@Sunshine : No, he’s right. Well you can always try but the thing is, the real damaging skills are on the scepter (you can do burst damage with D/D but not as much as with scepter, in a fresh air setup I mean).
@rhodoc : I think it’s already good enough to have more than one usable build XD. Before the 15th patch, only the S/D fresh air was worth it. Now a bit more viability has been brought to D/D again.
One with Air actually works surprisingly well with D/D and Fresh Air.
You can basically run circles around those bomb dropping engies and it’s quite difficult to catch you (assuming you know how to move well in a fight to begin with).
Utilities are up to you, but I suggest the cleansing fire and the ether renewal for the condi spam in the current popular soloq. Armor of earth x2 is for the warriors, guardians, necros and mesmers (plus the earth stability). The cantrips are still quite usable without the cooldown spec in water, you just need to be a little bit more careful.
Zwim Elementalist
Consigliere
The Dragoon Brotherhood
@Sunshine : Yep that Neko’s build is the best S/D fresh air setup you can find (in my opinion).
And don’t feel silly ! Experimenting builds is what’s fun you know, well to me me at least XD.
@Swim : I personally never said it was all about the damage, but the fact is that fresh air builds are generally burst-type builds, meaning damage orentied. Of course you can do well in a fresh air setup with D/D but it is not optimal compared to what a D/D cantrip build can do : if I only compare the D/D build I’m currently playing with your build, I have more damage for approximately the same survivability.
Besides, that’s a personal preference but in the current condi meta, I wouldn’t play without any points in water. Relying only on the heal that can be sooo easily interrupted is kind of a bad idea to me. But again, that’s just me !
Anyway, all this to say that if you play a S/D fresh build like Neko’s you’ll be able to burst down opponents real fast and on really low CD (to put even more pressure) so that the condi in a duel won’t be such a pain. With the kind of build you propose, I feel like you won’t do enough damage to end a duel quickly and that you’ll end up being bothered with the condi if the fight lingers on.
I shall try it though, so I can base my arguments on something else than assumptions.
You need a fast attacking kitten to be viable with fresh air.
Earth and Ice has 3 attacks wit single animation that any of those can crit and pop the proc. Not to mention as you constantly go ice-air-earth-air….you boon yourself.
Dagger hits slow and has only 1 attack…not to mention with scepter you have another lightning spell and blind…really neet to see like 3-4 lightning strike the foe then another 3-4 and it explodes before your last rotation goes
Its decent in pvp, but not the best, nekro pets swarm you and you are dead, your lightning will hit the pets, not to mention there are hardly any decent aoe skills that dont need like 3 sec delay (dragon tooth) or 3-4 sec channel….Bring earth armor….
@Sunshine : Yep that Neko’s build is the best S/D fresh air setup you can find (in my opinion).
And don’t feel silly ! Experimenting builds is what’s fun you know, well to me me at least XD.
@Swim : I personally never said it was all about the damage, but the fact is that fresh air builds are generally burst-type builds, meaning damage orentied. Of course you can do well in a fresh air setup with D/D but it is not optimal compared to what a D/D cantrip build can do : if I only compare the D/D build I’m currently playing with your build, I have more damage for approximately the same survivability.
Besides, that’s a personal preference but in the current condi meta, I wouldn’t play without any points in water. Relying only on the heal that can be sooo easily interrupted is kind of a bad idea to me. But again, that’s just me !
Anyway, all this to say that if you play a S/D fresh build like Neko’s you’ll be able to burst down opponents real fast and on really low CD (to put even more pressure) so that the condi in a duel won’t be such a pain. With the kind of build you propose, I feel like you won’t do enough damage to end a duel quickly and that you’ll end up being bothered with the condi if the fight lingers on.
I shall try it though, so I can base my arguments on something else than assumptions.
The damage thing wasn’t meant to anyone in particular, I just want to make people more open-minded.
I actually run a different build without fresh air, but the build I mentioned works quite well against enemies that need to face you properly to fire off skills and it’s more of a defensive thing plus a good overall mobility in spvp.
Once you learn to use the earth stability, no one will be interrupting you on your heal and I have had quite a lot of laughs at people trying to cc me off points and on skyhammer trying to drag me or push me. Timing is everything with Ele as usual… not very rewarding as other classes but works.
Zwim Elementalist
Consigliere
The Dragoon Brotherhood
I’ve been running d/d fresh air for the last month with great results in WvW. The damage bursts are huge and you get great sustain with dagger 1. S/d was more burst, but there was a downtime in damage, and if your foe has the ability to go invis you lose dps. With d/d you can keep that going with dagger 1 spam.
Saying that, i am now back to d/d 0,0,2,6,6 after the patch. It is just so much more survivable against greater odds. The d/d fresh air spec was amazing at 1v1 when played right, but not great when the fight became 2v1. Also d/d really puts you in the thick of things.
I ran d/f fresh air- it was fun but it makes more sense to use s/f or s/d as fresh air- the focus for more defensive & the dagger for more offensive based on whatever you like
atm though, I run a d/d cantrip in PvP
