I’ve been level 80 for about a month now and feel I’ve come on a long way from where I was in that I’ve only really started to learn how to control my Ele since I’ve been level 80. I now have full Exotic Zerker gears with Superior Runes of the Scholar, I’ve got the Nightmare Court Scepter and the CoF Focus and I’m really enjoying my experience in GW2. I’m a member of a very active and friendly guild and I’ve been completely taken away from map exploration because everytime I log on now I’m asked to come to some sort of boss like Jormag, Fire Ele, etc or do Dungeons/Fractals instead. Basically, I feel like I’m really starting to learn what GW2 is all about.
My issue is my build is still a big question mark for me. I think I’ve tried a lot of different ones and still can’t work out the best for my needs. I used to enjoy the D/F Fresh air build in PVE but it doesn’t seem to be as recommended for Dungeon use and there’s obviously the issue with having to get close enough to sustain damage without being 1-hit.
I then used the Staff build a bit while I was doing a lot of Arbor as I found it handy to keep away from the dreaded red circles from the Wurms while still maintaining good AoE and DPS. It was quite weak the rest of the time though.
Now I’ve finally landed on Scepter/Focus+LH or Scepter/Dagger+LH depending on what I’m doing. I like this build as I’ve got used to the Might rotations so I feel like I’m contributing to the party more than I was before. It also offers great DPS when I’m using the Lightning Hammer and has good Burst with Dragons Tooth, etc. This is fine for bosses or ‘easier’ elite mobs but I find it really awkward to use if I’m not able to sustain my LH conjures. I’ve followed the stickied DPS build in this forum and watched the videos and the build is great for practising on an invulnerable PVP golem but in reality I have never been in a situation where I’ve been able to comfortably stack Might, drop the hammer, do 5 × 3 AA rotations, fire attune, 3 × 3 more AA rotations, drop hammer, re-stack might and still be able to pick up my other hammer. At this point I’ve normally either died from concentrating too much on my Might stacks or my hammer use, my hammers been stolen or I’ve been trying to dodge/evade too much that I haven’t been able to keep the perfect rotation as I’ve been having to remove conditions, heal, drop hammer to use defensive focus skills, etc so a lot of the time I’m left using whatever Scepter skills I can or if a boss is too hard to get up close to I’ll just be using my Air Scepter skills to keep some ok DPS on him while blinding.
So after my rant, what I’m basically trying to get at is what build offers decent sustained DPS without having to rely on perfect combos and rotations because let’s face it, it’s not always possible to get face-to-face with a champion and be able to auto-attack it with a hammer care-free.
Am I playing the class bad? Do I just need more practice? I do try to change weapons throughout a dungeon if I have to (protecting Mag on CoF P2 comes to mind as a staff seems to be pretty crucial for this for AoE and slowing the assassins while controlling the trash mobs). I’d like to play the Fresh Air Build more but it’s not always practical if I need some range and it’s not like I can just swap my traits at the drop of a hat.
Any help would be much appreciated. I’m happy to still use Scepter/Focus but I just feel a bit weak when I’m not in a perfect situation for stacking Might + using a hammer perfectly.
For info, I’m currently using the General DPS build for Scepter/Focus + LH in the following guide: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-DPS-Elementalist-for-PvE/first
General DPS build
25 (II-V) / 10 (VI) / 10 (VI) / 25 (IV-VI) / 0
(edited by Grimezy.5679)