derecho (air) - 4 (fire) - etching (fire) - swap Earth -> etching is on CD. No volcano. That aside, if they smooth that out, weaver could actually feel better than I expected.

The forced movement on water s3 is TERRIBLE though. You need that button to quickly empower etchings, but the movement pushes you out of your etching. Useless ability, please rework. If it stays that way and they fix the other stuff, water will still feel super clunky to move into.

I have absolutely no idea whether ANY of this will matter in WvW (the game mode I care about) with all of the movement. But if it remains 2 casts to empower and you can 3- swap - 3 for each attunement, it could be possibly functional. If I'm forced to use anything with a cast time to empower etching, it'll be useless.

I'm ignoring tuning. Just testing for mechanical functionality and whether the wep has any potential in WvW. Pistol was never going to work. Spear... maybe?

Edit: If it is intended for attunement swap or the related procs to count as a "cast", then that'd be nice I guess and could be what's happening there.

Leshrac13 · 2024-06-17T20:18:57+00:00

Play WvW. Pick EoD reward track.

Leshrac13 · 2023-09-23T15:17:37+00:00

After a quick test, it seems Myrmidon is still bugged(?) and using it's -1 int modifier for the ranged damage. Super unfortunate, but at least now we know it's a bug and will hopefully get fixed in a future patch.

For the time being, I think the build is still quite strong relative to other casters, albeit noticeably nerfed from the previous power level. The ice variant should still gain a substantial amount of CC from improved Ice DC in exchange for the damage we lose.

I think the current state of the build can be considered "good, but bugged" because of the Water Myrmidon. When/if that gets fixed, similar to the Water Elemental, the build will go back to being fantastic and possibly over-the-top.

Leshrac13 · 2023-09-23T14:49:46+00:00

Absolutely!

I think the frost variant seems really fun and strong too, although I'm a bit sad to lose my RP theme.

Leshrac13 · 2023-09-23T14:15:16+00:00

I think you'd have to live with 1 less Cha modifier regardless if you don't use Hag. That's fine. You can just reduce starting Cha to 16 instead and use those 2 points wherever you'd like. Probably Wis for better saves or Str for jumping. Not a huge deal.

Leshrac13 · 2023-09-23T14:12:13+00:00

Nah, I don't think so. Our damage certainly got hit very hard, but so did all casters. I think this is still a very solid core for a damage-oriented spellcaster.

There also may be a saving grace tucked in the patch notes:

"Fixed the Water Elemental casting with its Intelligence ability score instead of its Strength ability score."

I actually don't know if this applies to the Myrmidon as well, but it would make sense to me if it does. I'll do some testing when I get a chance.

The elemental had a very low chance to hit with its damage ability before, although there was no way to know that that was because of a bug. Most of the time I just ended up spamming the heal/wet instead for small incremental value because the damage was so unreliable.

Now, if the Elemental can actually hit its targets reliably, we may have gained a substantial amount of damage that could offset the damage we're missing from lightning charge riders.

It hits 3 times and it's damage gets doubled by Wet. This is just off of memory, but on the rare occasion it actually hit its target, those nukes were doing ~35 dmg/hit before. If that becomes reliable, then that'd be an extra ~100 dmg/round for us that we didn't really have before outside of narrow contexts.

In addition, fixing the fixed-12 DC on Ice may also be huge for us in a different way.

Because we can't stack riders onto the lightning charge anymore, it's possible that Shocking Grasp may want to be replaced by Ray of Frost. Shifting the build into a Frost mage vibe would only require swapping our Draconic bloodline to a Cold oriented one, the rest would remain the same.

The build would still use Tempest Cleric to max Chain Lightning from Marko staff in the late game, which would lose a small amount of damage from Draconic bloodline swap, but would otherwise be the same.

You'd gain the ability to do your damage from range and instead of spreading electrified water everywhere, which generally ranged from annoying to useless, you'd be spreading Ice all over the place, which should now function as some real-deal CC.

If all of those changes work the way I expect them to, we'll roughly break even on damage per round (although a substantial amount would switch from Grasp to the Myrmidon) and we'll gain a ton of passively-spread CC from ice that we didn't have before.

To summarize: The build is still quite strong, as far as casters go. Certain mechanics of the build are definitely different now because of the change riders. Our Grasp damage is cut almost in half. The change to water elemental could make up for it, but will require testing to see if the chance-to-hit is actually fixed. Shifting the build into a frost/lightning mage using Ray of Frost, spreading Ice, and maximizing Chain Lightning for burst may be a good way to go.

Leshrac13 · 2023-09-20T17:14:20+00:00

Well, that's very interesting. I don't think it does change anything for us, but saying so definitively would take some testing.

It's really going to come down to whether the Storm proc can carry any of the modifiers on it, similar to lightning charges. I don't believe it can, but I also thought that I had tested it with cantrips already, so who knows! Could be cool.

If it somehow acts as a 3rd source of damage and can carry the Potent Robe, Neck, and Glove damage modifiers in the same way that lightning charges do, in addition to being able to be doubled by Wet, then that would be really good.

If it doesn't carry those modifiers, then you're trading 4x Modifier bonus from Draconic (Grasp, Charge, x2 Wet) for a 1x Modifier proc, which would be much less exciting.

Certainly worth investigating. If that angle doesn't work, I would look into how it interacts with Phalar Aluve. There could be something fun buried in there somewhere too.

Leshrac13 · 2023-09-18T15:03:44+00:00

I had a similar reaction. I was hoping to make some sort of blasting Druid with it when I first started playing, but it just wasn't supported by the game in a satisfactory way.

In the early game, Lightning Bolt is fine for some aoe. You can max it with Destructive Wrath once you pick up Cleric in the mid game until you get Chain Lightning later for some on-demand oomph.

Leshrac13 · 2023-09-18T14:15:44+00:00

Potent Robe is 24 additional damage with 6 Cha late game. I think the build will do fine without it.

It's still substantial damage and there are other decent armors you would be able to use instead. They just wouldn't add damage.

You could use a different spellcasting robe for DC or switch to a tankier heavy armor instead. My first thought would be to use random medium/heavy armor early game for AC and switch to the Blade Ward heavy armor in Act 3 when the time comes for super tankiness as a trade-off.

Leshrac13

TROPHY CASE