Guild Wars 2

Hi all, I’m a brand new GW2 player, and additionally this is my first time playing an MMMORPG like GW2 (previous experience is mostly with MapleStory). So I’m quite the noob at this ^^.

I’m currently playing a level 47 (or 48 now… I don’t keep good track…) Asurian Elementalist using S/D. My goal with this character is PvE healing/support for whenever I find a group to play with (I like support). I love exploration too (I’ve got like 37% world completion already), and I’m often alone because of that so I want average solo survivability (so far that hasn’t been a problem). I do not currently have an interest in PvP, and if I ever go into it I’ll redo my build for it, this is purely for PvE.

I DO NOT want to switch my weapon set. I settled on S/D because it is the most comfortable for me to play in. D/D was too up close, S/F didn’t seem to flow as easily between attacks, and Staff felt too slow. I currently rotate my skills dynamically with the situation. Usually I’ll open with air since I can shoot out all 5 attacks pretty much instantly, but following up with fire, water, or earth depends on the situation. Sometimes I’ll also start off with churning earth+teleport (see below for slot skills). Either way, I switch between elements very quickly during battle most of the time unless I switch too quickly and run into cool downs ^^;

What I require aid with is refining my trait distribution (and what major skills I should get), and developing a good set of slot skills to run with.

I developed my current trait distribution through looking at the various trait lines in the wiki and reading about various PvE support builds. However, I’m not sure how viable this is (and I don’t really have a good way to measure how I stack up to other builds). The slot skills on the page are what I’m currently working with, but those change rather frequently as I play with the slot skills :P. I have both elemental glyphs for survivability (distractions for enemies so they don’t attack me), the resurrection glyph for when I join a group event, and the teleport skill for executing a long range churning earth or saying “oh kitten lets get out of here.”

(copy-paste)
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=Vk34;0J0R0-U015VN-Z0;9;6JTJ;439-49A41G

Prior to this build (when I still only had access to 10 points in each line), I had the 20 points in Earth put into Fire mainly for the condition duration bonus. However, some stuff I read recently was saying that power (and presumably condition duration) is not as effective in later levels as condition damage. I don’t know whether this is true or not, but since my first 10 points were in fire, I decided to experiment with putting them in Earth since I got a free reset with my mastery book.

My current alternatives to this build include the fire focus I just talked about and moving 10 points from water into arcane in order to get Elemental Surge however, I’m open to suggestions.

I’m also very open to suggestions on slot skills since I’m rather lost as to what set of slot skills will complement what I want to do best. My current slot skills are more “oh kitten” survival moment skills, and I think I can make better use of the slots.

I leave the rest in the hands of GW2’s capable veterans, and I thank everyone in advance for their input.

I see a lot of views and no replies, so I’m adding a tl;dr here at the bottom since I think that’s the problem:

tl;dr
Newbie in need of help refining this:

(copy-paste)
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=Vk34;0J0R0-U015VN-Z0;9;6JTJ;439-49A41G

build for S/D elementalist focused on PvE support. Also looking for slot skill advice.

Here’s my general suggestion (copy-paste):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYhImkblR9gjCAkHvYCLlHzkjNA;TYAquMeJ8y11ogpIA

Put the last 10 points however you want. If you assume you’re going to be grouping with people that apply Bleeds then IV in Earth is fine, but don’t stand around auto-attacking in Earth to keep those Bleeds rolling. Remember, the most efficient Elementalist is the one that swaps attunements often.

Arcane Wave is too good to pass up (blast in Fire fields to keep your party topped up on Might stacks – dodge roll into them in Earth attunement as well) and Mist Form is an excellent “oh shii—-” ability. Frost Bow has an excellent AoE ability and the last slot is honestly not that important. I use Lightning Flash because I’m used to it and I love Churning bombs, but it’s up to you.

The problem with going 30 Water is that most of the traits are pretty bad for a S/D build PvE-wise. You have V + XI which are really good and then you have Water cooldown which is pretty bad since the Scepter Water skills are pretty bad (although Shatterstone has some merit in PvE, I guess). The issue with not going 30 Water is that the 25 Water trait is actually pretty good for dealing damage since you have a large number of Boons on you normally. I just kept it at 30 Water since you wanted to be supportive, but keep in mind that the Scepter Water skills are terrible and therefore the Water CD trait is somewhat wasted. In WvW / PvP you would use 2 or more Cantrips and therefore get III.

Now, NYE time o/

Quick question, are you avoiding the auramancer build? Because you’re close to it, but you really can’t do it with S/D. And it is undoubtedly our best support build.

Currently our revive glyph is broken, Earth doesn’t work at all, Air only works occasionally, and fire has such a small window of opportunity so as to be useless. I would recommend switching it out for Glyph of Elemental Power, Signet of Earth, Signet of Water, or even Conjure Frost Bow, or mist form.

Glyph of Elemental power is generally useless with Daggers or staff, because it only has a chance to go off each each time you hit. But it’s actually good with the Scepter because both air, fire, and earth basic attacks hit so frequently. Signet of Earth and water are just good disable skills, I would really recommend water for PvE. Wait until the baddy is about to use his biggest skill, hit him with it, and that skills CD will count down slower, so you won’t have to deal with it as often. Earth is just an immobilize, also good but I still recommend Water.

And the frostbow is ranged damage/healing. It has it’s own set off attacks and has longer range than your Scepter incase you need to drop back further to support and heal.

Mist form is for if you really really want to revive people, you can revive while in mist form and nothing can damage or interrupt you. So you can wade right in to the fight and rez people without worry. You already have Arcane resurrection which is good, get Soothing Wave so that you slow down the enemy attacks with a chill debuff, it’ll make your revive target take less damage and be easier to revive.

EDIT: Actually you could also switch it out for Glyph of Storms, which in spite of its name is one of the best support abilities in the game when in Water or Earth attunement. and combos well with any immobilize or control effect.

I’m not familiar with the aquamancer build, so no I’m not avoiding it. Can you link it to me? I’m afraid that if I google or search it up myself, I’m not going to find the build you’re thinking of.

I haven’t had any trouble with the revival glyph when I was playing with it. Although I don’t really know how to actually tell it to revive a target person :P. I’ve been using it on Earth to revive NPCs when I want something to distract the mobs for me ^^. But if you say it’s broken then…

Based on both your inputs, I reworked some parts of the build. I kept 30 water, but redid the major skills to be more supportive (got rid of the faster recharge). While maxing out arcania is tempting, I don’t feel like the extra 10 points are worth it. My critical rate is low, so the minor effect is somewhat useless, and while the major effect is tempting, I think that kind of thing would get me killed with the way I play xD.

(copy-paste)
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=Vk34;0J0R0-U015VN-Z0;9;6JTJ;439-49A41G

The slot skills are clearer now thanks to both of you. The #9 skill is lesser elemental still, but I would like it to be revival whenever the thing gets fixed. The other option I see right now is to move Earth to Fire and put on IV and VI major traits.