Guild Wars 2

For a while there when D/D was a really hot topic on the forums, kitten near every ele I saw in game was D/D. They were just everywhere. Lately though, it seems like I’m seeing fewer and fewer of them. I still see them, it’s not like they’ve disappeared completely, but from what I’ve seen, staff especially and even S/D are taking over again.

I’m not trying to draw any conclusions, imply anything about balance, give a justification, or anything else like that. I’m just curious if others have noticed this trend as well.

I’m a D/D Ele, but a lot of people are beginning to use Staff/Bunker styles or are switching to Thief for w/e reason.

shrugs I still like D/D, A lot of people are still posting in Daphoenix’s thread…The less there is the more likely we wont get nerfed for QQ’rs so…

I’m happy as is

DXIEdge.2789:

I’m a D/D Ele, but a lot of people are beginning to use Staff/Bunker styles or are switching to Thief for w/e reason.

shrugs I still like D/D, A lot of people are still posting in Daphoenix’s thread…The less there is the more likely we wont get nerfed for QQ’rs so…

I’m happy as is

I second this. I like D/D as is. FOTM can ruin a good build. I still find it funny we got nerfed before the wave came over to D/D ele.

TheGuy.3568:

DXIEdge.2789:

I’m a D/D Ele, but a lot of people are beginning to use Staff/Bunker styles or are switching to Thief for w/e reason.

shrugs I still like D/D, A lot of people are still posting in Daphoenix’s thread…The less there is the more likely we wont get nerfed for QQ’rs so…

I’m happy as is

I second this. I like D/D as is. FOTM can ruin a good build. I still find it funny we got nerfed before the wave came over to D/D ele.

Maybe they nerfed it to stop the wave.

I got bored of mine, since D/D is the only really viable build, plus I was kind of finding things a bit…easy. So I’ve rolled a necro, spending all of my time on that toon at the mo, need a new challenge.

D/D here. Have been for a long time now (since not long after launch). I see S/D as a much better bunker.

urinfamousr.7631:

DXIEdge.2789:

I’m a D/D Ele, but a lot of people are beginning to use Staff/Bunker styles or are switching to Thief for w/e reason.

shrugs I still like D/D, A lot of people are still posting in Daphoenix’s thread…The less there is the more likely we wont get nerfed for QQ’rs so…

I’m happy as is

i love the “for what ever reason” in the same comment as thief >.>

Lol well its not that I dont know why. I just enjoy D/D Ele more than my thief, and it has MUCH more survivability. Sure not nearly as much burst, but I can actually stay and contribute in a fight.

The w/e reason is more along the lines of "one of multiple reasons, including wanting to play the “OP Class” or “Like Thieves burst more” or “realised they liked thieves playstyle over ele’s” or “Hated the learning curve”

Not “w/e reason” as in “no idea”

Should’ve clarified.

Anyway, for a cloth based “melee” class, we have surprisingly high survivability and to top if off, if we get sick of it we can switch to support with Staff (not in same match obviously)

D/D Main since BWE1 so no FOTM for me, however I leveled my Thief to 80 two weeks ago and am leveling my Mesmer to 80 now and the sheer number of D/D Ele’s I’m seeing on Desolation in the leveling zones is absurd.

My own guild mates have switched to leveling their Ele alts just to run D/D, funny considering party leaders always shouted at me for over-extending in guild events 2 months back.

To be honest I’m a little concerned about it, could draw some attention to the class and you know, we kinda frown on that when the potential for nerfs start showing their heads.

I’m sorry whats the deal with FOTM with D/D? I don’t run it often but when I did I had few problems switching to D/D for some parts.

im on FOTM 6 and never had a problem with d/d. Again, im not at 10 so maybe thats why but ive never had an issue. Also, d/d ele has a wall. its hard to use, and you can see the potential, but a lot of peopel get frustrated with every battle having so much movement and attunement switching. personally I love it, and it makes me happy I dont see that many d/d eles

I’m a D/D ele and I’m still trying to fine tune it to make it better, I only use staff in parts of dungeons and scepter/focus in karka land.

I’m at a problem deciding between three different pairs of sup runes for 60% might duration or all lyssa runes (for precision and random boons when hit by foes) or all earth runes (for more defense via my protection boons) I should make 4 PVT sets then…

FOTM != Fractal of the Mist for this thread, at least in my reference, rather “Flavour of the Month” as in players trying what’s perceived to be a strong build jumping on the D/D bandwagon.

Loco.4561:

I got bored of mine, since D/D is the onleally viable build

That is absolutely not true. Maybe you dont like staff or S/D, but thats another story

More than ever. I see more D/D ele’s than I do thieves.

I just created a D/D ele to try it out. It looks fun and has a high learning curve with Attunement switching etc. I have an 80THF (non-backstab) as my main and I still love playing it, but D/D ele seems so much more fun/intuitive/and involved. Totally different playstyles and I am enjoying it so far. I cannot wait to learn everything about D/D Ele’s.

I have been seeing less d/d eles in wvw recently, but I have also been lvling up an engi and like someone else stated… all I see are thieves and d/d eles.

I switched from a thief to an elementalist maybe a month ago, wasn’t aware it was the go to flavour. I just like having more flashy skills to use, thief got boring. Now I’m in love with D/D skills. Not cause we’re OP, but cause of the awesome flashy skills and playstyle. I don’t feel too OP, maybe a little, I dunno.. most people can’t kill me 1v1 (talking wvw here, cookie cutter tanky build with P/V/T gear), but I don’t deal amazing damage or anything. I once crit 6k with a churning earth on a lowbie.. hurray! And my other hard hitter misses more than it hits(fire grab). I’m really struggling vs mesmers though, I usually have to try and run away vs the good ones, I do know very little about them, except that they blow up their illusions and stealth alot, me=confused lol.

I went DD after I saw daphoenix solo a champ. Had nothing to do with pvp at the time. Reason I play DD still is for the challenge. While normal content gets easier I feel like ele is a class that takes time to perfect.

Real reason I play ele now is that my stats are middle of the road everywhere save precision. I do enough dps to be good for the team and I heal quite a bit. Ele is the only class where I am not asked to sacrifice survivability to do decent dps.

Edit:

I am 346 hours in on this toon alone it is my main nerf or no nerf I don’t see another class filling the gap.

I’ve been D/D since Beta, but when the Flavor of the Month started showing up, I changed to staff. It’s a lot harder to use a staff and I find it a challenge to do so. Also, with the increase in Rangers / Mesmers, Staff has the Magnetic Aura to reflect projectiles, which is quite funny if timed correctly. Just watch a Ranger burst himself down (if they specced that way).

TheGuy.3568:

I went DD after I saw daphoenix solo a champ. Had nothing to do with pvp at the time. Reason I play DD still is for the challenge. While normal content gets easier I feel like ele is a class that takes time to perfect.

Real reason I play ele now is that my stats are middle of the road everywhere save precision. I do enough dps to be good for the team and I heal quite a bit. Ele is the only class where I am not asked to sacrifice survivability to do decent dps.

Edit:

I am 346 hours in on this toon alone it is my main nerf or no nerf I don’t see another class filling the gap.

Yeah that’s spot on. I’ve been pleasing myself what stats I go for with my gear, consequently my survivability is pretty respectable and so is my dps. I’m very pleased about that, coming from other classes that seem so inflexible that way.

I love the style of d/d, it’s a nice break from the mage archetype, or so I’ve found. Great escape options, great gap closers, great at sticking to fleeing enemies, all round sky high mobility. Love it.

Funny thing is, I’ve never noticed the big increase in D/D population (being in a low tier server with almost no elementalists) until I got matched up with a higher tier server last week who went down a tier and noticed 2 big WvW guilds consisting mainly (roughly 90%) of D/D eles and thieves…

So I made a necromancer solely for countering the class :p

Coming from JQ, I am seeing less d/d eles. Plenty of Thieves and a whole lot more Shatter Mesmers running with staff. Shatter Mesmer seems to be the fotm in T1 wvw.

Staff honestly is very lacking but almost required for some bosses/Wvw, most the ele’s u see are prolly using their backup staff and just dont have their D/D’s equiped

S/D is actually good in pve, just a bit lacking on fire 1: and no real options for destroying objects….Near useless in pvp

so for the most part, most ele’s are still D/D since its the best pvp option and has more reliable dmg (since S/D is more about burst with ring/phoenix/tooth/Churning) while D/D does constant dmg with low CD’s

I was playing S/D long time, staff in some situations, D/D now.
D/D is more difficult than S/D however gives you much more options to heal, better CC, higher dps…
The only draw is that you sit as a duck on a plate next to your opponent :P but with vigor permanently running and all that neat CC you have that is never an issue.
If a lvl 80 champion downs you with a ranged aoe atack, there is not really a difference if you go S/D or D/D or Staff :P
I recommend for every ele to learn how to play D/D as well az S/D and S/F and Staff. We have only 4 real options (say 3, Focus is nice but has not many synergies after all) so this should be a must know for everyone who want to play an ele. Different weapon sets are good for different situations (still waiting for ANet to give us the possibility to swap weapons)

Just after launch I got my Ranger to 50.. After discovering that I loathe how poorly the profession operates and how absolutely boring it was I rerolled. I chose Mesmer as my next main, enjoy it but kept an Ele around to give me a break from the Mesmer so as not to burn out. Mesmer hit 80 and I dropped it, was fun to wvw with and easy to win spvp if played smartly but dungeons overall got boring. Rerolled Thief while keeping my tempo on Ele. Thief was 80 in about 3-4 days. Loved the survival/support/damage that came with my build on the Thief, modified Backstab build to provide multiple sources of blinds and heals for the group and less attention given to raw Backstab damage. Then my ele hit 80 and my world changed. Having no interests in leveling another alt I just chose the character I had the most fun on, which seemed to always be the Ele. It’s fast paced react or die playstyle fit me like butter on toast. Now I have only 2 more gear pieces to craft and 2 trinkets to buy in order to be decked in exotics. I can provide higher than adequate damage to my team while benefiting them with heals and various other buffs. I’m a true damage/support player with both having equal footing. The Backstab playstyle of a miss=death isn’t missed and I can play much more tactfully on my Ele which is a HUGE win in my book. I picked up a Staff for those “just in case” situations but find myself always in D/D as I’m not a big fan of any of the other offered weapons.

P.S.
Earth Grab is STILL BUGGED, but thanks for making that leap finisher actually work as intended now.

I use D/D all the time! I like running FOTM with it and i’m doing good. Only time i switch to staff is when i’m defending a keep in WvW

Yeah I remember 3 or 4 people in my guild (250 playerbase guild) rolled D/D after we fought FA and saw those videos (which was mostly against our server)…and then they all stopped except for a guy who just started getting into it. The number of D/D’s was never as high as people made it out to be, D/D ele’s are just flashy…as opposed to say rifle warriors which is a much more popular build that lacks graphic effects to be noticed.

And I don’t know, the build in the video that started it all is kind of boring. I enjoyed playing my lighting or earth (plus some water/arcana) since I started playing the game. Though I’ll admit I learned one thing from that video that did give me a big boost and I had no idea why I never thought of it before: Sigil of Battle.

Nope. In WvW, D/D Elementalists are all I see…

I swap between D/D and Staff, tbh. There are times where both are useful to have. Also tempted to try S/? again, since Dragon’s Tooth got a fix.

I don’t sPvP because it is stagnant and not dynamic and I have been doing endless scenario styles fights across several games for years. Since I only WvWvW these days, I cant call myself a d/d ele or a staff ele. I am both depending on the situation.

Staff owns zergs around structure. D/D owns open field.

Most Eles I see out in the world (I am leveling through map exploration atm) are either D/D or Staff but now that you mention it I have seen a general decrease in eles altogether. That’s a good thing if you ask me!

In normal dungeon a vast majority is still made of embermages spamming fireballs. Good luck finding s/x ele.