Guild Wars 2

I don’t care what people say, I shall stay D/D and becoem good with him. I just dont’ know what to do with him now. I Just hit 80, so now I don’t know what to do. Dont’ know what stats to get, if glass cannon or tank, or w/e is a thing. I"m just so confused, is there anyone who would help give me insight on this?

For what type would it be pve, pvp or both?

I’m thinking along the lines of PvP. I expect to do PvP mostly after I"m done farming the crap out of th world bosses for fun.

I would also like to see what new builds if any people have come up with for D/D after patch. I’ve been running D/D for a couple of months now with the cookie-cutter build. I would like to see some things change. I know this patch I’ve changed my build just a little bit to see what else can be done.
Edit:
I am looking for WvWvW builds specifically.

So far I’m putting 30 in Arcana, duh, and I’ve put ten in Air for the aura boons. I don’t know where else to go from here, or still, the stats i should get. just so confused.

If you still want to stay D/D, i’d suggest taking some points out of water and putting them in earth and maybe taking stone splinters since bountiful power is nerfed now. You’ll have some extra toughness and get back most of the damage you lost. You could replace a piece of your gear with something with healing to make up for the healing you lose. It will basically be the same as it was before the nerf, you just need to move some stuff around. All this patch really did was cost me some gold for new gear and make my burst spec better. 0/10/10/20/30 works decently with knight’s and some clerics gear. Having a few cavaliers and knights trinkets with berserker jewels or all stats gear if you can get ascended stuff doesn’t hurt either.

well idk what stats to get either. Knights, Beserkers’, that other oen i can’t remember, or what.

Well if you’re just starting out i’d suggest getting soldiers daggers, knights armor and maybe a few pieces of cleric too if you feel you need more healing , cleric amulet with cleric jewel, knight’s earings and cavalier rings with berserker jewels. It will be relatively easy and you have lots of room for error till you get a hang of things. And just go with the 0/10/10/20/30 build or 0/10/0/30/30. Then start changing things and experimenting after you get more comfortable with it and discover what you can do without and what you want more of. I’d also suggest picking up a staff with berserker stats on it. You’ll need it for dungeons and for dropping stuff on people in wvw when you’re behind a wall defending it from the enemy forces. And you’ll need a sigil of battle on the staff and on one of your daggers. What you put on the other dagger is up to you, just don’t put another weapon swapping one or “on crit” ones on the other dagger as it wont work with the battle one. For runes i’d suggest 2 superior water, 2 superior monk, and either 2 superior melandru, or 2 major water. This is just standard stuff to get you started and make it easy for you. You’ll want to change things later on as you get better with it to fit your personal playstyle better. But this should do for now.

Guess I"ll go with your suggestions if nobody else is objecting

You can always go to the mists and try out different things. its not quite the same, but it will give you a general idea without you having to waste gold.

I was thinking a 0/0/20/20/30 build it will give me a little more armor with not that much dps loss and stability from the rock solid trait now thakittens been moved down to master.

Bump. Seems like this kind of post was needed now for the new patch. Get some talks on Ele builds for the new changes going. I’ll be following Nikkinella’s

Why would I need Sigil of Battle? I won’t be swapping to any weapons, I"ll be D/D the whole time.

when you swap attunements it procs.

Ah I see……………….

0/30/0/30/10 cantrip build w/ cleanses on use and fresh air. It gives you good damage, neat condition removal by using cantrips, glyph of elemental harmony (in water) and elemental attunement.

0/30/10/20/10 with Signet Mastery (air signet stun break), Earth’s Embrace or Elemental Shielding, for a wee bit of extra defense, than the above build.

0/30/0/20/20 for an arcane utility oriented build.

0/30/0/10/30 for an Evasive Arcana build.

Those are all mainly offensive in nature, and using valkyrie w/ berserker jewel and divinity runes will bring you fine damage, otherwise you can settle for Cleric’s Amulet, if you prefer more survivability. They all utilize “fresh air”, as you will want to blast opponents on air attunement swap, giving other attunements time to “reset”.

Otherwise you can use the pseudo-bunker 10/10/0/20/30, with cantrips, sigil of restoration, and switch back and forth between valkyrie w/ berserker and clerics w/ berserker, depending on your needs.

I am looking at making a hybrid of burst and condition, with means of survival, but waiting for skill sheets to be updated. So far it doesn’t bode too well..

Ancient Ranger.3276:

I was thinking a 0/0/20/20/30 build it will give me a little more armor with not that much dps loss and stability from the rock solid trait now thakittens been moved down to master.

I have exactly this build. I use a mix of solider’s and knight’s gear, and take signet of air, arcane shield/mistform, and lightning flash as my utilities. I try to make sure I switch to earth at the start of ether renewal if I think I might be cc’d. My earth traits are “Stone Splinters” and “Rock Solid,” while my water traits are “Cleansing Wave” and “Arcane Abatement”

Wow, confusing stuff here lol. I’m going with Nik’s right now and see how it rolls. I might adapt to these later on, I appreciate it guys. But hey don’t stop there, i see there’s others here needing some help with this. Let’s keep this post going to help all the ele’s find new builds for this patch.

I always figured too that D/D Eles were utterly useless without their auras

If you have questions about certain things, don’t hesitate to ask about details.

I still use 0 0 20 20 30 with signet of air, LF and MF. I’ll post the build sometime later.

Nikkinella.8254:

Well if you’re just starting out i’d suggest getting soldiers daggers, knights armor and maybe a few pieces of cleric too if you feel you need more healing , cleric amulet with cleric jewel, knight’s earings and cavalier rings with berserker jewels. It will be relatively easy and you have lots of room for error till you get a hang of things. And just go with the 0/10/10/20/30 build or 0/10/0/30/30. Then start changing things and experimenting after you get more comfortable with it and discover what you can do without and what you want more of. I’d also suggest picking up a staff with berserker stats on it. You’ll need it for dungeons and for dropping stuff on people in wvw when you’re behind a wall defending it from the enemy forces. And you’ll need a sigil of battle on the staff and on one of your daggers. What you put on the other dagger is up to you, just don’t put another weapon swapping one or “on crit” ones on the other dagger as it wont work with the battle one. For runes i’d suggest 2 superior water, 2 superior monk, and either 2 superior melandru, or 2 major water. This is just standard stuff to get you started and make it easy for you. You’ll want to change things later on as you get better with it to fit your personal playstyle better. But this should do for now.

Imo, there’s not much use for running with 30 in water anymore witht the nerfed bountyful power. I’d say you just run with stone splinters now ^^

My base line stats are 15k hp with 2.6k armor so you can play with the numbers a bit. I get a mix of Valk, Cavalier, Knights/Soliders, Celestial (ascended).

Traits can be:

(common dps bunker)
0/10/0/30/30
0/0/20/20/30

(niche builds)
0/20/0/20/30
0/10/10/20/30

@Avatar Yirachi:

30 isn’t a must have anyone that is true. But you can still run it for shared aura (team based) or if you like having some extra condi removals. But it is more if you roll with a group and support them through shared auras.

I’m curious as to the roles of D/D in WvWvW? Cause I Just tried it out for the first time, and kitten am I confused lol. I’m just switching to random attunments and hitting buttons at first. Not used to it i guess. What’s the role of a D/D? Is it a bunker type to just share auras and mess with zergs and other people, or are we actually capable of offense?

it was suposed to be a roamer…
Once.

And that’s what, just someone who picks off stragglers, thats it?

Its a profession that should wander in small groups attending tastks small Group does.

That before april nerf
Now lacks the mobility to kill its target unless its a duel (and opponent is thus supposed too not run away)

Psy.7386:

I’m curious as to the roles of D/D in WvWvW? Cause I Just tried it out for the first time, and kitten am I confused lol. I’m just switching to random attunments and hitting buttons at first. Not used to it i guess. What’s the role of a D/D? Is it a bunker type to just share auras and mess with zergs and other people, or are we actually capable of offense?

D/D is the most mobile weapon set that an elementalist have. They can roam well (much better months ago). They can get in and out of places quickly and at the same time they use the environment (like walls) to their advantage. They have skills that maximize this. Dagger fire 3 damage is the highest if you managed to pin someone at a wall or corner and use it. Their Dagger fire 2 & water 2 skills can go through walls and trees so you can hit enemies behind it. While their auto attacks cannot damage you see it cannot go through these things. As for role, D/Ds deal constant AoE damage against enemy forces. On top of that can be great at disruption and distraction. They can soak a good amount of damage and heal up so other people would have to focus the Ele down. At the same time, the Ele is like toss CC and AoE damage to the enemy (most of the skills on D/D is AoE).

Then there are the other sets which I think is important to state just so you can see what they differ.

S/D is the Ele’s highest burst weapon set. Most of the skills are single target damage skills with the exception of (fire 2, 3, 4, 5, water 2 (which is useless :P ), earth 4, earth 5 [rarely used on s/d]). Very good at roaming since you can easily burst down a single target very fast. The greatest thing about s/d is that they can burst heal groups really fast and they have a lot of blast finishers. Like in WvW when you have people on rams you might need heals to prevent the ram users from dying to arrow carts or attacks. S/D can instantly heal using Water 3 and 5 along with Evasive Arcana (trait) dodge roll in water attunement. On top of that, usually in WvW you would have a staff ele placing down a water field. You can blast the water field to heal allies using Fire 2, Fire 3, and Evasive Arcana dodge roll in earth attunement. Potentially, you can burst heal nearby allies 6 times in a group setting.

Staff eles have a lot of fields and they can control enemy forces from a distance. At the same time they have a lot of support skills. They do have good damage but it is not consistent like D/D or s/d.

Hope that helps. Pretty much you can master D/D and use it for what it does well in group play (random groups and guild groups). But be aware of these other roles that you can fill using a different weapon set so that you can be a versatile Ele in WvW.

LordByron.8369:

it was suposed to be a roamer…
Once.

It still is, you just have to know how. And if roaming for you means kiting and fighting 8 people around some terrain obstacles, then no.. Not anymore – There’s been to many nerfs to properly do that.

However, you should still be able to fight a couple at a time, especially if its not two D/D thiefs.

LordByron.8369:

Its a profession that should wander in small groups attending tastks small Group does.

That before april nerf
Now lacks the mobility to kill its target unless its a duel (and opponent is thus supposed too not run away)

I still do that, and I still do not have problems soloing down 50% upgraded camps. And the only classes that actually do get away are thiefs and warriors if they use their invul ability.

Avatar Yirachi.7162:

LordByron.8369:

it was suposed to be a roamer…
Once.

It still is, you just have to know how. And if roaming for you means kiting and fighting 8 people around some terrain obstacles, then no.. Not anymore – There’s been to many nerfs to properly do that.

However, you should still be able to fight a couple at a time, especially if its not two D/D thiefs.

Roaming also means getting around the map fast. Which D/D can’t do anymore because of the ridiculous 40 second RTL cooldown. Every single profession besides maybe Mesmer and Necros are now faster than us.

also you can t prevent people from fleeing.

You can consider RTL as 40 sec CD because is really easy to evade losing any purpose to exist.

Aether McLoud.1975:

Avatar Yirachi.7162:

LordByron.8369:

it was suposed to be a roamer…
Once.

It still is, you just have to know how. And if roaming for you means kiting and fighting 8 people around some terrain obstacles, then no.. Not anymore – There’s been to many nerfs to properly do that.

However, you should still be able to fight a couple at a time, especially if its not two D/D thiefs.

Roaming also means getting around the map fast. Which D/D can’t do anymore because of the ridiculous 40 second RTL cooldown. Every single profession besides maybe Mesmer and Necros are now faster than us.

You can still get around decently if you target a far off white creature and RtL into it to get the 20s cooldown.

As for OP, I use a 0/0/20/20/30 build. Stone Splinters makes up for the damage lost with BP nerf, and Rock Steady is just great. You also can’t overlook the 15 minor that damages and cripples around you when attuning earth, since I usually engage with fire, then swap to earth, that’s really nice. The rest is pretty standard. I use full Knight’s with a mix of Celestial and Zerker accessories.

Still trying to get utilities worked out since the cantrip nerfs though. I keep arcane wave for the increased damage output and blast finisher, then usually take LF and MF. Been considering switching arcane wave to arcane shield for another stunbreak while keeping some increased damage output.

Ushio.7138:

Aether McLoud.1975:

Avatar Yirachi.7162:

LordByron.8369:

it was suposed to be a roamer…
Once.

It still is, you just have to know how. And if roaming for you means kiting and fighting 8 people around some terrain obstacles, then no.. Not anymore – There’s been to many nerfs to properly do that.

However, you should still be able to fight a couple at a time, especially if its not two D/D thiefs.

Roaming also means getting around the map fast. Which D/D can’t do anymore because of the ridiculous 40 second RTL cooldown. Every single profession besides maybe Mesmer and Necros are now faster than us.

You can still get around decently if you target a far off white creature and RtL into it to get the 20s cooldown.

As for OP, I use a 0/0/20/20/30 build. Stone Splinters makes up for the damage lost with BP nerf, and Rock Steady is just great. You also can’t overlook the 15 minor that damages and cripples around you when attuning earth, since I usually engage with fire, then swap to earth, that’s really nice. The rest is pretty standard. I use full Knight’s with

There are no white creatures in pvp.

My god, all the talks about nerfs put on us. I feel so..helpless and poor…like there’s a pandemic going around, or a genocide or Elementalists, and we’re the few straggling survivors.

Actually elementalist have seen the most severe nerf of any profession since beta.
one after another just knee jerk DESTROYING any build that was used.

If scepter will prove to be useful it will follow the same pattern of Staff and D/D.

Staff was double nerfed into oblivion so severely that they had to buff it after months….

Just so everyone knows, the Stone Splinter trait is currently bugged. It’s only giving 5% of a damage boost instead of the full 10%. Not exactly worth it at the moment in my opinion.

anyone try running 0/20/10/10/30 build for pve after patch? I just hit lv 80 yesterday and dont want to do the cookie cutter build anymore so thoughts?

Also, I dont even feel like elementalists were nerfed. They nerfed one trait and moved around a couple of stun breaks (which isn’t even really a nerf) while giving us quite a few buffs. People were upset that we were required to go 30 into water and Anet made it not necessary. Everyone should quit using the same build they’ve been using since launch and realize that d/d is stronger than ever.

Frostedblaze.9017:

realize that d/d is stronger than ever.

LOL. What kind of make-believe world are you living in? D/D has never been weaker. In fact, since launch (and before, since IIRC beta weekend 2) D/D has seen NOTHING BUT SEVERE NERFS in every single patch.

Aether McLoud.1975:

There are no white creatures in pvp.

They were talking about WvW! In sPVP, yeah, the RtL was a huge boning of ele’s mobility.

Frostedblaze.9017:

Also, I dont even feel like elementalists were nerfed. They nerfed one trait and moved around a couple of stun breaks (which isn’t even really a nerf) while giving us quite a few buffs. People were upset that we were required to go 30 into water and Anet made it not necessary. Everyone should quit using the same build they’ve been using since launch and realize that d/d is stronger than ever.

Except that one of the stunbreaks was put on GoEP, which should never consider being used for that purpose. Taking stunbreak from CF was a fine decision, but taking it from LF makes zero sense. If anything it should have been removed from Armor of Earth (though the crazy high cooldown and meh effect would almost assuredly make the skill completely unused). BP was probably a fair nerf, but the thing is: Ele is extremely lacking in survivability. Our main source of defense is healing and boons (and I guess mobility, though we hardly have any left to spare). So, going into Water and Arcane is pretty much necessary if you plan to play D/D, considering that unlike other classes, we can’t swap to a ranged weapon if need be. We’re locked into melee range, and since we have the worst base stats and our main defense mechanisms are reactive, we’re forced to invest heavily in defensive trees. Getting nice bonus damage out of a tree we’re almost pigeonholed into was helpful. I don’t think it’s a must-have, nor do I think it was entirely unfair, but it was a pretty big hit to D/D.

D/D is far from being stronger than ever. The positive things ANet is doing here and there for the class usually don’t impact D/D in a meaningful way.

The 0/0/20/20/30 build might not be that viable because the Stone Splitters trait which I was using to overcome the Bountiful Power nerf is not actually 10% as stated in the trait. After some testing I found out it is only a 5% increase. With Bountiful Power at 1% per boon and the are 9 boons (7 the elementalist has access to) is still better. Which does not mean we have to drop the trait completely. I am now thinking about running 0/0/10/30/30 So i have access to bountiful Power and Stone Splitters for a max of +12% increase in damage.

Ancient Ranger.3276:

The 0/0/20/20/30 build might not be that viable because the Stone Splitters trait which I was using to overcome the Bountiful Power nerf is not actually 10% as stated in the trait. After some testing I found out it is only a 5% increase. With Bountiful Power at 1% per boon and the are 9 boons (7 the elementalist has access to) is still better. Which does not mean we have to drop the trait completely. I am now thinking about running 0/0/10/30/30 So i have access to bountiful Power and Stone Splitters for a max of +12% increase in damage.

I am with you on this. I am in your very same situation: D/D ele who doesn’t want to drop the ball and is very willing to experiment new solutions.
This suggestion seems fine, even though I hope we’ll get an official answer on Stone Splitters quite soon. I wonder if it could be a good option anyway, if the trait gets fixed to 10%. I mean, +17% increase in damage with a very defensive trait setup would be interesting. Only things which needs to be compensated at that point is the speed buff from Zephir’s Boon, probably doable with Signet of Air, which adds a stun breaker in the process too.

Alesthes.4287:

Ancient Ranger.3276:

The 0/0/20/20/30 build might not be that viable because the Stone Splitters trait which I was using to overcome the Bountiful Power nerf is not actually 10% as stated in the trait. After some testing I found out it is only a 5% increase. With Bountiful Power at 1% per boon and the are 9 boons (7 the elementalist has access to) is still better. Which does not mean we have to drop the trait completely. I am now thinking about running 0/0/10/30/30 So i have access to bountiful Power and Stone Splitters for a max of +12% increase in damage.

I am with you on this. I am in your very same situation: D/D ele who doesn’t want to drop the ball and is very willing to experiment new solutions.
This suggestion seems fine, even though I hope we’ll get an official answer on Stone Splitters quite soon. I wonder if it could be a good option anyway, if the trait gets fixed to 10%. I mean, +17% increase in damage with a very defensive trait setup would be interesting. Only things which needs to be compensated at that point is the speed buff from Zephir’s Boon, probably doable with Signet of Air, which adds a stun breaker in the process too.

Yes hopefully we get an answer soon. For me and my purpose of Zephyr’s Boon I am not woried about the swiftness simply because I don’t solo roam much and my group can normally apply a good deal of swiftness.

Ancient Ranger.3276:

Yes hopefully we get an answer soon. For me and my purpose of Zephyr’s Boon I am not woried about the swiftness simply because I don’t solo roam much and my group can normally apply a good deal of swiftness.

I see. I do a lot of solo PvE and by this time I really can’t stand running around at unbuffed speed anymore… It just seems unbearably slow!

Alesthes.4287:

I see. I do a lot of solo PvE and by this time I really can’t stand running around at unbuffed speed anymore… It just seems unbearably slow!

I don’t do much PvE at all unless its a dungeon and speed doesn’t affect me too much there I am mostly WvWvW

Yea it sucks that stone splinters isn’t freaking traited correctly. I tried doing WvWvW and i was just stunlocked to death lmao. My god this is ridiculous. I can’t wait until they buff D/D

On less difficult content (non-fractal dungeons):

0:30:20:0:20

AIR: Zephyrs boon : Bolt to the heart : Fresh air

EARTH: Stone splinters : Elemental shielding (this provides group support and survivability)

ARCANE: Renewing Stamina : Elemental Attunement

In most PVE content (minus fractals) you dont need evasive arcana, because you will be swapping back and forth so much to maximize dmg output, and you should be dodging to avoid dmg, and then going right back in to dps.

You will be swapping to air as soon as you can (like in the beginning/middle of breath attacks) to maximize the dmg output of electrical discharge.

Build crit dmg, 17k+ hps. and power

What about a Glass Cannon build? I rather be that with a D/D. I figured, twenty points in fire (Fire VI and III), ten in air for the aura swiftness/fury , rest in Arcana but the traits for Arcana are VI, III, and XI. I got Beserker armor, rings, knight’s earrings, solider’s daggers, major and superior runes of water in my armor, and Emerald Orbs every where else. Tried to output as much damage as I can lmao. Don’t know if i did it right. Proably not:P might move ten out of Arcana and put more into Air. Who needs E.A. when you die in two shots:D

I currently run a tank glass hybrid that has worked well all throughout the nerfs. Works well with staff too.