Guild Wars 2

I don’t mean pure water, but water as the main element. I know it’d probably be difficult, but I doubt its impossible.

What weapons/traits/stats do you think would be necessary for such a build? I’m thinking Water/Earth would probably be most viable.

Water / Arcane is one of the most popular builds right now. It’s our standard bunker build and very viable (although it may be about to get nerfed in today’s patch).

Are you talking trait focused, or skill/element focused?

No elementalist will do well without using all 4 elements, you have to be switching between them constantly, especially in PvP :]

I haven’t seen any builds… as Angel said, switching attunements is how you pretty much have to roll (for the next hour, then we’ll see if we’re viable at all!). Water tends to have a lot of heals, so if you wanted to stay in water attunement, you’ll probably pigeonhole yourself into a healing/support role.

My gut reaction is to think about a Frost Bow build if that conjure is at all useful, but I have no experience with the conjures.

DEKeyzToChaos.7381:

My gut reaction is to think about a Frost Bow build if that conjure is at all useful, but I have no experience with the conjures.

The only good conjure atm is lightning hammer, and only when used in a bunker build meant for farming…

yeah water and arcana is pretty much standard stuff these days as very little useful in fire/air, and its better to focus on ele recharge rather then a single attunement. if you wanna play support however staff is good, the water auto atk on staff will heal about 350-400 aoe which is epic if theres a group fight aswell as having nice aoe heals.. i feel however stating heavily into healing power isnt worthwhile as gains are minimal. only regens seem to benefit alot. that being said a little healing is no harm done, generally ur better going power/tough/vit id say. or cond/tough/crit for a condition build (personal opinion, aslong as your build fits your style its all good!)

I use scepter and focus (BEST COMBO) and with 52% critical chance and 48% critical damage I can stay in water attunement and do ALOT of dps and little bit of support. Shatterstone does about 1500 damage and adds vulnerability (2 second cooldown).
Ice shards which is the auto attack does about 600 damage (3 shards= 1800).

Angel.1435:

No elementalist will do well without using all 4 elements, you have to be switching between them constantly, especially in PvP :]

Well I didn’t plan to ignore all of the other elements, but I was hoping for water/ice to be the primary, especially when traiting.

Curring.9752:

Are you talking trait focused, or skill/element focused?

Trait and weaponry. I’m hoping to make a support ele that can solo without taking 40 minutes on a single Risen Abomination.

.. though, I didn’t know about the Water/Arcane thing being standard. What weapons are worthwhile? I really like the dagger/dagger concept but I dunno how viable it is.

Water IMHO is the best atunement to use conjures from.
utilize the +20% damage on vulnerable enemies and combine that with signets causing vulnerability or air minor 25 to cause vulnerability on critical hits and water minor 25.
this gets +30% damage fairly easily.
Lava Axe being my favorite here.

This gets a passive regen and bonus damage to high damage attacks.

Imho this is where a low arcane build would be used. however being as awesome as a high arcane build is questionable. but if evasive arcana changes it may increase this kind of builds viability.

water attacks themselves are awesome only where these attacks are awesome and i think those are pretty much corner cases or situational.

its unfortunate that written in stone is a grand master trait as if it were in a lower tier it could be made into a fairly potent +damage aura conjure build.

The most common D/D build at the moment is 0/10/0/30/30, very tanky while still having decent damage.
D/D or S/D will be your best bet for any reliable damage, staff is great if you know how kite a group of mobs around without any hassle but suffers in single target damage however the staff is the most survivable.

After the patch, is the previously given advice still viable?

uhh kinda
30 in arcana just received an incredibly heavy nerf

I think a water build could be. I considered this awhile back but have yet to test it. Ill throw something together tonight and post results.