Guild Wars 2

The old adage, “if you can’t beat em, join em,” recently popped into my head as I was thinking of a way to make a viable Ele build the other day.

With the current “Condition Meta” as it is, I thought to myself, how can I be relevant in the current state of this game with a currently irrelevant and/or unwanted class?

I then came up with this build that I present to you now.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEEQJAoYncMcMowhwhtNsNwzhyB8RcJOAQK4y4BIfQS5BNzYDA-z0CB4iAYLIoOgk0g00AUBI5dFRjtsuIasKbYadER1eFER1BAOAIocpAWUaE-w

Coming back to the game about a month ago, from a long hiatus, I found the old D/D bunker build that I loved so much had been torn down from it’s Godlike status and cast aside like an unwanted novelty item.

I am attempting to create something with the ability to sustain damage and CC enemies while mitigating burst, and at the same time being able to cleanse conditions at a fairly reasonable rate and/or heal through them with high healing power. Although I forwent the tradition 30 in water, which many would say is the bread and butter of condition removal and healing, I feel it is still a strong build with the traits and weapon/armor stats I have chosen

30 in Earth
Earth II Signet Mastery: due to the synergy between it, signet of restoration, and signet of water. Constant “passive”, if you will, heals with a burst heal and the ability to chill opponents once ever few seconds with the water signet and water dagger 3 &4 is a great soft cc.
Earth VII Strength of Stone: that is an extra 210 pts (almost 300 with wvw bonus and food) to condition damage. Good for sustain.
Earth XII Written in Stone: once again the synergy between it and the two signets I use in this build is amazing. I like it better than DS simply because this build has such low HP that it is hard to stay above 90% and I can out heal/remove almost any conditions placed on me in a matter of seconds with the passive from the water signet and the two cleansing waves in water.

10 in Water
Water II Cantrip Mastery: Armor of Earth and Lightning Flash are the two cantrips I use, and I use them a lot. You all know what they do and how to use them properly.

30 in Arcane
Arcane II Windborne Dagger: I like to move fast. Although at times I may switch it for III Final Shielding or V Blasting Staff. It’s situational.
Arcane VIII Elemental Attunment: we all know this one
Arcane XI Evasive Arcana: again, we all know this, but, with the condition power and healing power this, imho is a must for the heals, condition removal, bleeds, burns, and maybe, if I’m feeling particularly plucky, a blind here and there. Probably not hahaha.

Travelers armor with perplexity runes is what I run with this. While the Ele doesn’t have it’s own ability to confuse, we do have some interrupts and you know we all use them as soon as they are off CD. So the chance to add confusion to the mix of other conditions that we can apply is an added boon. I think.

So, the goal is to keep your opponent/s chilled, crippled, bleeding, burning, and dance around them all the while clearing their conditions and dropping a massive amount of healing for yourself and teammates.

Please let me know what you think. This is my first condition build with the Ele so I’m treading new ground. Please don’t flame me too much if I got all of this wrong. =)

Any other condi build will smoke u. Your passives just won’t be enough to handle overload especially with no vigor after 2 dodge baits your done vs a engi or necro or warrior or p/d thief and pu Mesmer.

Those are top condi builds going right now in WvW they are all are weak against condi too except the thief, necro, warrior depends on if he has a bow.

You can help yourself with diamond skin to get the opener or move to 20 water. If you want to stay 30 earth I would go diamond skin with rock solid and ether renewal to help you stay topped off.

Should be strong against power build with that much toughest you should be hard to bring down I would just make sure you can handle other condi builds.

Hummmmm I don’t think thats a very tanky build, you seem to be very vulnerable to condi bombs and c/c (which are everywhere in wvw). I also dislike the idea of signets on condi ele, simple because their effects are very limited, so I’d suggest you try something different like 0/0/20/20/30.

Getting earth III (for the extra stun break and stability) and VII, water II and X (sorta replaces signet of water + adds group support), with more points in water you’d also get healing ripple which is a nice aoe heal. Take signet of water out of your utilities and put in cleansing flames to get cleanse + aoe burning + reduced cool down via water II. Having extra traited healing/vit allows you to be more flexible with your healing skill, you could either keep the signet, which I personally think works better for power builds, or change it to something else like ether renewal.

If you’re human I recommend using reaper of grenth as your elite, it’s the best elite for condi ele atm. Instead of running 2x duration sigils, you could use one or two sigils that actually add more condis to your build, I’m using sigil of doom and sigil of torment (which DO work together very well thankyouverymuch) for pretty long stacks of poison and torment (aoe), those serve as cover condis to my burning, bleeds and confusion.

Hope you have fun with condi ele!

I was thinking that the sheer amount of healing I bring with this build would offset any remaining conditions though. Constant uptime from the signet, coupled with the burst heal every 20 seconds if needed. Also heals/cleanses from the water skills. I’m thinking that should be more than enough to make up for not having ER and DS.

With food and wvw buffs this build only sits at around 14.5k HP, so it’s more difficult to stay above that 90% threshold than if I were running with more vitality.

and yes, it’s pretty hard for a burst player to take this build down. I 1v2’d a thief and mesmer yesterday with it in the tunnel from red keep into Panglos and downed the thief and only had to run away when more reinforcements showed up.

*not arguing with you, just counter pointing. I really appreciate the input =)

I’ll look into the sigil change. I was thinking of going that rout but wasn’t sure if they would work well together.

I like the cleansing flame idea as well.

I still feel like Written in Stone/Signet of Restoration is a better bet than Diamond Skin/Ether Renewal. I don’t know why I am so hesitant to try it out. I just have this nagging feeling in the back of my head. Maybe it’s just hubris but I can’t get over that hump.

I see your point with the healing, but I don’t think it’s enough to deal with condis, for example, if you do your healing/cleasing burst and then happen to be hit by poison or confusion (or both :p) you’ll be in a very difficult situation for at least 10 secs. I also have the impression that in a condi build you tend spam skills like lightning whip in a much lower rate than a power ele does and even if you do It’ll be in a way thats less effective… so I don’t really like it.

Okay, so a few modifications here.

Replaced Earth II with Earth III.
Replaced Signet of Water with Cleansing Fire
Replaced the Sigil of Malice and Sigil of Bursting with Sigil of either Doom or Torment and possibly a Sigil of Energy? That could help not having 20 pts in water for Soothing Disruption and would still give me an extra condition to cover my bleeds and burns.

Also, I am human and I have thought about Reaper of Grenth, but I have a question about it. I love FGS purely for the mobility. FGS and LF can get me away from almost anything. Especially with Windborne Dagger and if RTL is off CD. Is it worth sacrificing the escape route/mobility of FGS to go with Reaper of Grenth? I will gladly give it a try if it is. I just don’t like not having an exit strategy.

Here’s the updated build I have. I’ll give the Diamond Skin and Ether Renewal combo a shot too. I think I just have to see it in action. Having a hard time visualizing it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEEQJAoYncMcMowhwhNOsNwzhyB8RcJOAQK4y4RIfQS5BNzYDA-z0CB4iAYLIoOgUHA0HgUBI5dFRjtsuIasKbYadER1eFER1BAOAIocpAWUaE-w

Well for an exit strategy the fgs is certainly better, but reaper is nice skill to have when zerg diving, the constant chills might even help you escape sometimes, but it wont be as effective as fgs for sure. Diamond skin is very situational, I don’t really run it anymore, but when I did it used to shine on duels and on guild groups with organized healing, not very good for roaming imo…

Also, I know for sure that sigil of torment + sigil of doom work together, but I don’t think energy + doom would (I believe there are plans for making on swap sigils trigger together in the future though). You could run energy + torment and see if it works…

After looking at it further Torment is an on critical proc. I have almost zero crit chance on this build so I don’t think that it will work. Maybe if I ran something like Sigil of Smouldering and Sigil of Doom, or maybe even Smouldering and Energy. Or, I could do Smouldering and Geomancy. There are just too many different options. =…..(

It works because of your arcana 5 trait, that gives you fury every time you change attunement, that’s enough to trigger…..at least I find my targets getting torment pretty often.

The more I look at it the more I am tempted to take the last 10 out of earth and put it into water making a 0/0/20/20/30 build. Taking the soothing disruption trait for regen and vigor and then taking sigil of Doom and Sigil of Bursting. I’ll lose the option for DS and WiS but I’ll gain a group heal and regen and vigor because I use the cantrips a lot. Seeing as I won’t be able to use the signet’s active and keep it’s passive going I’ll change the heal to ER.

This will still leave me very tanky in the way of burst mitigation while giving me access to a crazy amount of condition removal and added vitality and healing power.

Still keeping FGS. xP but will use RoG situationaly.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEEQJAoYnMMcMowhwhNOsNwzhyB8RcJOAQU4yJDFh8R5BNzYDA-z0CB4iAYLIoOgk0gUHAUBI5dFRjtsuIasKbYadER1eFER1BAOAIocpAWUaE-w

oZii and Delores, thank you a ton for your input and helping me hash this build out. Maybe someday we will meet in the Mists. Although I don’t think DH will ever reach the level of Maguuma. C’est la vie.

Try 0 0 10 30 30 too

So you have a lot of boon duration and rely on dodges as well while having zero vigor uptime and crit chance.

Also no condition duration whatsoever. Your build lacks synergy big time :l

Yesterday I was theorycrafting a build at the mists. 20/0/10/10/30 with elemental surge and auto cleansing fire.

Glyph of elemental power, arcane power and arcane wave. Arcane abilities apply vulnerability in water and gain arcane power at 75% hp in arcana. Even that had more synergy yet I found it to be severely lacking. That was d/d too.

Condition builds on eles are just gimmicky and will die to any other actual condition build.

your first build would have been owned hard by quite a lot of different builds. Your newest build isn’t that much better in my opinion. You lack health. Even with 2,000Toughness you will still be hit HARD by BS thieves and can do anywhere from 6-10k+ in a single hit.

While healing Power is nice, i would swap some of the Settlers gear out for Dire which will also increase your Condition damage at the cost of Toughness as well. You could then make up for that with a weapon that has Corruption on it and swap it out once you hit 25 stacks.

I run with Apothacary weapons myself, they add 90Healing which is nice, As i run with all but the Chest and Legs as Toughness/Vit/Condition Damage and the Chest and Legs as Toughness/Condition Damage/healing Power.

Traits wise, i would swap Earth’s Embrace(III) for Elemental Shielding(V) The utilities i run with are Glyph of Elemental Power, Armor of Earth and Arcane Shield. Personally i wouldnt run a triple cantrip condition build. Now with that in mind – i would swap Cantrip Mastery(III) for Soothing Wave(V) and Soothing Disruption(IX) for Aquamancer’s Alacrity(VIII) the Arcane traits are the same as the ones i run.

This is my exact build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEEQJAoYncMcMonhwhFOsNwohyB8rdJOAQUAzLDFh8R5BNzYDA-zkCB4MIIOBk8OhkHA5RRMTaIrl1FRjVJTIVPLy6GYkCYRpRA-w

I swap SoR out for Ether Renewal against condition builds. Inside WvW i run with the Vitality Buff so normally have about 19-20k health at this time of the week thanks to the other buffs that you get.

I also run with a 3rd dagger in place of the one with Torment on that grants Corruption stacks so when that is full i run with about 1,800Condition Damage

It works rather well, I mean its not as easy as the spam happy condition builds of other classes but i like it, works really good in group fights which i mostly do with my guild either during raids or small parties. Solo wise, it really depends. You can win, but you can also lose which i guess is true for every ele build it isn’t going to be a 100% win ratio.

Even with Ether Renewal and such, condition builds are going to be a big threat. I find Mesmer condition builds to be the easiest to fight against because they have rather poor condition cleansing. The rest can be VERY tough and its about knowing when you stand no chance and can make your escape.

The problem with the Fire trait line is the same for all ele builds – it offers nothing that outsets the BIG loss you take from losing traits and points elsewhere. It has some interesting traits that is for sure, the problem is they are not currently worth losing other traits for.

Though Razor, curious as to where you got your other 10 trait points from

20/0/20/10/30 = 80 trait points…. I really wish. So I’m assuming you meant 20/0/10/10/30.
Anyway, elemental surge is a bad trait you’ll kill your utilities for no real gain when it comes to condition applying, same to the water trait that grants vulnerability on arcane skills (why would you trait vulnerability when you have it on water 1!). Traiting 20 on fire isn’t really effective on condi ele, our fights last longer due to the nature of our damage, we need reliable sources of condi cleanse, stun break and healing, sadly the only way to get that is going 20/30. You could try 20/0/0/20/30 but I really think those 20 pts are best invested on earth.

By the way, 20/30 and 30/30 builds do have a lot of synergy, you get vigor from traited cantrips or renewing stamina (which triggers due to the arcana minor) and enough crit chance to trigger sigils all the time. There’s nothing gimmick about condi eles (or any other build, really) and we are actually strong against other condi classes, the only one who’s gonna give you trouble are engis due to their high healing/cleansing/cc.

Forgot to mention that you get enough condi duration from food/crystals!

Personally, i think Elemental surge is a decent trait that could be amazing with a little work. The Blind it offers in Air attunement is AMAZING. Works so well with Arcane Shield and Arcane Power, The Burning is great as well. The Immbo from Earth is simply poor in my opinion.

What they should have done is make it so that each Arcane skill has something different when it comes to conditions. They could also add new conditions just for that like Torment in Earth attunement and Confusion in Air when using a certain Arcane Skill or something.

Yeah those 20 points are simply better invested elsewhere, we can’t and won’t melt people in seconds when it comes to condition builds which is the way ALL condition builds SHOULD work rather than bursting them with conditions and then spamming conditions until they die. We lack the defense that would make taking less points in Earth/Water a possibility in the classes current design.

As for duration, The 40% food is enough anyway. Burning is our key condition and we have PLENTY of access to it that we dont really need to try and force as much as we could. I tried a 10/0/10/20/30 build and while i was getting 85% duration for Burning and 50% duration for other conditions the loss of condition damage, which was about 350 in total was much worse than what i gained going 10 into Fire that i changed back – it just simply isn’t worth it currently

I’ve been theory crafting condi ele builds for a bit now, and wonder – do the +% damage traits help? For example, Stone Splinters – would your condi ticks go up by 10% while you were within 600 range? I suppose I could stop paper-crafting and test it in the mists, but perhaps the current condi-eles already know the answer?

No, they all only affect direct damage as far as i know.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Personally, i think Elemental surge is a decent trait that could be amazing with a little work. The Blind it offers in Air attunement is AMAZING. Works so well with Arcane Shield and Arcane Power, The Burning is great as well. The Immbo from Earth is simply poor in my opinion.

What they should have done is make it so that each Arcane skill has something different when it comes to conditions. They could also add new conditions just for that like Torment in Earth attunement and Confusion in Air when using a certain Arcane Skill or something.

What I dislike about it is exactly the fact that it’s married to arcane skills, whom you have to either slot or trait, killing your sustain. They should “merge” it with the 25pts minor trait (arcane precision) to create a grandmaster trait that grants you conditions on crits, but with a reasonable trigger chance (25% at least), more duration and no icd.

ya i meant 20/0/10/10/30

elemental surge is wonky but im sure that it could be effective with some practice. sadly i dont feel like practicing.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

No, they all only affect direct damage as far as i know.

kitten … well there goes my build idea entirely, lol. I probably should have tested things prior to buying gear… oops. I could have sworn the necro +% dmg affected their conditions, but maybe I am just remembering / assuming incorrectly.

Edit: Double checked in the mists – +% damage only applies to direct damage. Time to make a hybrid build I suppose… and I was so certain those traits worked, lol

Gave up on conditions and went back to my old build. =( Conditions just weren’t for me. Thanks for all the replies though.

Np if you ever need advice on condi playstyle let me know

Thank you very much =)

Condi build is fun to play but I think true strenght lies in some kind of mix with might stacking – sigil of battle, a bit boon duration maybe…
Let’s see what the sigil/rune patch brings to the game, for now perplexity seems to be the best if not only good option, burns and bleeds can be longer with other runes but it doesn’t help much if enemy cleans them fast.
I use d/f in mine, stats similiar to other posted above, mix of dire/apothecary/giver’s. Fun to play for sure, much difference than the old d/d or staff setups. Traits 0 0 30 20 20, no diamond skin though cause certain people cry about it (like if perplexity crying wasn’t enough arleady with my 2 (!) interrupts on quite long cd). Other trait setups seems nice too like 0 0 20 20 30 etc.. Tried 20 in fire for extra long burns but the long condis only work on ppl who have 0 cleanse or such, but at the same time you have to sacrifice some of your own points from other lines.

Atoss.1056:

Condi build is fun to play but I think true strenght lies in some kind of mix with might stacking – sigil of battle, a bit boon duration maybe…
Let’s see what the sigil/rune patch brings to the game, for now perplexity seems to be the best if not only good option, burns and bleeds can be longer with other runes but it doesn’t help much if enemy cleans them fast.
I use d/f in mine, stats similiar to other posted above, mix of dire/apothecary/giver’s. Fun to play for sure, much difference than the old d/d or staff setups. Traits 0 0 30 20 20, no diamond skin though cause certain people cry about it (like if perplexity crying wasn’t enough arleady with my 2 (!) interrupts on quite long cd). Other trait setups seems nice too like 0 0 20 20 30 etc.. Tried 20 in fire for extra long burns but the long condis only work on ppl who have 0 cleanse or such, but at the same time you have to sacrifice some of your own points from other lines.

The problem with that is, as we are limited to just 2 sigils it gives us less options. Maybe Torment and Battle could be a decent combo. It would need to be another condition, one we dont have access to normally.

That would be Doom(Poison) or Torment(Torment) I currently run with them both. I have been thinking of giving Battle a try when i am not randomly running around doing my own thing. Doom is VERY useful against Healing signet warriors and even other elementalists, solid against Engineer as well.

I personally go 0/0/20/20/30. It gives nice condition damage, Toughness, Vitality and healing power and the little less cool down on attunement swapping as well as boon duration is nice. Evasive Arcana is VERY useful. I wish the dodge in Air was something useful like maybe AoE Confusion or something with a few stacks, that would be very nice.

Yeah i tried 10 in Fire grabbing the Burning duration trait, will the added duration was nice the damage loss wasn’t worth it and we have plenty of Burning anyway.

In my build, I have a little low health about 16k when in Obsidian Sanctum but when stacked in WvW i am normally at about 19-20k which is pretty much the sweet spot.

Even though the build is okay, not much wiggle room in it, until ArenaNet get around to helping us with sustain and conditions the sort of builds we can use will be rather limited.

I would be interested in swapping some of the Dire gear i have out for some Apothecary for the extra healing power but currently that just isnt possible thanks to how quickly and easily we can be burst down. Now if we were moved up to the second tier for health, even if it meant at the cost of direct burst damage – i would be happy with that, i think for us to get any real buff in sustainability our direct burst builds will have to be nerfed a bit first anyway