Guild Wars 2

I wanted to ask if there was a good alternative to celestial armor for elementalists. I won’t be able to craft it anyways for like another 20 days or so and it will take me longer to afford the runes that I keep hearing that I should get.

So I ask here, what other choices do I have? I read many threads but they always seem to lead to the same celestial build (sometimes berserker’s).

I am not very skilled but I want to spend time to learn the class and become better for all game modes, but mostly things like dungeons or small scale wvw.

So are there any alternatives?

PvE = Berserker
WvW = Other stuff

I just wanted to clarify that. When people are speaking about full Berserker builds, they’re USUALLY talking about PvE. There are some cool Berserker Ele builds to run in WvW too but those aren’t the “standard” like they are in PvE.

Anyway, in WvW, Celestial gear is very strong, but many people here who play small-scale WvW far more than I do insist that a mix of Celestial and non-Celestial is the way to go. What exactly that mix is, each person has their own opinion on what’s good, though I will say that Celestial in general is just very solid for any PvP Ele.

In sPvP proper, Celestial Amulet is pretty much standard for any “Bunker Ele” or “Tanky Ele” builds. There are also some Berserker Scepter Ele burst builds that are decent.

Celestial is the go-to gear set for PvP and WvW ele because ele is one of the few classes in this game that can take full advantage of every stat that gear offers. Other gear types are mathematically inferior to celestial for ele, because one piece of celestial gear offers a lot more “stats” than let’s say a piece of soldier gear, therefore even a mix of different gear types wouldn’t yield the same results.

However be aware of the fact, that celestial gear has very low damage potential on it’s own and requires the user to stack a lot of might to start dealing enough damage. In order to do this, you need to run either strength runes, or cheaper alternative runes of aristocracy (CM dungeon rune, condi oriented variant). Superior sigil of Battle is often taken too. In order to actually stack might mid-battle WHILE dealing damage to your enemy, you need to learn the usual ele combos, so that you are capable of performing them very fast and effectively. This is because a celestial ele set only has sub-30% critical chance and in order to crit somewhat reliably, you are required to land your highest burst skills on the enemy in the two second window of fury after attunement swap.

EDIT: Also in terms of alternative to celestial armor. You can try going with a mix of armors and take asc. celestial trinkets, which are easier to get than the armor. Most ppl run a combination of knight’s/soldier’s on trinkets anyway, so swapping the two shouldn’t be that horrible, though probably not optimal by far either.

I don’t understand the point of putting Sigils of Battle on the only class in the game that can’t swop weapons in combat. Is there something totally obvious that I am missing?

Jaggedrain.6923:

I don’t understand the point of putting Sigils of Battle on the only class in the game that can’t swop weapons in combat. Is there something totally obvious that I am missing?

You gain “on weapon swap” effects when you roll through attunements, so say you switch from fire to air in combat and have battle on, you then gain the might from the sigil.

I was wondering if that was it!

I asked a guildie who does good builds to make me one and she did, but she put the SoB on and I was…puzzled (because I don’t really do builds and things)

Although she also said to do Celestial gear and that makes me sad because I don’t have the stuff to make it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAoYhcMacW4wzBf0AdAB5xpvRBlzbnB-TlyHABvpFIE1dYSJYPKxIUlgBeAALp8wBdAAcCAEZ3hAAIAczbezbezbWGA9tA-w

Only celestial is amulet and rings, which should be pretty easy to get with laurels+badges

I might just have to stick with berserker’s then. The reason why I am asking is because I am unable to get celestial gear anytime soon. I cannot afford to make the armor and I do not have the laurels for the trinkets and I am even further away from ever getting ascended gear.

I am sure someone out there has a decent build out there that is not ascended or celestial in any way. I just need ideas that I can experiment with until I can create something that will work for me.

I guess a better question I should have asked is what stats should I focus on the most? I think an answer to that question would be most helpful to me.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAoYhcMacW4wyBf0AdAB5xqvRBlfbnB-TFyHABzpE0n9H2TdlBeAALp8rQVKcTPAAnAASB41YA-w

Here is my build, it’s a little different to alot of the d/d eles on this forum. I use it for solo roaming in wvw or with group, though sometimes i switch to 2 in air for swiftness on aura. I find the build is everything i need, i get nice condi removal, nice damage ( crit chance is 40-50% with fury and maintenence oil when i use it) The survivability is nice and tend to win alot of the fights i get into in wvw, and only the trinkets are ascended, which you can get by doing guildmissions/fractals/farming laurels. Though i’m sure you could slot a mix of valk/soldier/cleric in there to make up stat difference. I don’t like might runes b/c by using them you miss out on other boon duration, so i always run with water b/c of the little bit of condi removal and healing it offers, as well as 15% boon duration which imo is priceless.
This is by no means the only build i run, sometimes i switch to 6 in earth, and 4/4 in arcana and water, pick up diamond skin use condi food/utility and run around as a hybrid (it wrecks pu mesmos real good) but i generally always come back to this build for some reason. the 900 healing power is fantastic imo, but yeah, try it, it may not be your cup of tea but it’s cheap gear/runes on the trading post and a nice little build i think

It depends on which weapons you’re using. If you use a staff, you could use either of my two builds that I was using before I got celestial gear. I personally liked the condition variant more, but the power version works fine too.

(Note: It might work for D/D or D/F too, but I’m not sure. The condition one would be great for D/F but I haven’t really played with D/D too much. I always just used a staff though.)

Power: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhcM6cW4wyBd0AhAFxHYBGHAFQ+XsGKBA-TFiEABCp87hHAApKBpb/hVU/BAzfcoDYhLAAZAM3CA-w

Condition: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhcM6ZW4wvBd0AhAFxHYBGHAFQ+XsGKBA-TFSFABAY+Lu9HKRHQDPAAPVCSj6PBp8DhLAAhAUMHA-w

Condition 2 (more vitality): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhcM6ZW4wvBd0AhAFxHYBGHAFQ+XsGKBA-TFSFwAGUCCw8X89HKpDYoyvGPAAaq/g4CAQIAFzBA-w

If you use D/F it would probably be better to take final shielding or renewing stamina instead of blasting staff for your arcana trait line, but you could also just use the standard meta traits (x/x/x/6/6) with the same equipment too.

I’m pretty sure these would be cheaper than full berserker’s too, although you wouldn’t want to do speed runs or anything with them. I mostly use them to solo camps, roam around in PVE and WVW, and gank dolyaks and sentries.

Gizmo.9178:

I wanted to ask if there was a good alternative to celestial armor for elementalists. I won’t be able to craft it anyways for like another 20 days or so and it will take me longer to afford the runes that I keep hearing that I should get.

So I ask here, what other choices do I have? I read many threads but they always seem to lead to the same celestial build (sometimes berserker’s).

I am not very skilled but I want to spend time to learn the class and become better for all game modes, but mostly things like dungeons or small scale wvw.

So are there any alternatives?

Non competitive? full zerker.

SmallGroup WVW? Rabid, Dire, Carrion.

PVP? Its no use.gif / Celestial.

Yes and No.

Yes you could basically match a bunch up and max out on different skills
but no, because you really need to be good to know how to match and when

Celestial (full) is a crutch.

These are the accepted stats

tuffness – 2600
healing – 500
vit 19k
crit – 25%
crit damage- 170%
pow – 2000

Just a rough amount. The theory is just too much to write today.

Sorry, but some has to forget something:

Celestial insignia needs:

5 charged quartz: 1 crystal is 30c, so this is 37s
5 glob of ectoplazm: 2g20s
5 bolt of gossammer: 6 silver
all together: 3g17s and five days

a Dire Intricated Gossamer Insignia costs 2g52s…
+you need a few more gossamer but this is for every stat distribution…
and once you have the insignia you need the recipe:

recipe: celestial exalted coat: 30s

so this makes your celestial exotic chest piece (the most expensive): 3g47s total. Less than a gold more than a standard Dire piece. (note: a Knight’s insignia costs 6 gold….)

I guess I will just make up my own build and things that work for how I play. It might not be the most effective but it will suit me specifically. That actually sounds like a fun thing to do.

3 soldier/3 Knight pieces or 4/3 with Berserker/Cavalier trinkets should get you close..the raw dmg will be better on paper but you will lose plenty of Condition Dmg.
Aim for 2300-2400 armor.The rest of the stats should come alone nicely.Also..16-17k HP unbuffed is plenty enough.The rest is skill.

I mostly roam, but I run all Celestial armor with Traveler’s. For the back, accessories, neck, and rings I am running Soldier’s. Infusions are toughness or power depending on the piece, but consistent.

This puts me at just over 2600 armor, and 2170ish power without any might stacks. The crit is low, but with fury on attunement swapping I never really notice it.

I can roam or command with this set. Roaming I use DD, commanding I run Staff.

The vitality in the below link looks low, but the truth is that it is solid in WvW varying between 23,500 and 25,200 with my guard stacks and how far along we are in the week in WvW (Robust server-side buff).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAoYhUMac25wwBd0AdAB5xqvRBlzbnB-T1RHABF8AASb/Bw0DEkyvnUCCwJAYR1fCAgAcz2MAG6QH6QH6Qbo3co3co3sQACGDA-w

Graendall.4765:

3 soldier/3 Knight pieces or 4/3 with Berserker/Cavalier trinkets should get you close..the raw dmg will be better on paper but you will lose plenty of Condition Dmg.
Aim for 2300-2400 armor.The rest of the stats should come alone nicely.Also..16-17k HP unbuffed is plenty enough.The rest is skill.

I will look into this. Seems like something I can achieve.

pve = staff zerker or scepter conjurer zerker
spvp= celestial might stacking hoelbrack/strengh
wvw= full pvt or nomads. you cant crit on gates and AC dmg will not be affected by your stats, so just focus in defensive stats and staying alive. If you are not dead you didn’t lose.

Hmm well I currently have all berserker’s because it is pretty enjoyable and I do everything in this game but only a tiny (not even that much) spvp.

It seems like many people talk about celestial when it is for spvp which is something I don’t really do so I guess it is not something I really need to worry about.

I have 58% critical chance and 219% critical damage so I hope I can sacrifice some of that for toughness or vitality without losing too much.

I was never good with knowing what is good or bad or whatever with stats, buffs, gear, and so on. It gets confusing after a while lol so I am just trying to figure it out as I go.

In my opnion build for ele is:
Spvp – celestial
WvW – with staff zerk/without staff celestial
Pve – you can use celestial too or like I use:
Weapon – Zerk
Armor – full zerk
Neck – zerk
First Ring – power+precision+toughness
Second Ring – power+ferocity+toughness
First and Second Earring – healing power+vit+toughness or precision (I forgot the last status have with healing power)
Traits: Staff 0 0 2 6 6
D/D 2 0 0 6 6

This build is very good because you have a good damage, healing, def and cond damage for D/D or Staff build.

Sorry my bad english I’m still studying.

There are actually a lot of factors that go into this.

For example WvW varies on what you’re doing. There’s solo roaming. Havoc (5-20). Zerg (21-40+). Different activities are going to have various differences. What also matters is what WvW server you are in/on. For example 40+ people in a Zerg might sound like a lot but it’s fairly common in a Tier 1 bracket of WvW. When 40 people are dropping down AOE bombs going in with Berserker is suicide. I don’t care how cool or how skilled you are, 40 PBAOE’s going off just gonna down you outright without some tank. There are other times when you got that many people and honestly they aren’t very coordinated with their AOE bomb and you can get away with less tank.

Most cases I tend to use the following on a 06044 spec:

Armor: PVT
Jewelry: Zerker or Knight (Emerald) with Celestial Socketed
Weapon: Zerker

When the zerg play is too rough with too much coordinated AOE, I swap in the extra toughness and healing with the Jewelry slots. When it’s not, I keep it going full Zerker with PVT armor rounding me out with traits.

That necropost is real XD

I still love my ele so seeing more answers is nice

Magus.1923:

In my opnion build for ele is:
Spvp – celestial
WvW – with staff zerk/without staff celestial
Pve – you can use celestial too or like I use:
Weapon – Zerk
Armor – full zerk
Neck – zerk
First Ring – power+precision+toughness
Second Ring – power+ferocity+toughness
First and Second Earring – healing power+vit+toughness or precision (I forgot the last status have with healing power)
Traits: Staff 0 0 2 6 6
D/D 2 0 0 6 6

This build is very good because you have a good damage, healing, def and cond damage for D/D or Staff build.

Sorry my bad english I’m still studying.

This build is new cond build that I made Is a good build have a good burst cond but you don’t have a lot of dispels.

Elemental build I like to use to PVE Weapon – Zerk Armor – Zerk and Jewels – Celestial to Spvp full Celestial is the best WvW I don’t like elemental full celestial I think he is better with cond or full zerk staff.

Someone told me condition builds are really fun and are good too! Thats neat c: