Guild Wars 2

I’m quite interested in the Conjured Weapon aspect of the Elementalist, but I have failed to come up with a nice build for it.

The only trait that affects the Conjures (Fire VIII) isn’t that strong imo, usually I only feel like I can use the abilities once and when everything is on CD I feel like I’m “stuck” with the weapon – resulting in me dropping it.
So I’m asking: has anyone found a nice build that works well with the Conjure utilities? It doesn’t have to have the Fire VIII trait – it just needs to work well enough

I’m just as interested, since I’m a little disillusioned with tanky ele constantly nerfed, so might as well have fun with my ele before it dies, right?

I feel for a conjure build to work, the charges should either be increased or removed, since it limits what you can do with them, whereas engineers have basically the same thing without the charges.

Yeah probably, I’ve also thought that making the Conjures more like “kits” would be pretty awesome. That is, remove the CD on equipping/summoning them, just use the (e.g.) Frost Bow and get the Frost bow (skills), when you feel you’re done you can just drop it or use another Conjure.
The Conjures seems balanced for being a “regular” skill-set, so why not make it one?
I think it would give a much better feel to using the Conjure weapons, as right now I either feel like I’m stuck in it and not doing anything useful with it or I drop it early – wasting the Conjure..

lately I’ve been toying with working conjures into my build. I’m not sure how viable taking multiples would be, but the right one in the right build can work.

mostly, ive toyed with frostbow in a d/d build. it has an instant cast time which makes it easier to use, and gives u decent ranged damage and a really nice CC on 5 (albeit at an incredibly long cast time. needs to be used situationally).

last night i was playing around with adding firey greatsword into my glassy damage build. it does a kittenon of damage, to the point where i can easily solo svanir / go to town on a lord with it, even as glass. it has a long cast time that roots u in place however, so i feel it needs to be used like GoE where it should be cast pre fight and you should open with it. that said, i usually open with a leap then meteor (#5), then spam skills till meteor comes off CD, hit it again, then drop it. the aoe damage can be huge, esp in a glassy setup.

those are the only two i have messed with tho. im going to try to keep using the greatsword in competitive tpvp and see if i can get good with it, since elementals are so boring, and tornado is kitten

I use Fiery Greatsword on bosses that smite my elemental using a 30/30/0/0/10 build. Swap out the Grandmaster Fire trait that gives might on fire cast for more conjure charges. You can slot Glyph of Elemental Power to keep burning up while you keep swinging your sword and Signet of Fire for more crit.

Other than that the only time I use conjures is Frost Bow for gimmicks like destroying borrows in AC with Frost Bow 4.

The best thing about skills is you can change them while out of combat before the encounter and don’t have to run the same skills 100% of the time. The builds I run usually have at least one skill slot that can be considered situational.

replace armor of earth with flame ax in any cantrip build. I know its hard to do but if you force yourself to it works in spvp. better than a standard d/d build.. i cant say. for me its about the same.
the ax has 1/4 sec summon time, mobility, auras, fire field, good damage, range, and ae damage. it also cause burn at 1200 range on cast.
the burn at range is nice when… there is someone at range particulary when they are at a hard to reach place.
IMHO its the best d/d ele weapon as it has a built in GTFO maneuver.

I use it in spvp with d/d.
Great sword is not a good d/d pvp weapon as it has stand still to cast and a long cast time. I still use it though. its good against doors and such.

but…
i use this in spvp and pve sometimes
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/elementalist#3|3|1150|628|3984|1848|1027|0|0|0|0|25|1887|1617|0|0|0|0|0|30|2261|2260|2259|15|2250|0|0|0|0|0|28041|28016|53505|53505|53505|53505|53505|25790|48792|0|0|0|0|
try to run the conjures from water but otherwise play like a normal d/d build without armor of earth. it has a few logic issues but… it works well enough.

currently im trying to learn staff. i have d/d down pretty good. The single fight end game in d/d still eludes me a bit.

basically i try to think of the conjures, the ax anyway, as utility for when im in a dps or movement lull.

Conjures compensate for low arcane. run the conjure from water while other things are recharging.
it is not recommened for general use but fast ground targetting helps me out with the conjures. for d/d they need to be fast and selecting a ground target is just not fast.

also look for the lightning hammer pve builds.
I havn’t used that yet as i have been doing mostly spvp… my ele is barely 50 actually…
Spvp have been so useful for L2P.

remember that conjures do not change traits. they work just like you had a new weapon in your hand save that you dont get different abilities when changing atunements.

Meaning + damage traits effect them just like normal weapons.
when a trait says “all your water spells” or fire or what not that just means while in that atunement. when a conjure is being used from water all of its abilities are water based spells for the purposes of the traits.

sometimes that isnt clear. so… there it is. This is a big deal as you can build around the attunement you expect to use the conjure from.

Frost bow is good to take, not to use as a main weapon, the cds are way to long and you will die.

Flame axe 5 is 15 sec burn, good to carry, apply super burn then drop, again cds to long. The only one with cds in a nice place that I have found is the greatsword, also an elite

(\(\ ;; /)/)

TGSlasher.1458:

Frost bow is good to take, not to use as a main weapon, the cds are way to long and you will die.

Flame axe 5 is 15 sec burn, good to carry, apply super burn then drop, again cds to long. The only one with cds in a nice place that I have found is the greatsword, also an elite

(\(\ ;; /)/)

its true but the auto attack on the ax is pretty good and it doesnt last long anyway so the cooldowns are not that big of deal.
fire/leap/roll/explode/auto or drop.

I like the ax too, was looking at it for my d/d build since it gives you 900 range. Other than that.. meh.

Kilger.5490:

I like the ax too, was looking at it for my d/d build since it gives you 900 range. Other than that.. meh.

yeah… i dont know that its better than a non conjure build but its different…
but it does help with low arcane builds. gives a few seconds of cool down.

i was playing a bit with the hammer and shield last night. i can see some potential uses, tho it was a bit hard to wield. the hammer and shield have a knockback and a pull respectively, each of which could be used to get a bunker off a point.

also, the shield has a daze, and the hammer a stun… which should be considered if trying for a daze or stun heavy build (combined with say comet focus, and/or shocking aura. possibly with runes of mesmer and/or +stun duration sigil)

With my norn elementalist I use the Lightning Hammer to GREAT effect a lot. As soon as I’m backed into Melee I drop it. When it wears out (I have the +10 charges) I shape shift. When that wears out I can make the hammer again. It’s awesome.

I’ve tried using a Lightning Hammer build but, I keep getting downed pretty kitten fast..

Conjure weapons are more viable in PvE than PvP. In PvE they can either be your main source of damage (lightning hammer), or a gimmick to play around with. In PvP the only real use I see is starting with the weapon in hand, blowing the strong cooldowns, then dropping it to move immediately into your normal combo. Things like conjure time and time to pick up the weapon (if you need the second one) make it difficult to work into a theoretical combo. This is made worse by the fact that they take up a precious utility slot.

That being said I still love conjure weapons. They are quite simply, fun. I wish the elite version had a “weapon” for each element, serving as a stronger variant as greatsword does for lava axe. It could work the way “elemental” skills do, conjuring based on current attunement. A step in the right direction toward making them viable would be for each conjure to have an “on summon” effect: frost bow-> aoe chill / allies gain regeneration. lava axe: aoe burn / allies gain might. etc.

Hm, I’m gonna toy around with a conjurer build, I have few ideas just gotta test them out. I used great fiery sword a lot in PvP and PvE and its a great weapon.

I’ve been playing with conjure weapons since I got my First set.. Personally I like Bow/hammer/GS atm I am lvl 40 and they are great on all mobs, but like everything else they are situational. Here is My Conjure Weapons Build (Switch Signet of Air for Frost Bow when needed) so far so good at lvl 40 but we shall see how it contends later on. I have used this Just in PVE running around the world lvling up and in AC SM/EM…

i might be wrong on this since it has been a while since i tested it…

my problem is that a lot of our stuff does not work with conjures…

for example with 25 points in air your crits never proc vulnerability nor do they apply sigils you mith have on your weapon(fixed that on engi).

as far as i tested piercing shards from water magic does not work either… so we ar missing out on a really nice combo where you conjure a weapon and stay in water magic for 20% more damage to vurneable foes. lightning hammer would become really good….

maybe they fixed this so it might be something you want to look at.

Asmodal.6489:

i might be wrong on this since it has been a while since i tested it…

my problem is that a lot of our stuff does not work with conjures…

for example with 25 points in air your crits never proc vulnerability nor do they apply sigils you mith have on your weapon(fixed that on engi).

as far as i tested piercing shards from water magic does not work either… so we ar missing out on a really nice combo where you conjure a weapon and stay in water magic for 20% more damage to vurneable foes. lightning hammer would become really good….

maybe they fixed this so it might be something you want to look at.

I’ve tested this, and not only does the lightning hammer work with air25 + piercing shards combo (making for significantly increased damage), but it also works with BOTH main hand and offhand sigils. Tested by having a fire/bloodlust sigil setup and you see both the fire proc and your kill count buff increase. So you’re better off having 2 weapons for a conjure setup since both sigils count.

The issue I have with the hammer is mainly that you just go down fast. The damage is nifty enough although not spectacular, but the AoE blind is great when it works. Still not enough to prevent you from going down under constant fire, though.

So, instead of pushing for max dps with the hammer, I decided to do a tanky hammer dungeon build instead, and so far the combination of insane regen with Cleric gear (300+ hp alone from signet of restoration, per swing, + soothing mist, +regen whenever it’s up) and the AoE blind you do last quite a bit – and you can always drop the hammer when you need a Cleansing Wave or something.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQBDyYCwF3AARxJuEUowAjHgECJA

HP is low in full cleric gear so I use vit food. Might want to trinket in some soldier’s.
Damage takes a hit with the build though particularly with 0 air, but the build does need that extra 300 toughness if you want to stay up front. I use toughness runes as well. Maybe someone can try if they can survive with 25 air instead of earth in cleric gear, I’m about to test it myself.

This is more of a tanky/healing setup though, and I know I could simply go the usual 0/10/0/30/30 if i wanted water ownage, but there’s the AoE blind and the 25might uptime whenever you go out with some d/d ele friends (due to the blast finisher on the 3rd hit) and…well, I really just like the hammer, what else can I say!

Hopefully the hammer is spared the upcoming AoE nerf though, I sincerely doubt they’ll nerf this one but you never know. If anything conjures -might- get a buff but we’ll see.

AS always, comments and suggestions happily appreciated. Hopefully this is something the OP was looking for.