Guild Wars 2

Hey guys just wondering what common Combos/Rotations you guys use when PvEing, Dungeon and PvP for Staff, D/D, S/D.

depends on the enemy… but in PvE and D/D I usually:

Start with Fire
Use 3 skill (charge with blast) to initiate combat followed by 4 skill (fire ring) followed by the arcane blast utility skill.
Then I dodge, use 2 skill to burn and 5 skill which gets + dmg to burning.

Switch to Earth
use 4 skill to knockdown, then 5 skill (long channel with high bleed) while channeling i use utility blind to reduce taken dmg/interupts.
Then use 2 skill to bleed more

Switch to water
3 skill to freeze, 4 skill to freeze who atks me, 2 skill for dmg

Switch to air
5 skill to knockdown and 4 skill to close range

Then whatever the situation calls for.

All this usually happens in a very short amount of time

Depends on how much hp the mob has, but something like this:

(D/D)

Air: 3, 4, 5 // Jump in, launch foe, jump out
Earth: 3, 4 // Jump in, knock down
Fire: 3, 4, 5 // Jump through, finish with some damage

I was really bored playing staff ele, basically sitting in fire 90% of the time. Once I tried D/D it was amazing. So much mobility, and I can chain my skills together really well.

…and after 10 button presses the elementalist has accomplished what other classes can do in half the time with half the button presses.

I play staff.

Start with Earth, use Eruption first because it has such a long activation from cast to hit.
Shockwave to keep them in range of Eruption.
Unsteady Ground to cripple as they come towards me.
Switch to fire, use Flame Burst and set up a Lava Font for them to walk into.
When they get close, pop both Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave for massive damage, 10 secs burning, and 6 stacks vulnerability (with traits).
Hit Burning Retreat.

At this point standard mobs are just about dead and I’ll only need an autoattack or two to finish them off. I’ll also throw up a Magnetic Shield for ranged enemies as soon as I see their first attack animation, since they usually open with something big.

If I get the jump on the mob (as staff);

Earth; 2 (wait for it to burst), 4 to cripple, 3 if they are ranged, 5 if they are still closing, 2 again
Water or Fire (depending on my health and other things)
IF Water; 3, 4, or 5 (to get the burst finisher from Earth 2) with various effects
IF Fire; 2 (for Might from bursting of earth 2), 3, 5

Then whatever, really all subject to change.

Kraigan.6057:

…and after 10 button presses the elementalist has accomplished what other classes can do in half the time with half the button presses.

That, in my opinion, makes it more fun than any other class (I have to keep paying attention instead of just glancing around occasionally).

My staff combo rotation with signet of earth (for utility) is:

Earth: 2
Water: 2, 4
Air: 2, 3 if they’re close, 4
Fire: 2, signet of earth, 3, spam 1*

• Optional:
  Earth: 2, 5, 4

I find it tedious. It shouldn’t require significantly more time and effort for less return just to kill a single mob in comparison to other classes.

staff elementalist , 20 points in fire

water 4
fire 3-2
signed of earth
fire 3-2

if not dead:
air 3-5
fire 3-1-1-1-1-…..

Kraigan.6057:

It shouldn’t require significantly more time and effort for less return just to kill a single mob in comparison to other classes.

That I do agree with, but I find the game play and style of the class fun.

S/D PvE high burst.

Dragon Tooth – Pheonix – Fire Touch – Arcane Blast

Arcane spells are instant cast, so you can get them off while casting others. If I’m in trouble, fighting multiple enemies I’ll often use this combo to quickly down one or two.

Frankly, I prefer Lightning but the dps just isn’t there.

Also for larger groups I enjoy using Earth. Often I’ll Earth Quake – Arcane Shield – Churning Earth. Most folks cant stand Churning Earth but it stacks bleed like mad and with the right build, Earth is extremely potent.

plus that zapper bug becomes really , really, really annoying. I prefer playing without sound while out PVE-ing because of that zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I have been using mostly S/D and doing fire rotations to try to the keep Might up:

Fire – (to initiate) 4/2/3/5/Arcane Blast/Arcane Wave then 2/4/2 after that main rotation starts again. but my Might buffs only peaks at 12 then dips to 6.

I’m not sure if thats the most effective fire rotations..

D/D
Lighting – 4/2/3
Earth – 4/5 (lightning flash while channeling 5, behind target if they are attacking me, lightning flash to target if they are running away. Flash does not inturrupt 5 and it will go off around you) P.S. I use hydromancer sigil so between that and the stun from my lightning shield I land 5 very frequently.

Fire – 4/5/2 + Arcane Wave

Escape Route:
Water – 3/4/5
Lighting – 5/4(away)

In dungeons with Staff on big mobs or bosses, the goal being to aid my team in controlling and debuffing the mob while providing damage where I can and healing where necessary:

-Water 4 for the Chill (and also provides a combo field for my team which often applies more Chill, stacks in duration)
-Water 2 for Vulnerability (more damage taken, and usually other people in the team apply this as well with their own skills separately)
-Switch to Air, use Air 2 for the blind (but make sure first the mob doesn’t already have a blind since this doesn’t stack)
-Air 5 for the Stun and the Combo Field
-Switch to Earth and use Earth 1 through the Air 5 field for more vulnerability (and almost everyone in your group is probably also providing vulnerability with their finishers in this field)
-Earth 2 and 5 for the Bleed stacks.
-Earth 4 can be useful if you need the Cripple to help your group control the mob
-Switch to Fire, plop down a Fire 2 (sometimes here I’ll plop it at my feet and use Arcane Wave for the Might stacks, but lately I’ve been replacing Arcane Wave with Mist Form and that has upped my survivability). So if you have no reliable blast finisher on your bar then I just put it at the bosses feet and usually your team doesn’t have Blast finishers, but you still get a lot of burning stacks from the group’s finishers which is good as well.
-After that, Fire 3, 5, and then 1 unless things get hairy and you need to apply more cc/blinds/vuln/heals/whatever else (use judgement here). But, some of the previous skills will be on cooldown now so you have to change your tactics a bit.
-Water 3 and 5 are great heals for when they’re needed (so no, I don’t play healbot but you can make fights easier using these properly). Water 3 I use if just one person is low, I place it right on top of them. Usually this is the melee and it provides a nice combo field for them to apply more Regen stacks on themselves. Mixed with Soothing Mists trait, it often allows people to save their self heals for more dire situations. Water 5 for bigger healing needs, or multiple targets. Also for group condition removal I have the Cleansing Wave trait and Water 5 if need be.

I also have double Elemental so I usually pull both of those out. The Fire ones can be nice for extra dps and the Earth ones are great as a distraction.

Solo I run around with Scepter/Dagger. Fire attunement: Dagger 4, Arcane Wave, Scepter 2, Scepter 3, Dagger 5, then Scepter 1 until mob is dead does it for most – lots of might stacks, lots of burning, Dagger 5 does more damage to burning mobs, and then there’s just also a lot of straight damage there. No, there’s not any attunement switching there but mobs don’t last long enough to need it. But if you get in a sticky situation that weapon combo has enough cc, debuffs, heals, blinds, knockbacks, etc. to get you through it. It just doesn’t have great AoE damage so if I know I’m going to encounter a lot of mobs (like some story quests) I’ll just use the Staff. Less damage, but it has the AoE.

7x AOE heal +regen -

Requires 15 water, 30 arcane with evasive arcana, and a sigil of energy

Cast eruption 1 dodge space away from you
Go to water -heals around you due to 15 pointer
Cast healing rain on the eruption
Dodge at the eruption while hitting arcane wave -heal from evasive and 3x blast finishers
dodge backwards to get another evasive blast finisher in the water
Swap atunements (50% dodge back)
dodge forward again for another blast

Heals around 14k with no healing power

S/D PvP

You should be walking towards him since the start so you can hit Fire Grab.
Start in Air attunement,
Cast Fire signet, while you are casting hit him with 2 and 3 (dmg and blind)
Cast Earth signet, while you are casting, switch to fire.
Dragon’s tooth, Ring of fire and Fire grab, try to land phoenix, but the root will probably end around the time phoenix leaves your hands and if he has endurance he will dodge it.

Switch to Earth and just autoattack till your CDs come up again, repeat till death.

In the current states of Eles, it will take around 3 rotations of this to kill an Engineer or Warrior.
Good luck being useless.
Reroll a Guardian.

D/D PvP is the bomb.
Star in air -4-3(during RTL)-2-5
Swap to earth -3-2-4-5 (while casting, air signet for AoE blind, if you have conditions, use cleansing fire, if they run show them how bad of an idea that was with lightning flash)
I stick in earth for a little bit sustaining my bleeds (condi damage spec and I get extra toughness in this attunement).
If they run away, earth 3, then you have two options. go for the previous earth cycle if it’s off cd and there are others in the area.
OR
Swap to fire -3-4-2-5 (they’ll probably be down by the time you get to this point, but just to be safe…..)-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1
If they’re particularly good at running away…
Swap to air -4-do whatever you want.
If this still doesn’t work, they have too strong of a cowardice build and your time is better spent elsewhere.

There are still lots of situational things you can pull out, too. Like, in a high power or crit build, never underestimate this following combo when several enemies are grouped:
Swap to water -3-4 (maybe even set 4 to your auto-attack for water and forget this step)-2
When they’re all grouped up, the building damage of cone of cold is devastating. Especially after you chill them so they’re not running away. If you have allies nearby, it’s even better ‘cause you’ll heal them.

Also, the fire combo there is also greatly improved with a “line-em-up and knock-em-down” type strategy. The more people you hit with Drake’s Breath followed by Fire Grab, the more awesome you are.

PvE only, S/D, Condition damage primary spec, power and toughness secondary:
Ride the Lightning, Updraft (skip if I don’t need a closer, or the mob is weak enough that the fire chain will finish it)
Swap to fire, Ring of Fire, Dragon Tooth, Phoenix, Arcane Wave (9 stacks of might from the combo)
(if still alive)
Dodge if necessary, Fire Grab, swap to earth, Earthquake, Glyph of Storms (blindness spam yay), Churning Earth.
If necessary, dodge, swap to water, Cleansing Wave, Water Trident
Return to the fire line.

Pinkerton.5643:

D/D PvP is the bomb.
Star in air -4-3(during RTL)-2-5
Swap to earth -3-2-4-5 (while casting, air signet for AoE blind, if you have conditions, use cleansing fire, if they run show them how bad of an idea that was with lightning flash)
I stick in earth for a little bit sustaining my bleeds (condi damage spec and I get extra toughness in this attunement).
If they run away, earth 3, then you have two options. go for the previous earth cycle if it’s off cd and there are others in the area.
OR
Swap to fire -3-4-2-5 (they’ll probably be down by the time you get to this point, but just to be safe…..)-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1
If they’re particularly good at running away…
Swap to air -4-do whatever you want.
If this still doesn’t work, they have too strong of a cowardice build and your time is better spent elsewhere.

There are still lots of situational things you can pull out, too. Like, in a high power or crit build, never underestimate this following combo when several enemies are grouped:
Swap to water -3-4 (maybe even set 4 to your auto-attack for water and forget this step)-2
When they’re all grouped up, the building damage of cone of cold is devastating. Especially after you chill them so they’re not running away. If you have allies nearby, it’s even better ‘cause you’ll heal them.

Also, the fire combo there is also greatly improved with a “line-em-up and knock-em-down” type strategy. The more people you hit with Drake’s Breath followed by Fire Grab, the more awesome you are.

Say, where do I find these people that never dodge? Also they don’t fight back? You sure you aren’t smacking the dmg testing golems confusing that with actual PvP?