Critique My Build, Please

Critique My Build, Please

in Elementalist

Posted by: Gaius.2781

Gaius.2781

Greetings, all.

This thread is exactly what it says on the tin: it is intended as a request for constructive feedback for the build I’m using.

My build is one I came up with purely by trial-and-error. It’s a general-purpose, tanky, supporty, D/D build. Here’s what you need to know:

  • Dagger/Dagger (Scepter/Dagger is also permitted)
  • 10 points in Earth and Air
  • 20 points in Arcane
  • 30 points in Water

Traits:

  • Air: Zephyr’s Boon (Auras grant Fury and Swiftness)
  • Earth: Elemental Shielding (Auras grant Protection)
  • Water: Cleansing Wave (condition removal on attunement to water); Cantrip Mastery (Cantrips recharge 20% faster); Powerful Aura (Auras are applied to nearby allies)
  • Arcane: Elemental Attunement (gain a boon when attuning); Renewing Stamina (33% chance to gain Vigor on crit)

Alternative Water Traits (used as necessary depending on context):

  • Stop Drop and Roll (remove Burning and Chilled on dodge)
  • Cleansing Aura (remove a condition when applying Regeneration)

Heal:

  • Signet of Restoration (natch)

Utilities:

  • Armor of Earth (again, natch)
  • Cleansing Flame
  • Lightning Flash in PvP; Glyph of Storms in PvE

This build is strong in both solo and cooperative play. You are fairly tanky; you have a ton of boons running around, which boosts your damage output by around 10% in all attunements; your auras, to which you have access on two different attunements, give you all kinds of benefits; you can apply auras to friends if you want, giving them those same benefits; you have lots of condition removal at your fingertips; and, as a dagger-dagger specc, you have access to both control and PBAOE abilities. Also, as 1 in 3 of your crits will give you Vigor, you have reasonable defensive mobility.

My build can be found at the following web location:
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/elementalist#3|3|1119|3984|100|9559|4480|0|0|0|0|10|1887|0|0|10|2255|0|0|30|1684|1680|1687|20|2250|2252|0|0|0|5|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

If I can optimize this build further, let me know. It’s a little weak offensively, and the advantages of auras might be insignificant given their cooldowns.

Thanks in advance.

(edited by Gaius.2781)

Critique My Build, Please

in Elementalist

Posted by: Mytheos.7205

Mytheos.7205

Its basically an Auramancer build. It has a name so it must be somewhat popular right?

I had one in my group, the DPS seemed to suffer, and he was asking for feedback and received very little…ended up with a we didnt really notice. (The Auras)

I personally was interested in this build at a time so was closely watching, and it honestly didnt seem worth the DPS loss.

But so long as you run it for you and not your party, that should be your goal.

Because I doubt you are going to hear, oh wow those auras are awesome keep using that spec!!!

Critique My Build, Please

in Elementalist

Posted by: Gaius.2781

Gaius.2781

Thanks for the feedback, Mytheos.

To be honest: 4 seconds of auras, plus a few seconds of Swiftness, Protection, and Fury aren’t necessarily that noteworthy.

It mainly has two effects:

  • Slight increase in damage output and protection
  • Situational crowd control (chill or stun)

I’ve found that in small group fights against large mobs, this build acts like a force multiplier — you can generally expect to take on a somewhat larger amount of mobs with the same amount of people.

Critique My Build, Please

in Elementalist

Posted by: Stormy O.7025

Stormy O.7025

I run a similar build, but I go 0/20/10/30/10 (for sPvp)

(This is what I take that’s different from you)
Air: reduce air skills recharge by 20%
Arcane: elemental attunement only

For sigils I take the 60% chance to remove conditions (because conditions can get real nasty) and +5% crit chance

For runes I take rune of the ogre.

Soldier’s Amulet w/ Berserker’s jewel

Heal = Glyph (so that I can get permanent swiftness if I want or whatever else)

Instead of Armor of Earth I take Mist Form.

Thoughts:

I really don’t think the damage is that bad. I do over 1k damage with each hit of lightning whip when it crits.

As for aiding teammates. It seems that I have to be really close to them for the auras to proc. However, I really do think it helps them a lot from my experience (even if they don’t notice it). Note: I don’t play tournaments (because I don’t really like the super serious atmosphere and rather just play around), so I don’t know how it fares there.

(edited by Stormy O.7025)