Guild Wars 2

Pretty much the topic.

Ive been looking for current builds/videos anything of a ‘competative’ ele in spvp and cant seem to find anything from within 5 months.

Could someone post some twitch or youtube vids I could watch.

Cheers folks

Mbelch.9028:

I played SPvP yesterday and wrecked each person I fought when 1v1, won several 2v1s and survived a 3v1, killed someone and escaped until help found me. In several hours of play, I only died twice, got downed once more past that.

That was in hot joins, and I don’t think it means much, so no need for flames. But I will say you can do well now with certain changes. I would say go bunker with everything but your gear.

I posted this in another thread just a moment ago. I was doing pretty well during prime time on a Saturday. I’m planning on doing some more tournaments soon. I had previously ignored SPvP for a month or so.

Yeah I could do with some encouragement too. I find Ele the easiest to play in PvE but go through highs and lows of playing it in PvP. I want to see someone doing good aginst other classes with it, but in fair fights, not against noobs.

Hi guys, I’m not the greatest Ele out there but I do alright. Check out some of my videos. Can see on twitch or youtube. I do mostly staff these days and use to do D/F. Spvp and Tpvp. I am using 30-30-0-0-10.

Heres a video of teamq yesterday of 2 games.

I’ve been trying any build that seems potentially viable, but there isn’t much that delivers. That said, I have had some luck, and I’m still trying to identify what’s working and what’s not.

My personal weapon of choice is the staff. I feel like it offers the most functional spells for my playstyle. D/D is a close second, but I don’t like being so squishy and so close to people. I also like using arcane blast and arcane… whatever. The one that shoots and the one that’s a targetable region. Since escapes are pretty easy many times, I’ve been playing with ether renewal, which is total crap for D/D, but it gives some great condition removal along with Fire 20.

So with that up front, I’ve noticed that my strongest builds are no longer glass cannon fire-focused gear/trait setups. Instead, I can pick to either gear defensively and trait offensively or vice versa. Right now I’m enjoying this 20/30/10/10/0 build aiming for some +% dmg modifiers and defensive skills and gearing defensively (like soldier w/ whatever runes). Other setup was gearing offensively for crit and power and traiting into earth / water.

Doesn’t sound great, but I’m being really surprised by how it puts out damage and lets me stay alive a bit. I’m avoiding blasting staff for now b/c I’m not convinced of how great it is in PVP, and the freed up Arcane points are letting me get some really nifty skills I’d otherwise miss out on.

I have been trying to make a successful ele for pvp, but it feels like bashing my head against the wall. I have given up on d/d being anything other than sub-par. Its unavoidable at this point, and even cmc (who used to be top 10 ranked) seems to be giving up on d/d. Even though he is most successful with it, you just can’t make it work.

S/D can work in a jihad spec, where your role is just to deal big aoe damage and drop 1 target then die. S/F might work but focus is just so clunky, can’t kill a bunker, can’t bunker against burst, has no mobility, and has only good sustained damage.

Perhaps staff can work, but too many classes with blink or range can just crap all over you. Staff bunker is worse than bunker engie (less ability to decap), spirit ranger (worse pressure with worse team support), warrior (less condi clear and is more susceptible to burst), and guardian (not enough ways to stand up to focused fire, weaker heals, less team support). Staff dps could work, but you’d be better off with shatter (which has more escapability, just as much aoe dps) or thief. For staff dps to be optimal, you’d have to be dealing heavy damage to 2 targets all the time, which would mean optimally rolling to teamfights and nuking the team down – which isn’t feasible.

I seriously think ele is in a worse place now than it was before dec. 10. It might be earlier, but I am starting to feel like its best to just stay away from eles until the next balance patch/round of nerfs we receive. Perhaps then they can nerf us in a creative way that magically makes us viable.

P.S. It is sad that the best an ele can hope for is merely “viable.” Not “good” mind you, just good enough to be a net positive. Its a challenging task.

If you ant find anything about ele since June patch+ warriors hs buff , its not that surprising.It has been nerfed to the ground when all other class were buffed.

I used to play 2x ele grp comp with Mogow ( pax winner) for almost a year , and we were pretty succesfull(top 50 eu since they released the noob ladder).After getting nerfed and fooled by anet’s patch , all decent ele left the hl pvp scene.Now we are playing different class or mooved to other games.

Ele is suited for being a dps roamer , but every class that can assume this job , just do it better , and are most of the time easyer to play.For exemple , at same skills/Gameplay mastering , ele should not win vs s/D thief , nec , rangers , warriors , which is like all the fotm class you will find ingame.

Full bunker ele with cnjured weapon(ligthing hammer) is not that bad as far point pusher.It can full cap a pointwith someone on it.But guess what , enginers can just do it better.And playing a bunker build is so boring …

The truth is you cant win top3 eu teams by having an ele in your grp comp , and every game vs a meta team comp ( 2hambow ,s/D thief, ranger)is hard to win , even if you play better than they are.

Tapss retired tpvp ele.

BlackBeard.2873:

I seriously think ele is in a worse place now than it was before dec. 10.

It’s not even debateable, Ele is in a worse position due to 10th Dec changes – the 2 most important traits in the whole tree were shifted up a tier.

While I agree that reducing attunement CDs was a good thing, the patch was overall an Ele nerf.

you should check out CMC’s twitch channel…. ive been using his build in team que and its been working out quite well

Cleanse in master trait ruins fresh air/EA builds. That needs to be remedied. Regen on crit is only good if you have no other steady source of regen. It also ruins a 0/10/20/10/30 roaming spec with D/D.

I abhor everything based on diamond skin functionality as the condition damage with toughness plays very little role. The fact that diamond skin occupies 5% of every fight makes it as horrible as that joke trait “One with Air”. x/F is the only realistic application of DS imho.

I have the most success with 0/0/20/20/30, and 0/10/0/30/30 in WvW and sPVP. I’m going to play around with fresh air/cWave/eAttune next.

There’s no beating warrior or guardian when it comes to bunker D/D anymore and they need to fix it. Warrior health doesn’t move, and guardian hits way too hard though everything. Trying to take an engie off a point takes forever solo, and it’s easier to just leave them there.

Frankly speaking, the Fresh Air based build series is the only build I know of that works relatively well in sPvP. Staff eles tend to do well in WvW in zergs, but it’s not even funny how weak they are in 1v1 situations. The boonstacking type build I use is the best I know of for PvE, but the stacking attacks won’t hit a sPvP regular, and the boons can then be relatively easily stripped/stolen leaving you with nothing, so it’s useless for this application.

To be effective in PvP you need to have skills with a high power multiplier or several conditions at your disposal, and some survivability. The problem with the ele now is that everything other than the dagger’s air autoattack is really, really bad in terms of power multiplier, and our condition durations are too short to be viable, and too few to be able to stack past an opponent’s condition cleanse. Of course, having the lowest base health and defense of any class doesn’t exactly help our situation at all.

Of course, since they just nerfed FAs… just don’t use Eles in sPvP unless you like pain. Sure, you can be successful if you’re good, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’ll be more successful with another class that isn’t as badly suited to sPvP.

I just played a series of TPvP games with my custom D/D ele build.. The results? One loss, but 6 wins.

Our loss was because our engineer pooped out.

Get this— team composition: two eles, two engies and a guardian who wasn’t good at all.

We are noobs to TPvP. All roughly around R15. Not sure how good that is. But we played some really good games, and in all those games, I only died 4 times as the DPS roamer.

The most competitive game we played was against a coordinated guild of players, all R59. They all had assignments and we really did well against them. The score came down to the wire at 494-500 (us). At the end they had two points but a stomp I made boosted us from 495 to 500 granting us the victory.

I guess I’ll also include my thoughts on how I FELT as an ele today. I felt appropriate. I at times took on 2v1 and won. I at times took on 3v1 and killed one and escaped. At times I had 4v1 and escaped but I also died several times in that same situation. My mobility in those small maps was great. My damage was more than sufficient, and I only couldn’t kill a bunker engineer, who also did no damage to me.

I was the top scorer every game, but I’m not boasting, as I know I’m not great at SPvP, I’m just trying to give hope.

So what am I saying? If you put the time into building and connecting with you build, you really can make ele shine.

Mbelch.9028:

I just played a series of TPvP games with my custom D/D ele build.. The results? One loss, but 6 wins.

Our loss was because our engineer pooped out.

Get this— team composition: two eles, two engies and a guardian who wasn’t good at all.

We are noobs to TPvP. All roughly around R15. Not sure how good that is. But we played some really good games, and in all those games, I only died 4 times as the DPS roamer.

The most competitive game we played was against a coordinated guild of players, all R59. They all had assignments and we really did well against them. The score came down to the wire at 494-500 (us). At the end they had two points but a stomp I made boosted us from 495 to 500 granting us the victory.

I guess I’ll also include my thoughts on how I FELT as an ele today. I felt appropriate. I at times took on 2v1 and won. I at times took on 3v1 and killed one and escaped. At times I had 4v1 and escaped but I also died several times in that same situation. My mobility in those small maps was great. My damage was more than sufficient, and I only couldn’t kill a bunker engineer, who also did no damage to me.

I was the top scorer every game, but I’m not boasting, as I know I’m not great at SPvP, I’m just trying to give hope.

So what am I saying? If you put the time into building and connecting with you build, you really can make ele shine.

…You’re rank 15. Literally hundreds of others vastly more experienced than yourself have stated that Ele needs help. ArenaNet THEMSELVES admitted it:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/1106-suggestions-pre-patch-0-were-ok/first#post3403927

There are a lot of valid concerns with the elementalist right now and we’re going to be working on addressing those points. Once everyone gets back from holiday vacation we’ll be posting up our proposed balance changes and we’ll go from there.

So both the TPvP community and ArenaNet have agreed Ele needs help. Gratz on your 6 wins against other low-rank players with your “custom D/D build”, I’m happy for you.

But please don’t try to use that to argue that Ele is fine…they are not fine by any stretch compared to the 7 other classes.

Calm down mate. I’m in no way inexperienced at ele. I simply don’t waste my time in an inferior game form.

I would hardly call Grouch’s post “arena net admitting ele needs help.” If you note, we faced a full team of R59s. Not all noobs.

I actually guarantee I’ve got more WvW roaming and dueling experience than you.

You stick to your kittened opinion, I’ll give mine. PM me in game if you’d like to duel.

Oh.. And if someone says they’ve had a good experience, give them props and ask them if they’d like to duel. That’s the thing to do if you’re interested in figuring out of they’re blowing smoke, which I’m not.

Assumptions and condescension rejected. Good day

Mbelch.9028:

I would hardly call Grouch’s post “arena net admitting ele needs help.”

Sounds like a reading problem, look up what “valid concern” means.

Mbelch.9028:

I actually guarantee I’ve got more WvW roaming and dueling experience than you.

Don’t care, read the thread title and stay on topic. SPvP is SPvP.

Mbelch.9028:

You stick to your kittened opinion, I’ll give mine.

Ele needing help in SPvP is no longer subjective, no longer up to opinion.

Mbelch.9028:

PM me in game if you’d like to duel.

Waste of my time and not helping the Ele community in the slightest, just stroking egos. A bit selfish IMO.

These people who say ele is fine, i have a feeling they’ve never even played the class and probably main warrior. They just don’t want ele to be good again and warrior to go back to being crap.

Nikkinella for heavens sake you know I play ele, only ele. I have a lvl 80 of each class but necromancer and ranger, but 95% of my hours logged are on ele. If you all need picture proof let me know.

Wintel, yours sounds like an attitude problem. If I can do well at ele in spvp, then I can. Come test things with me and find out for yourself.

Actually, read some of my posts and realize I ask a multitude of people to come duel. What’s selfish is your trashy attitude. You aren’t the god of fact and fiction.

In fact, your entire ‘What I say isn’t subjective but what you say is’ stance is ridiculous.

I think ele needs a lot of help, but RE READ my posts before you flame a respected elementalist.

If you can’t make elementalist work for you in spvp then you need to learn how to play the class better. You should be able to win many fights on skill alone. Spvp is where I’ve gone to duel server mates since release, and I know our sad state of affairs there.

Summation, do we need help? Yes. Does it make our class invalid? No, users with little skill like you do.

To more directly address your drivel:

Wintel.4873:

Sounds like a reading problem, look up what “valid concern” means.

Well, they also said diamond skin would activate at 85% health, and they’ve been saying they’ll diversify builds for ages, too

Don’t care, read the thread title and stay on topic. SPvP is SPvP.

Actually if you could stay on topic too, that’d be great. It’s asking if any SUCCESSFUL elementalists are playing SPvP. I’ve stated my fun in SPvP even if I play it infrequently. And that fact doesn’t disqualify my speaking to SPvP eles.

Waste of my time and not helping the Ele community in the slightest, just stroking egos. A bit selfish IMO.

As I see it, these forums rarely are read, and this post isn’t made to further eles, just poll them.

JEJE 2 different players told me today, go pve useless ele xD .
If u happen to know any build where the ele becomes another op class (like warrior, guardian and so on) it would help a lot xD.

Had most success with s/f fresh air. Its the only build I found that could deal best with all the meta builds atm.

dante.2864:

Had most success with s/f fresh air. Its the only build I found that could deal best with all the meta builds atm.

I dunno how s/f fresh air is supposed to deal with any bunker/semi-bunker build. Fresh air is a one-trick-pony with no sustain whatsoever, just moderate spike damage with Lightning 2….because you’re not going to hit any half-decent player with dragon’s tooth or phoenix, some of the most telegraphed abilities in the game.

1v1 vs thieves is also painful because they can take almost your entire health bar off in 1 second. Then there’s the automatic loss against most mesmer builds. Then there’s the lack of cleanse, conditions will just eat you alive.

Fresh air is nice damage when abilities actually hit, but it’s basically a gamble with your life and hoping enemies are terrible.

I don’t know if i play fresh aire right, but the only thing i do is go in, do the combo, pray the half death dude is now dead and go the hell out before you die from the grenade, mark, minion, spam and before they focus me .
Most 1 vs 1 are useless because you die unless the enemy is another ele or doesn’t know how to push their I win button.
And it’s the one build that worked the best for me xD .

if u thinking for staff roll with one of these,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_O_3v9pGTE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYv8h7bEYyU

Wow
Ele suk spvp
Much hate
not stronk
wow

I have been using a balanced D/D build that I feel gives me a chance against every opponent (except good thieves with sleight of hand – you won’t ever be able to heal) , although I am not at the top of leaderboards, so it comes with a grain of salt. The basic concept behind the build was to use the most viable traits we have and avoiding completely useless traits (air 5, arcana 25 especially), while also building in synergies.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmKbnx5gjDAkHwYCLDFdMSRROzA-ToAA0CnIKSVkrITRyisFN+YSA

You have sufficient burst to take out a glass-cannon, and sufficient sustained damage to wear down glass cannons. You have enough cleanse to deal with condi-spammers (if you are agressive and burst them early to apply pressure). While there aren’t really any “easy” matchups, I feel like I can at least fight against most builds.

A few points:
- You get your burst from fire, using burning speed+arcane wave or burning speed + LF, and firegrab hits hard when they are burning too.
- Air has pretty good sustained damage from lightning whip, as well as some nice control to slow down glass enemies (weakness and shocking aura help a lot)
-You take the lyssa runes to get enough crit. % to proc renewing stamina more. I was finding myself lacking dodges without them. The full condi-wipe on using elite helps as well.
- Going with Valks gives you good dps over a soldier’s build, and enough survivability with your heals and cleanses
- Earth 10 should be in every D/D build (the 5 point minor is really good too), while earth 20 is necessary if taking ether renewal (which is still necessary with the condi-dumps that happen).

I had to give up evasive arcana, as the #1 reason for taking was the condi clear, but cleansing water does so pretty well when combined with the other traits.

Ele in spvp is not as bad as many players from the forum state. Even though I got bored of this setting months ago when I reached rank 50… I went back for a week to tpvp just to test if these opinion were right ( this took place a few months ago) My conclusion was the Ele no longer is the easy to play, beat all class, god mode type it used to be but with good player base skills you can most certainly perform great. Do I mean the Ele current state is fine as it is?…. The answer is no. There is too much effort the player playing as Ele needs to execute to accomplish this…

Gamble.4580:

if u thinking for staff roll with one of these,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_O_3v9pGTE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYv8h7bEYyU

LoL Gamble. The whole time I was watching you on Khylo I was thinking to myself….who needs a treb when a good staff ele can do that? Not sure if your opponents were exceptionally bad but I do know that your positioning and movement was just short of flawless.

As I write this I had just dusted off my ele after not playing the class for 7 months or so. I see all of the gnashing of teeth within this forum but, eh…I’m gonna play ele anyway. Why? Because it appears to be a challenge. You sir, make it look so much fun.

Thank you for the vids.

BlackBeard and Heidia, I’m glad you both experienced what I’m talking about. Ele really does have a chance to do great in SPvP, and really it all comes down to skill. It could use some major help to make it as strong as others, and a great start would be to unnerf our SoR heal.

And past that, it’s if you enjoy the class or not. If you enjoy it, then no other class will be as fun, so the effort is worth it.

Gamble.4580:

if u thinking for staff roll with one of these,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_O_3v9pGTE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYv8h7bEYyU

I will try them, thanks, but it seems to me that the issue there is just that the enemy team doesn’t focus at all to the clearly robe mage dude with staff that will probably die in half a hit. Meaning, maybe against better teams u get focus down quickly, i could be wrong of course.

MM tried the first, i died in 0.10 seconds from a thief xD .

yeah those aren’t the greatest builds IMO.