Guild Wars 2

Pretty much the topic says it all.

I have my roaming character. With my ele on the verge of hitting 80 now im looking to find out what the commanders want out of a ele.

Cleric Staff?
Zerker Staff?

Input please!

The one who doesnt die and doesnt run miles away from the zerg using mist-form

You heal zergs, so:

1) Don’t die (spec defensive stats);
2) Have water fields and blast finishers (i.e. use Staff).

There’s a baseline guide here; tailor as you see fit: http://intothemists.com/guides/107-staff_build_for_organized_groups

What type of Ele do commanders want

The ‘Guardian’ Ele or alternatively ‘Warrior’ Ele or if we are doing golem rush the ‘Mesmer’ Ele

Always glad to help!

Ele’s are pretty much there for water fields and fire fields, and sometimes swiftness fields. So just play with staff and other than that you can spec however you want.

I would recommend running with at least 15k HP and 2600 armor, but if you can survive with berserker gear then go for it.

Good Elementalists should be using zerker staff while bad ones use clerics for barely an increase in support and survivability in zergs.

glaphen.5230:

Good Elementalists should be using zerker staff while bad ones use clerics for barely an increase in support and survivability in zergs.

You die if you get so much as looked at as a zerker staff ele. Really not recommended. Basically a free bag.

I recommend mix PVT and zerker with a focus on PVT. Not clerics. Your water fields aren’t there to heal, but for the blast finisher burst heal from warriors, guardians and thieves’ blasts. You need to be able to survive past the initial push to drop water fields on the commander.

If you’re a roaming d/d or s/d ele, however, you should focus more on zerker than PVT, or maybe even a mix of Dire.

Reverence.6915:

glaphen.5230:

Good Elementalists should be using zerker staff while bad ones use clerics for barely an increase in support and survivability in zergs.

You die if you get so much as looked at as a zerker staff ele. Really not recommended. Basically a free bag.

I recommend mix PVT and zerker with a focus on PVT. Not clerics. Your water fields aren’t there to heal, but for the blast finisher burst heal from warriors, guardians and thieves’ blasts. You need to be able to survive past the initial push to drop water fields on the commander.

If you’re a roaming d/d or s/d ele, however, you should focus more on zerker than PVT, or maybe even a mix of Dire.

This is about zerging and an Elementalist with good positioning shouldn’t really die unless the rest of his allies die. Even when downed Elementalist still has Mist Form which is 100x better than other downed skills in zergs. Zerker staff is the biggest zerg damage dealer in the game.

Glass cannon staff ele. You shouldn’t ever die unless you have bad positioning. All other specs suck for large scale combat unless you are like jesus at elementalist

Your positioning as a staff ele doesn’t really matter when that glass cannon thief comes around and ganks you from the sidelines (best thief and ranger role in zergs btw, they are so good at that – just find and down the eles at the back). Better able to survive a few hits there, get to the commander for heals and continue fighting than to die from a 15k damage backstab.

As someone who played a good bit of thief in WvW… if you got ganked by a glass thief as zerker ele during a zerg vs zerg, you were definitely at a terrible position.

(even then, ele can just mist away)

Reverence.6915:

Your positioning as a staff ele doesn’t really matter when that glass cannon thief comes around and ganks you from the sidelines (best thief and ranger role in zergs btw, they are so good at that – just find and down the eles at the back). Better able to survive a few hits there, get to the commander for heals and continue fighting than to die from a 15k damage backstab.

99% of Thieves in WvW suck and are too stupid to flank and as the guy above said Mist Form makes it easy to live anyways especially with all the tags from Meteor Shower and Lava Font.

If you’re super pro l33t like glaphen go for it. Otherwise if you want to contribute to your team and to answer what the question was about what commanders want, mix some stuff up so that you can survive to do what you’re there to do – provide waterfields and support to your team. And then drop you’re damage on them when the commander calls for bomb.

So start out defensively, and then add more offense as you feel comfortable.

A good balanced build with a predominance of offensive stats is what commanders what even if they do not know it themselves.

Going full bunker or full zerker is a waste of stats.

For zerg fighting, staff ele that’s as glassy as you can handle without dying. For organised smaller groups, staff zerk, s/d zerk/dire or d/d zerk/dire.
Source: 3k hours played on ele, over 200k wvw kills as ele.

You should play what -you- want. Commanders don’t give a kitten what stats you have as long as you know how to play what you have. You’re there for the fields and CC. Whether your using your stats for damage or healing with icebow auto attacks/ condi removal/ burst healing, it doesn’t matter.

If you can’t decide, go full celestial and get the best of both worlds. Staff eles benefit fully from celestial as every stat is useful.

Dont underestimate ele’s. I’m a guardian commander, and i love having as much backline as possible. Well coordinated range bombs can destroy a cheese melee train with ease

I want damage i run zerker/knights n cavs trinkets scepter/dagger for blasts when it comes to roaming but I think many guilds/groups/commanders would prefer one using a staff, for its many supportive abilities mainly waterfields, and crowd control skills such as unsteady ground. I would pretty much stick to the backline while still having blasting staff, evasive arcana trait and whichever the traits are that remove a condition. Oh also access to stun break/stability. I do not think many commanders make use of aura sharing

As a commander and as an Ele, there are two kinds of Ele I use, Glass Staff and Water Staff.

I prefer having Glass Staff Eles; with them we can clear ACs that are killing our Zerg easily.

Most Other commanders I know prefer Cleric Water Staff Eles to water the gate, but I find clearing the siege with meteors is better. Most commanders don’t seem to know how to use zerker Eles, I think the popular book of commander tactics going around today was written before zerker staff Eles became popular.

Its still nice to have both, but rangers can also fill the waterbot role. So I definitely prefer zerker staff Ele.

Mochann, you are a commander and also a Ele ?
What build + armor are you using?

If I’m commanding on my ele, I have a PTV melandru set that I roll with d/d for survivability on the front line. People can’t follow a back line commander (usually).

I’ve thrown everything into Healing Power, armour, trinkets, weapons.

You dont need to be at max range away from your zerg, as said a thief will easily spot the big sign you are carrying saying “KILL ME” if you do that.
But you also dont want to be always in the middle of your zerg either. When the enemy throw down their 50 aoe circles you try your best to go around them, but stick close to the group. Only go further out if you get to low health and jump straight back in when healed, or into the middle of your group if there are others who will heal.

You will die quickly so keep on your toes :P

Go full dps. Zerkergear and spec 30 into fire, you will hit sometimes for more > 10K each hit with Meteor Shower. Lava Font provides also nice damage and you can keep it up 100% of the time. Equip frostbow and kill everything, just kill everything. Use your CC(Air 5, Earth 4, Water 4) —> Lava Font + Meteor Shower --> Tornado —> frostbow. Repeat. You´ll melt everything in front of you.

If a stupid thief is trying to kill you: —> Air 3 or simply mistform through your paintrain. Thief is down.

Use as much zerker as you feel comfortable with. Maybe even go full PTV until you feel comfortable with positioning. 30 in water for the cleanses and 30 in arcane is what I run. Mist form and armor of earth to help get through chokes or if I’m being targeted and need to move. You’re basically there for cc and big damage at the start, then water fields and more cc.

Solo zerker ele isn’t that great, especially pug groups. Coordinated zerker eles are amazing for zergbusting though. You don’t lose out on a whole lot running an ele with a staff support build and pvt gear (4k meteor showers vs 10k), so you may want to try that out first. It’s a whole lot easier to survive. If you aren’t running with decent people it’s really not going to make a huge difference, nothing is more frustrating than solo downing 7-10 people just to see them all rally or get rezed.

When you start playing the same matchups every week being a zerker ele with 15k hp with stacks starts to become a bit of a drag when people start recognizing you.

stoat.4257:

When you start playing the same matchups every week being a zerker ele with 15k hp with stacks starts to become a bit of a drag when people start recognizing you.

You’re not going full zerker if you have 15k hp, which is actually a decent amount for an ele (I’m lucky to get over 21k hp with buffs with near full PVT). Just saying :P. Bit of Celestial/Valkyrie mixed in there?

AN ELEMANDER! d/d ele commander actually works

An ele with a focus equipped so you can block treb shots.

Stx.4857:

berserker gear then go for it.

That’s usually the case with ele, but as a commander you are usually identified by the enemy and focused – all the skill in the world won’t help you when there are 40 players bearing down on you.

If you are good you can consider not using PVT, or using zerker on some armor pieces. Also don’t forget that you will need to use your staff (if you decide to use one) in melee range, which is strange (but not stupid or impossible).

Considering the type of class that ele is the only recommendation that should really be made is: experiment.

Rhongomyniad.5081:

An ele with a focus equipped so you can block treb shots.

This no longer works. In fact it hasn’t worked for about 1 year I think.

Most will just be bunker build Staff eles who know where to stand, where to put static field, listen well, water fields, fire fields, cast E4 and learn how not to die.

But the real ele is semi bunker, DnD, and bombs the static field, removing condi and AOE boons all and with spare time go harass the backline.

So in any GvG there are 4 main classes needed.

The Guardian, The Ele,The Warrior and the Necro.

But if you could pick only 3, it would be ele,guardian and warrior.

Eles are used to destroy siege on walls, use water to heal rammers and static field to speed boost zergs.

If you want to talk about zerg fights, in the end your gear doesn’t matter. What matters is your capacity at using your skills and positioning to survive.

D/D 0/10/0/30/30 or 0/0/20/20/30 boon duration 75%.
- This will provide your group with lots of extra buffs, and heals. The 2nd is an aoe stability every 9s (if required that often). The first one can roam easier and harass the back line along with thieves. Full travelers also works for runes. Passive always on 25% movement speed, or near 100% uptime of 33% from swiftness, prone to boon stripping/ corruption (which is less likely to happen in blob vs blob unless you’re ahead of everyone). You also have the option of finished a downed clump with ported churning earth if you can afford to use up one of your life-line cantrips.

By far, staff will provide the utmost support to zerging. 3 types of cc’s per rotation. Large aoe cleanse and heal. Smaller heal for yourself or others. Passive aoe regen. Reflect projectiles. Huge aoe radius meteor shower that we’ve all seen do 10-15k burst with trollnado. Personally, I spec pvt/celestial for every weapon set and do 5-8ks with tornado, as a living Ele is better than a dead one in zerkers.
My staff specs have mostly had Fresh air, and at least 10 water in them, and at least 10 arcana in them. Other times I just swap out of 0/10/0/30/30 and throw on a staff, and swap out ii in arcana for blasting staff.

1 dagger should have an energy sigil on it, and you should carry a 2nd staff with energy on it for maximum survivability. You know there are going to be hammers running toward you at any given time. Dodge is how you avoid them. Usually double dodge will save you having to waste armor of earth. I sometimes use magnetic aura/tornado/water attunement to go through a hallway in stonemist without getting stuck in anything on the way down, while also knocking everything out of the way for my teammates.

All of the Alacrity -20% reduction spells are key to maximizing dps/hps/ccs.

If your zerg is 20, you should have at least 3 staff eles. 40, you want at least 5. If you have less for this, you will probably be getting wiped. The higher the number of eles you have, the less defensive traits you will need, and can run specs like 20/30/0/0/20. 2x Alacrities, or 1x and increased crit damage, or sprint on aura is what I like to run sometimes. You can pump out a ton of meteors if all of your eles are running this. You should have at least 1 ele running 30 water, though, because every group needs to recover, and blast up health quickly to get back in quickly before the other team can.