Guild Wars 2

Hello forum people!

I’m Overlord Cosmic (Better known as Chancer) from the guild Judge [JDGE]. You may know this guild name from my co-officer and friend Osicat, creator of the ShatterCat guide for mesmers, If you are considering playing a Mesmer I highly recommend checking out his guide!

Shattercat guide: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-WvWvW-Pve-Shatter-Cat

Anyway to the point, I’m going to explain the build, gear and uses of my build and I am also interested in the points you may wish to raise so we can improve this spec to try and show how much of an effective spec a staff elementalist can be.
The spec itself I believe works best as a staff support spec but easily could be modified for Dagger/Dagger or Scepter/Dagger as a bunker style build.

The Traits

Ive chosen a fairly common build known by many elementalists but Im going to try and explain in detail why we pick what we do.

0/0/10/30/30
Link to build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQFAWhImkbnx3gjDAkHvYCLjChUeMzO2A

The minor traits are utilized for support as can be seen through
Soothing Mist – This is free passive healing for anyone around you (Not sure if this counts as an AOE, so Im going to assume this is therefore only applies to 5 people) when I explain the gear you will understand how powerful this little minor trait becomes.

Healing Ripple – Now one thing I’ve noticed new elementalists doing is staying in one attunement, Something that an elementalist has to learn is that attunement dancing (Changing between attunements) is a major bonus considering the bonus’ they give, also the uptime of AOE’s and other skills means you never have to stop doing anything.

Lingering attunements – You will see where this +6 second attunement bonus will come in handy once I explain the major traits. To be brief +6 seconds of boon duration (Especially considering Regeneration and protection) is godly for a minor trait.

The Major Traits

#Earth Magic – Earths Embrace – I prefer this trait over the other 6 purely due to the survivability it adds to the build. Armor of earth whenever you reach 50% health? Yes please! This is a flatout 10 second stability and 10 second protection boon which is nothing to shrug about, this could be the difference between dying and living.
I would say you could swap this out for Obsidian Focus which gaining a significant toughness while channeling meteor shower or churning earth could be a life saver in certain situations.

#Water Magic – Aquamancer’s Alacrity A 20% reduction of Water magic skills is essential for those encounters that just seem to last a long time, the more healing and regeneration you can dish out, the higher chance of your parties survival! Need I explain more? (Plus throwing frozen ground around a lot really helps!)

#Water Magic – Cleansing Wave The removal of a condition on multiple allies during a fight can solve a lot of problems, When fleeing this could be removing cripples or immobilizations, or when you are fighting condition specced classed this can completely ruin there damage, especially when you will be attunement dancing a lot.

#Water Magic – Cleansing Water Again going off of the condition removal, giving regeneration to people when you are swapping to the water attunement or using healing rain on a large group means condition specced classes basically get the boot!

#Arcane Magic – Elemental Attunement I really only rate this for 3 of the 4 boons you can get, but that is enough reason to take it! When swapping to water, you get regeneration thats a flat out heal over time + condition removal due to the water traits. When swapping to air there is some free swiftness to keep you and your group highly mobile. Finally when swapping to earth – Protection, 33% damage reduction for you and all around you, can really make the fights a hell of a lot easier.

#Arcane Magic – Blasting Staff Well this trait speaks for itself, Larger Area of effect skills. All of a sudden you can cover your entire group with healing rain, cause burning to a larger amount of people, cripple more people using unsteady ground. Its a given whenever using a staff build.

#Arcane Magic – Evasive Arcana I like this trait due to that little added extra “Oomph” it adds to the equation in a fight, be that extra healing, a blind, a small aoe blast or churning earth, every little helps and no other arcane magic trait really speaks out to me as supportive.

The Utilities

Now I will always maintain that you pick the utility skills dependent on what situation you are in and how you like to deal with it. I tend to use those which increase my chance of survival meaning I have a better chance of survival to increase the chance of success of those around me. Because of this I use (Most often)…

#Mist Form – Few things about mist form, in terms of a quick get away or when you truly are in the thick of it, its a life saver. I couldn’t even try to count how many times this skill has saved my donkey on a day to day basis. 3 seconds of increased movement speed and invulnerability really goes a long way!
Also the ability to begin reviving someone and then pop this bad boy and still be reviving is lovely

#Arcane Shield – For when you really need to get that channeled spell off. You will find there are many times when you are under fire but desperately need to get a geyser or other AOE attack off and this skill can give you the time you need to put the hammer down. In conjunction with Mist form as well, this just maximizes your up-time even more!

#Signet of Earth – Well this is my swap in and out skill, Passive toughness and an on demand immobilize is nice but really you can swap this skill out to whatever you feel necessary at the time. Its just another survivability tool or 1v1 tool that can really make a difference.

#Elite Glyph of Elements – You would be incredibly surprised how helpful some of these elementals are. The water elemental is incredibly good at healing and can add a hell of a lot of survivability to the group. The Earth elemental can give that distraction that you may or may not need and the Air elemental with its Aoe style stun is just a brilliant annoyance tool in any scenario.

The Gear

Now as you have guessed from how this build is traited and what utilities are used, this is not a bursty style damage spec. This is just a high sustained damage, healing, support spec. In knowing this we need the gear to reflect and compliment what we are doing.

I personally have chosen Cleric gear as it offers what we need to stay alive and keep others alive while still offering damage when we need it. For those who dont know Cleric gear is Power, Toughness and Healing power. Survivability and Healing. Love it.
I do run 6/6 Cleric gear but It is completely up to you whether you use the full 6/6 or swap it out for say a few pieces of invaders gear for the vitality or say some condition gear to add to the burning/bleed damage you will be giving off.
It really is up to you what you swap just bare in mind by swapping say – the chest piece you will be swapping a lot of stats in comparison to the boots or gloves.

Trinket wise I personally use only 1 piece of cleric here and thats the necklace. The rest I currently use a mix of toughness vitality and toughness condition damage, this is just to be a jack of trades of sorts. This way offering viable condition damage while still being up for the supportive elements that this build offers.

Runes and sigils, well I leave this up to you, personally I like to use dwayna runes as you can tell I’m super Healy! But it’s down to personal preference and what you feel you need, same with the sigil on your weapon, it’s a matter of personal preference.

Combo Fields – Learn to love them

I see it too many times in WvW, Dungeons and Spvp. An AoE goes down and people do not use it to gain additional boons and buffs which can turn the tide of a battle.
Being a staff elementalist You are the main dealer of combo fields. Dependent on the situation learn to stick your healing rain on the enemy to grant regeneration to all those using a projectile finisher, also giving melee with leaps, blast and whirl finishers all manner of healing.

This also goes for any other AoEs we have, for example:
A blast finisher in a fire field grants area might! Take a couple of thieves throwing cluster bombs in a fire field BOOM 20 odd stacks of might for a multitude of characters, to me that is brilliant.

Combo fields. Our best friends.

To Summarize

I hope you have enjoyed reading how I play my elementalist as a support role, I also hope you can gain some knowledge and can also share your knowledge with me.

Very much like Osi, I will start to use videos, Answer questions and constantly adapt this guide as the game evolves. This will not be the end for this guide and your input will be ultimately what could make this guide successful to help all elementalists considering a different playstyle.

Thank you and I look forward to working alongside you, the community.

Reserved for editing

Reserved for editing

Cool, keep it up mate.

Very nice and to the point!

Thanks! Trying it out tomorrow.

Thank you guys. I shall be getting a screen recorder today so expect some video guides in the very near future!

Check this space for Sunday video! Including a small portion of a judge raid!

arcane wave is a basic tool for staff ele. Would say it’s a must include for a serious group/raid staff spec.

See with arcane wave I’m torn, brilliant for bringing certain blast combo finishers but for its damage as such (especially considering this is isnt a damage heavy build) is kind of minimal, yes 1 area might combo is nice or a 1-2k area healing combo but in comparison to the survival that the three utilities I have chosen, I’m not sure if it really could be viable, in certain situations I would say yes.

But perhaps that could be where you swap signet of earth out for it, but I believe mist form and arcane shield can’t be swapped, definitely when your in the thick of it.

Idd, swap signet of earth out for it. Single target immobilize for group spec? Over best finisher.

Again though, the 100ish toughness it gives on top of what toughness is given through the cleric armor just increases survivability in situations when heavy aoe is present, but I certainly agree that swapping them dependent on situation is viable

I use something very similar to this.

‘Hot Springs’ Staff Support Build

1. I use a mix of gear. I use the Vitality/Condition/Healing gear from CM and I use Cleric’s gear (Tough/Heal/Power) for Accessories and Weapon. This gives me a really good spread of +Healing, +Vitality and +Toughness as a set. It also gives me a mix of +Condition and +Power which is perfect since a lot of the time I am either in Earth (to setup Eruption Blast combos) or Water.

2. I use Arcane Wave because it’s an extra Blast finisher to combo area healing, area might, or area swiftness on demand.

3. I maintain perma-Swiftness when roaming by maintaining Gale, Static Field + Arcane Wave and Glyph of Elemental Harmony. 2/3 of these are AOE so I can keep others with me pretty easy.

4. I absolutely adore Soothing Disruption and find it to be absurdly powerful, especially the deeper you go in Water. Consider now that Earth’s Embrace not only gives Armor of Earth (Protection + Stability) but also Vigor and Regeneration (and due to Cleansing Water removes 1 condition). This source of vigor is clutch when you’re using Evasive Arcana to proc Cleansing Waves to heal or Churning Earth’s as Blast Finishers.

5. Cleansing Flame is a personal favorite of mine when you get bum rushed by another group. Nothing is better than breaking stun, cleansing 4 conditions, adding regeneration and vigor short of Mist Form. It’s an amazing defensive skill and lets me escape a lot of bum rush attacks where you’re being overrun with immobilize, blind, cripple, confuse, etc.

6. Tornado I imagine is somewhat controversial but I find that popping into a Tornado and rotating 2 (AOE Blind) and 3 (AOE Knockdown) is pretty good area denial when backing up or repositioning. The mix of Tough/Vit you get from gear is usually sufficient to survive especially with how bad people are culled in large group scenarios. Half the time Plagues and Tornadoes don’t even render to the other side it seems like!

Game play wise you stick mostly to Earth/Water. I tend to dynamically use combos as needed. Sometimes you need the big combo (Healing Rain → Earth → Evade → Evade → Arcane Wave…which is 3 blast finishers and lots of regen/condition removal) and other times you just need the basic (Eruption → Water → Geyser which gives 1 blast finisher, Healing Ripple and regen/condition removal).

Be sure to also take full advantage of your CC in staff with Static Field, Frozen Ground, Unsteady Ground and Shockwave. Frozen Ground is especially powerful defensively as Chill will drastically increase reuse times on abilities which is handy at neutering a rushing force.

@ Kodiak We do run very similar style builds Have been considering running with tornado over the elemental, especially considering having healing bolts flying out with knockbacks and such within healing rain would be nice to add to the group play we have going on. Certainly use Static field and frozen ground to capture many “Unsuspecting” pray.

Thank you for your input Raised a lot of points I haven’t considered in all honesty.

Chancer.3716:

@ Kodiak We do run very similar style builds Have been considering running with tornado over the elemental, especially considering having healing bolts flying out with knockbacks and such within healing rain would be nice to add to the group play we have going on. Certainly use Static field and frozen ground to capture many “Unsuspecting” pray.

Thank you for your input Raised a lot of points I haven’t considered in all honesty.

Well the biggest part of the Staff Support Elementalist meta is field management on the battlefield. That includes (but not limited to):

1. Players drop a lot of combo fields. For example Guardians are notorious for just randomly throwing out Symbols all over the kitten place which turns all our Blast finishers into AOE retaliation. That’s great if you want it but terrible if you wanted an Area Heal. I cringe when I do a blast finisher only to see AOE Weakness because some Thief/Necro dropped a poison field to hit 1 guy in the back ranks.

Paying attention to what fields are down and being with people who don’t throw down fields indiscriminately is very important.

2. Gauging how the battle progresses in real time is a critical skill to cultivate. Most staff eles are in the rear with the gear in large battles and as such you need to gauge what the enemy force is doing and how you are doing. If allies are starting to pull off to the side, you can adjust tactics from there. Being able to predict and analyze what’s going on well help you predict your best course of action.

3. Reacting to how the battlefield progresses is also critically important. Doing Blast finishers in a big brawl area is likely to net random results at best because players are dropping any number of fields (blind wells, symbols, ice fields, poison fields, etc). This means trying to pull off a Healing Rain → Blast combo isn’t advised in that scenario but instead using Water and evading for Cleansing Area will provide better results.

So we come to the Tornado discussion of using a Water Field and Tornado. It’s not a bad idea, but given the duration of each you’d definitely want it to be Healing Rain and also avoid running into any other fields. This may or may not be unavoidable. I notice when I do it I combo at least 2-3 different bolts each time (honestly, typically cleansing due to light fields).

*Kodiak, you link to an empty skill calculator. Nice discusssion.
“…maintaining Gale, Static Field + Arcane Wave and Glyph of Elemental Harmony”… Gale? Elemental harmony? Please elaborate.
Is there a place you can get an overview over elementalist staff+field combos?

davidcrickett.8536:

*Kodiak, you link to an empty skill calculator. Nice discusssion.
“…maintaining Gale, Static Field + Arcane Wave and Glyph of Elemental Harmony”… Gale? Elemental harmony? Please elaborate.
Is there a place you can get an overview over elementalist staff+field combos?

I think he wanted to say windborne speed, and glyph is, well, our heal.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Windborne_Speed
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glyph_of_Elemental_Harmony
As for combos, check http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Table_of_elementalist_combo_skills

Ah, yes, thank you! And thanks for a nice build thread.

Chancer.3716:

I would say you could swap this out for Obsidian Focus which gaining a significant toughness while channeling a spell is quite nice, especially considering a lot of staff skills are channeled.

Obsidian Focus only affects meteor shower and ether renewal.

No other staff skill is considered to be channeled, rather, they just have a long’ish cast time.

@Kodiac Cheers for your input chap, I am at college at the moment and I will certainly take the time once I get home to add your information to the guide.

@Winds Thanks for clarifying the information

@davidcrickett You’re welcome bud! Its getting a bit slow to start the video guide side of things, editing taking a lot longer than I thought but check back within the week for some more in-depth situational guides!

@Shotaiken Aha didnt realize this before I read your post and tested it, Shall update the guide later on to rectify the fact that obsi focus only affects Meteor shower, Healing rain and ether renewal.

davidcrickett.8536:

*Kodiak, you link to an empty skill calculator. Nice discusssion.
“…maintaining Gale, Static Field + Arcane Wave and Glyph of Elemental Harmony”… Gale? Elemental harmony? Please elaborate.
Is there a place you can get an overview over elementalist staff+field combos?

Builder isn’t blank when I click on it…hrm.

Yea I did mean Windborne Speed. Static Field is an Air field which when a blast finisher is done it gives you Area Swiftness which is basically identical to Windborne Speed. Glyph of Elemental Harmony in Air also gives you Swiftness. All 3 of these give 10s (base) of Swiftness but because of the 30 points in Arcane it’ll be 39s of Swiftness total (before any Runes and Food). However the skills themselves reset in 25s (Glyph), 30s (Windborne) and 40s (Static) meaning you can keep up Swiftness like this forever and 26s of it is AOE for your allies as well (who are also throwing out Swiftness as well meaning you can sometimes not use your heal). If you just sat there and rotated all 3 sources you’ll actually get ahead of it and generate minutes of swiftness.

This part of the reason why a lot of people consider Arcane Wave to be so mandatory. We can drop:

Fire Field (Lava Font, Burning Retreat ) which is Area Might
Water Field (Geyser, Healing Rain) which is Area Heal
Ice Field (Frozen Ground) which is Area Frost Armor
Air FIeld (Static Field) which is Area Swiftness

That’s a lot of advantages for a group that we can self combo with on demand. The fact it’s instant and can be done on demand (so even if you’re casting something else you can do Arcane Wave) is pretty spectacular.

The real discussion to be had is runes.

Edit: Unable to link a different editor. Not sure what to say there.

Chancer.3716:

@Shotaiken Aha didnt realize this before I read your post and tested it, Shall update the guide later on to rectify the fact that obsi focus only affects Meteor shower, Healing rain and ether renewal.

Does not affect Healing Rain.

Does effect Churning Earth though, if you want to put that in.

@ Shotaiken Fixed

Kodiak.3281:

davidcrickett.8536:

*Kodiak, you link to an empty skill calculator. Nice discusssion.
“…maintaining Gale, Static Field + Arcane Wave and Glyph of Elemental Harmony”… Gale? Elemental harmony? Please elaborate.
Is there a place you can get an overview over elementalist staff+field combos?

Builder isn’t blank when I click on it…hrm.

I’m on a Mac, Safari—when they don’t do the html properly/only for IE, then this happens.

Yea I did mean Windborne Speed. Static Field is an Air field which when a blast finisher is done it gives you Area Swiftness which is basically identical to Windborne Speed. Glyph of Elemental Harmony in Air also gives you Swiftness. All 3 of these give 10s (base) of Swiftness but because of the 30 points in Arcane it’ll be 39s of Swiftness total (before any Runes and Food). However the skills themselves reset in 25s (Glyph), 30s (Windborne) and 40s (Static) meaning you can keep up Swiftness like this forever and 26s of it is AOE for your allies as well (who are also throwing out Swiftness as well meaning you can sometimes not use your heal). If you just sat there and rotated all 3 sources you’ll actually get ahead of it and generate minutes of swiftness.

This part of the reason why a lot of people consider Arcane Wave to be so mandatory. We can drop:

Fire Field (Lava Font, Burning Retreat ) which is Area Might
Water Field (Geyser, Healing Rain) which is Area Heal
Ice Field (Frozen Ground) which is Area Frost Armor
Air FIeld (Static Field) which is Area Swiftness

That’s a lot of advantages for a group that we can self combo with on demand. The fact it’s instant and can be done on demand (so even if you’re casting something else you can do Arcane Wave) is pretty spectacular.

Thanks!

The real discussion to be had is runes.

Please discuss. I’m getting very interested in your Old Cantrips style . Tried with Overlords’ build, but went (bananas) all Clerics, took me only three hours to kill a certain spider at Rata Pten at lvl 60, but it didn’t kill me. (All my other professions got killed by it).

Edit: Unable to link a different editor. Not sure what to say there.

Is this your build?

@david yeah this build is really a complete support build for the style of wvw and dungeon groups so solo with damage won’t be great with this spec :P I will be adding my staff solo spec within the coming week and once I can get a decent movie editor such as adobe elements I will explain the spec in more detail through the soothing farmer tones of my voice

Cheers for the input guys, i have to admit this is the first time at ever writing a build/“soon to be” guide so this information really helps!

I am actually growing rather fond of it, when using the cantrips style and starting swapping a lot! I tried berserkers, and mixing the gear, but somehow I really like this way of doing things. I can imagine it’s great in WvW, I just normally wait until I am lvl 80.

Remember though, that Windborne Speed also cures Chill, Cripple, and Immobilize. When running from enemies, save this until they try to CC you. But do use Static Field + Blast Finisher to keep your swiftness up.

On the topic of fleeing (or chasing) your enemies – Frozen Ground does no damage and, therefore, does not make you enter combat or reset your timer for leaving combat.

As for dealing with large forces and lots of overlapping combo fields, there’s one handy mechanic to remember – Finishers combo with the first field they encounter, or when there are multiple overlapping fields, the first field placed.

davidcrickett.8536:

Is this your build?

No. My build is:

10 Earth (Armor of Earth)
30 Water (Aquamancer’s Alacrity, Soothing Disruption, Cleansing Water)
30 Arcane (Elemental Attunement, Blasting Staff, Evasive Arcana)

Glyph of Elemental Harmony
Arcane Wave / Cleansing Fire / Mist Form
Tornado

Staff: Superior Sigil of Energy
Runes: 2 Superior Dwayna, 2 Superior Monk, 2 Major Runes of Sanctuary

Not sold on the rune setup yet. Regeneration is probably our best/lasting heal that we have (since it gets the most out of +Healing stat) so I’ve tried to do my best to keep it up. I have considered also possibly a Lyssa setup and use GoE/Tornado more like a 2-3 minute clear all conditions and get all boons but Precision seems like a wasted stat and I’m already set for a huge amount of condition removal. Even in siege style scenarios or defenses I mostly use Eruption to take advantage of my extra +Condition damage in a massive radius (and 12-18 bleeds is nothing to sneeze at).

davidcrickett.8536:

Please discuss. I’m getting very interested in your Old Cantrips style . Tried with Overlords’ build, but went (bananas) all Clerics, took me only three hours to kill a certain spider at Rata Pten at lvl 60, but it didn’t kill me. (All my other professions got killed by it).

A lot of people underestimate the defensive power of Cantrips when combined with Soothing Disruption and Cleansing Water. Cantrip Mastery puts that power on much more reasonable cool downs.

The other day I had a guy swear up and down the board that you have to have PVT gear to survive any kind of group battle and doubly so as an Elementalist. Later that night I was in a huge 20 on 20 battle near an enemy spawn and I was one of the last people to die using a 20/0/0/30/20 build in full Berserker gear. I was even able to gasp get some kills and quite a few bags!

That’s by far my favorite build and one I am in probably a good 70% of the time cause it has probably the best mix of offense, defense and utility.

I use 4 superior runes of altruism, and 2 of water, which gives me 40 % boon duration.
Update: All in all, I got 60% boon duration.

Usual Support build, Uselles in OPvE / SPvP/ WvW … somewhat “useful” in DPvE

All in all good troll build and I suggest other people try it out

(Gear, skills and traits would be EXCELENT, AWSOME choice if this game counted Healers as combatants )

Maybe it isn’t to your tastes but if you had any clue how good the players from Judge actually are you wouldn’t be so fast to dismiss this as a troll build Lillian Wandom Hale.

@David very nice choice of rune combo especially for the 40% boon duration, certainly makes our regeneration that much more powerful (Unless stripped) I personally use dwayna for the amount of times I can re-apply regeneration so even if someone boon strips us or another person we can easily reapply it, or just stack the duration as per needed.

@Kodiac As always chap thank you for you input Ive been trying out my own variant of your old cantrip style of play and have to admit I am thoroughly enjoying it.

@Lillian Wandom Hale. Glad you believe people should try it out chap. It is “Usual” per say as a lot of staff ele’s use a very similar or exact same build, I just wanted to expand on the spec and introduce reasons why we use particular skills and traits.

@Marz(Lhylyth) Thank you bud :-) I could easily say the same about Dius, Superb guild and always a pleasure to fight with you guys on the battlefield.

Update

Been trying out a seperate build from the 0/0/10/30/30 displayed on this guide changing out evasive arcana for different traits (Such as bolt to the heart and various others) Will display my thoughts once I am out of work onto the reserved posts below the main build guide.

Cheers guys, stay classy!

Chancer.3716:

@Kodiac As always chap thank you for you input Ive been trying out my own variant of your old cantrip style of play and have to admit I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Thanks man. I actually got it originally from Towren’s Post on GW2 Guru (second one down).

You can see post date wise it was made back on 9/30 which is why I call it old haha…

Chancer.3716:

Update

Been trying out a seperate build from the 0/0/10/30/30 displayed on this guide changing out evasive arcana for different traits (Such as bolt to the heart and various others) Will display my thoughts once I am out of work onto the reserved posts below the main build guide.

Cheers guys, stay classy!

Yeah, I am having the same doubts about Evasive Arcana, don’t use it much. Maybe Arcane Mastery (I) instead, for some more Arcane Wave?

davidcrickett.8536:

Chancer.3716:

Update

Been trying out a seperate build from the 0/0/10/30/30 displayed on this guide changing out evasive arcana for different traits (Such as bolt to the heart and various others) Will display my thoughts once I am out of work onto the reserved posts below the main build guide.

Cheers guys, stay classy!

Yeah, I am having the same doubts about Evasive Arcana, don’t use it much. Maybe Arcane Mastery (I) instead, for some more Arcane Wave?

Tried using arcane mastery instead of evasive arcana and I have to admit the benefits I get from a shorter cooldown arcane wave over the dodge heal/damage/blind/bleed is actually worse than I imagined. You can achieve the benefits of an arcane wave through rolling into a combo field which is making me realize how useful Evasive arcana can be… Hate to admit that but finding that a water dodge roll into a water field with evasive arcana will achieve more healing over time than arcane wave having a shorter cooldown.

Plus the fact the effects of evasive arcana can occur every 10 seconds whereas arcane waves with the arcane master trait only gets it down to around 24-26 seconds (At work so cant clarify exactly but I do remember it being around that number).

There are benefits to arcane mastery though in the essence that you will be using arcane wave to deal damage up close and personal so for those long drawn out 1v1 fights where you are close range a lot and have to be incredibly mobile an on demand combo finisher can help those who dont have enough time to preempt a combo field to place then roll into it (This takes time!)

So yeah I think swapping out evasive arcana for arcane mastery when roaming on your own or in a very small group could be handy but for WvW and dungeons I believe evasive arcana takes the prize.

Yes this goes against what I said but atleast we can understand the trait better now

Chancer.3716:

Lingering attunements – You will see where this +6 second attunement bonus will come in handy once I explain the major traits. To be brief +6 seconds of boon duration (Especially considering Regeneration and protection) is godly for a minor trait.

This is incorrect. Lingering attunements has nothing to do with your boons. This is purely your attunement. If you look at your character’s attunement buff, trying swapping between elements. Notice how the previous element remains for a few seconds. This is Lingering Attunements. It allows things like “10% more damage in Air” traits to be effective 6 seconds longer, even though you switched to fire.

As for the overall build, I don’t really like it. Some things I wouldn’t have are:

• Aquamancer’s Alacrity
• Earths Embrace
• Signet of Earth

I don’t think any of them are all that great. This is the build I prefer:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImmbxR5gjEAkHn4CLhCKIKYRRxM7A

Cantrips absolutely dominate on Ele. With this spec, using any cantrip gives you regeneration, vigor, and 3 stacks of might. So, each cantrip will also remove a condition (on top of that 3 that Cleansing Fire clears). On top of that, your cantrips are all instant and have a shorter cooldown. You still cure conditions with healing rain as well as every time you swap to water for all allies within range.

Every so often, on easier dungeons or W/W with the zerg, I switch it up to:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImmbpR5gjEAkHn4CLhCKIKURRxM7A

That will let me drop down an AoE blind field or a second, weaker Meteor Shower for more AoE. It also provides quicker glyphs which in turn provide faster self heals. You lose Bolt to the Heart though which is really nice.

For both of these setups I run P/V/T armor/weapons using 2x Superior Rune of Water, 2x Superior Rune of Monk, 2x Major Rune of Monk. I run 2 different staffs (both P/V/T), using Superior Sigil of Bloodlust until 25 stacks then swapping out for a Superior Sigil of Might for 3x Might stack on attunement swap. I run full beserker accessories. Provides good damage and survivability. With the weak effects of +Healing, I don’t notice any sizable difference between Cleric’s and Beserker’s jewelry.

@Serp I shall amend the lingering attunement, as you can tell haven’t been an elementalist for all that long

As for the build and the points you have raised:

Looking at the cantrip build you have displayed I would totally agree that this would be better in the situations you find yourself in. I personally find in the WvW I do with Judge that what I have picked allows me to survive and work as an “Unofficial” healer. As stated this build is not for damage, I do run seperate builds including a cookiecutter D/D for when Im solo roaming but this isnt part of what this build is for. I designed this for our small scale group encounters (15 people at most) and combined with another support guardian/elementalist we can achieve feats a “Solo” playing ele spec could not. I personally have no videos to prove this but my guild colleague and friend Osicat ,(Shattercat spec for mesmers creator) has plenty to display the benefits of having an elementalist specced and geared like myself in encounters where we are outnumbered heavily by 2/3 to 1.

Im not discounting your build as a perfect build for those who want to solo/small group play and actually get some kills off but I find it unnecessary in the group build up that we play in. Its our way of demoralizing our enemies when 10-15 of us can destroy there hefty zergs with movement, minimal effort and only 1/2 “unofficial” healers keeping everyone topped up.

As for the +healing, I do believe it has an effect as without the healing, my geyser does not get over 5k healing per 5 players during its duration. More around 3-4k which yes 1k doesnt sound like a lot, but pair that with the regeneration ticking at 700-800 per tick and blast heals from myself giving around 1.5-1.7k this can amount to a lot. Fast.

Again I thank you for your input and the cantrip build certainly is an excellent one to roam with (Tried Kodiac’s build which was vaguely similar and loved it).

Peace

Cosmic

Serp.3264:

Chancer.3716:

Lingering attunements – You will see where this +6 second attunement bonus will come in handy once I explain the major traits. To be brief +6 seconds of boon duration (Especially considering Regeneration and protection) is godly for a minor trait.

This is incorrect. Lingering attunements has nothing to do with your boons. This is purely your attunement. If you look at your character’s attunement buff, trying swapping between elements. Notice how the previous element remains for a few seconds. This is Lingering Attunements. It allows things like “10% more damage in Air” traits to be effective 6 seconds longer, even though you switched to fire.

This is also incorrect. Lingering Attunements only works with the 5 point minor traits of every element (except that its bugged with earth one). Doesn’t work with any of the other traits like “More damage while attuned to fire” or “20% more damage to vulnerable enemies when attuned to water”.

NdranC.5107:

Serp.3264:

Chancer.3716:

Lingering attunements – You will see where this +6 second attunement bonus will come in handy once I explain the major traits. To be brief +6 seconds of boon duration (Especially considering Regeneration and protection) is godly for a minor trait.

This is incorrect. Lingering attunements has nothing to do with your boons. This is purely your attunement. If you look at your character’s attunement buff, trying swapping between elements. Notice how the previous element remains for a few seconds. This is Lingering Attunements. It allows things like “10% more damage in Air” traits to be effective 6 seconds longer, even though you switched to fire.

This is also incorrect. Lingering Attunements only works with the 5 point minor traits of every element (except that its bugged with earth one). Doesn’t work with any of the other traits like “More damage while attuned to fire” or “20% more damage to vulnerable enemies when attuned to water”.

I did not know that. Good to know.

Blasting Staff doesnt affect Healing Rain. It only affects
7 of our 20 staff abilities FYI.

Thunderbrew.7034:

Blasting Staff doesnt affect Healing Rain. It only affects
7 of our 20 staff abilities FYI.

Did a little research on that one bud

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blasting_Staff

Direct quote – “Healing Rain’s targeting area and the visual effect it creates do not grow in size with this trait, but the actual radius of the area-of-effect does. This may be due to a bug with the basic form of the spell, as the radius of the spell once created is bigger than that indicated when targeting.”

Serp.3264:

Chancer.3716:

Lingering attunements – You will see where this +6 second attunement bonus will come in handy once I explain the major traits. To be brief +6 seconds of boon duration (Especially considering Regeneration and protection) is godly for a minor trait.

This is incorrect. Lingering attunements has nothing to do with your boons. This is purely your attunement. If you look at your character’s attunement buff, trying swapping between elements. Notice how the previous element remains for a few seconds. This is Lingering Attunements. It allows things like “10% more damage in Air” traits to be effective 6 seconds longer, even though you switched to fire.

Your description is flawed, I do believe that this trait is bugged and the only parts of the other attunements that ‘linger’ are infact the 5 point minors. If the other attunement traits lingered that would be amazing