Guild Wars 2

First let’s get a few details out of the way. This is my very first build so it’s not going to drastically change the meta. My ele is secondary to my mesmer so I’m not as informed with all the class mechanics as my main. I’m also creating this build to purposefully balk at conventional thinking so you will see a lot of things that will make you think “WHAT DA HELL!” keep that in mind and you’ll do fine.

The reason I’m calling this the Mightmancer is because the main purpose of this build is to increase damage through Might stacks. This is a very simple build and I consider it to be in its alpha phase but I’m already seeing some interesting results so I’ve come here to see what those with more experience than me can add to it.

At this moment I’m using full soldier armor because a my playstyle requires me to be up close and personal with enemies and we know how abysmal the base ele survival stats are. Due to the nature of fire skills covering enemy tells, I doubt that’s going to change anytime soon. I’m also using dueling daggers but I plan on testing out a focus when I can get the one I want. Yes, I HAVE to make a fashion statement when I’m on the battlefield! That’s the mesmer in me. Besides the human T3 focus is awesome and I have yet to see anyone else carrying it.

As for runes, I’ve gone 2 Monk, 2 Water and 2 Fire. I prefer overall boon duration instead of more might duration because I get a lot more use out of 30% of every boon instead of 10% more from might. As for sigils, my mainhand dagger will always be Bloodlust while the offhand is tailored towards whatever group I’m fighting or Force just to cover the basics. Yes this means I’ll have to carry a lot of daggers but their are some very cheap rares with soldier stats that do quite nicely.

I’ve taken 30/10/30/0/0 in the trait lines. I can already see a few of you guys rolling your eyes but hear me out. Internal Fire, Pyromancer’s Alacrity and Pyromancer’s Puissance are a must. They make up the bulk of my damage. Flame Barrier and Burning Rage will help due to the in-your-face playstyle but Sunspot is practically worthless.

The 10 in Air is for Zephyr’s speed for a moderate mobility boost and Bolt to the Heart. The latter is to help finish enemies off quickly and with more style. I’ll explain how later.

The 30 in Water is pretty obvious. Soothing Disruption, Cantrip Mastery and Cleansing Water all work together to turn cantrips into stunbreakers and condition removers. Soothing Mist, Healing Ripple and Bountiful Power all help out with my “OH KITTEN” plan when things aren’t going my way and I need to survive.

To heal I use the Signet of Restoration because I intend to spam the hell out of my skills. I NEVER activate it, even when I’m about to go down because its passive is far more valuable than its active. I have experimented with the other heal skills and, while functional, they don’t suit my playstyle. This is all about getting in the enemy’s face and being relentless. Taking even a moment to heal is detrimental so I leave the recovery to health regeneration.

For utilities I take Lightning Flash, Arcane Wave and Armor of Earth. Lightning Flash is because I’m so use to Blink that I suffer trying to play any class without something similar. Because it’s a cantrip, it works very well at getting me out of hairy situations, a bit of regeneration and clearing a condition. I always use it defensively. Arcane Wave is to help with might stacking but I also find it useful in other combo fields. Sometimes giving everyone Chaos Armor is a lot better than 3 more stacks of might. Armor of Earth is for when I know I’m about to put my nose against the grindstone. It has helped me survive sticky situations I purposely run into. The fact that it’s also a cantrip is just icing on the cake.

For my elite, Conjure Fiery Greatsword is a must! Luckily all the skills fall under “Fire” so they add to the might stacking.

The last thing I do is use Mango Pie for a bit more health and to supplement the Signet of Restoration. I also use potions tailored to whatever group I’m fighting. Both are easy to get off the trading post or make and make a huge difference in survivability.

Now for the meat and potatoes about how this build works. Here’s the kicker. You HAVE to stay in the fire attunement as much as possible! You can do whatever mightstacking magic that you want at the beginning of a battle but you have to end it while in the fire attunement. I personally set it and forget it. I know that sounds crazy but it’s worked pretty well for me so far.

Depending on how much heat I’m about to jump into, I may pop Armor of Earth first for protection, more regen, stability and a small 6% boost in damage. If I know I can handle it, I’ll start off with Burning Speed as a gap closer and to lay down my first fire field. Immediately afterwards I use Ring of Fire and hit Arcane Wave. Depending on the situation, I may use Dragon’s Claw a few times at point-blank range so all three lines hit. If I feel my opponent is low enough, I’ll go for Drake’s Breath to set them on fire then use Fire Grab to finish them off.

This whole rotation can take about 5 seconds and, every time I use a fire attack, I gain 1 stack of might which the runes insure last 15 seconds instead of 10! Arcane Wave in a fire field will give 3 on it’s own while criting all nearby enemies and Bountiful Power will give an extra 2% damage for every boon on you. Add in all the other damage bonuses and it’s possible to finish an entire wave of risen in one rotation and have 8 to 14 stacks of might up and ready for the next wave. With that much, every individual claw of the auto attack will do 100 more damage and I’ve never stopped to figure out how it would effect burning.

I’ve done some testing and found that I can sustain 14 to 16 stacks of might with auto attacks alone. If I do everything right, I can peak at 21 stacks and easily hit 25 if the right people are around me. You can’t argue how great that is for staying in one attunement.

As a bonus, the fiery greatsword’s attack count as fire spells. If I’m ever in a situation where I need even more dps, I can pop the elite and go to town with little to no worries. I will lose a few stacks of might but the damage more than makes up for it.

Now, the downsides…

This build is all about raw damage so, when I’m in a situation where I need control more brute dps, I’m out of luck. Sure I could always swap attunements but my damage will slowly trickle away until I go back to fire. Also, almost all battles will be a war of attrition. Even high vit and toughness can’t hold out for long against an angry mob so you have to take them out fast. I wouldn’t advise using berzerker armor with this build because even with carrion, I was downed in seconds while trying to pull off the same stunts. The biggest issue is all the fire effects can easily block enemy tells so I have a hard time trying to dodge properly. Maybe with more practice, I’ll be ready for it.

So, what do you guys think? I could really use some input on making this build better.

Maybe you could use superior sigil of battle has 9 sec cd and gives you 3 stacks might on attunement swap. prevents your might from dropping to fast coz with 0 in arcane your locked out like 15 sec? out of fire. Also a suggestion (its my personal preference) you could use scepter mainhand and throw dragontooth and phoenix in your firefield for more might. Since your always close and personal those skills can actually hit something:P

While I understand the deep foray into water, I think that going into arcana would benefit you much more as far as stacking might, as well as sigil of battle. You could stack lots of might by going through fire, ending last with fire 4, then immediately switch to earth (3 stacks of might from sigil of battle), while backing up, dodge roll for one blast finisher from evasive arcana (3 stacks of might), earth 4 (3 stacks of might), and earth 5 (if you are fast enough, for another +3 stacks). You would then have just a few seconds to kill before popping back to fire for a while (as earth 4 and 5 are on cooldown). I would use that time to pop over to water for a dodge-roll heal and to get some regen proccing.

Further, arcana will greatly benefit you with keeping the boon duration, and you could take arcane mastery (-20% arcane cooldown) instead of the usual elemental attunement. The only downside is this hurts your healing and vitality some, so you would have to go into some clerics/sentinel gear to survive longer.

It’s good to see players having fun experimenting with their characters, especially elementalist which seems dominated by a particular build and tactic.

I’d suggest looking into the various methods of stacking might which might give your build a bit more flexibility and squeeze in utility.

Of course, there’s your gear/runes/sigils for more might. Most importantly, there’s blast finishers in fire fields. There’s also Fire Aura which now grants you might every time you get hit. Food, there’s might/killed foe or on critical hit.

I know how tempting it is to take 30 in Water but that’s also something you can play with swapping around. For offensive builds, I’d say Water is half wasted mainly because if you’re not aiming for support (removing conditions from party, stacking boons on everyone, etc) you only get half the effectiveness for yourself and even less still if you’re not aimed for sustain.

Since you seem to be talking about PvE, definitely give the other weapons a shot. Staff is quite satisfying in its AoE, both damage and control, while offering superior support. Scepter by itself can tend to make Pyromancer’s Puissance obsolete because you can stack 6 stacks of might on a lot of people with good frequency…probably not as good as putting up 14 stacks with your auto and spiking to 25 by yourself, but arguably 12 for 5 people is more and if anyone else happens to throw out some might, less goes to waste. Focus is a nice weapon too, I suggest giving it a try. It’s currently my favorite ele weapon

Try a S/D with a sigil of battle on one of them-i run a 20/20/0/10/20 (Pyromancer’s Puissance is not that good because you really,really need to be changing attuments around).
Start in air with rotl,switch to fire for the first 4 might stacks (sigil+that arcane trait that gives you might when you go to fire),cast ring of fire,dragons tooth and pheonix (all of them inside the fire field),then switch to earth and quickly use earthquake and churring earth (since by the time you start channeling churning the mob will be dead,use lightning flash to blink to the next one to hit him with it)-now you have 16 long lasting might stacks,go back to air and bzzzzz everything to death,rinse and repeat.