Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

So I’m relatively new to Elementalist (35 right now), but have over 500 hours on my Mesmer, so know the game well and a fair bit about the class. It’s my understanding that one of the better PvE/WvW builds for Ele’s was a “boon build”. I’ve done a bit of research and can’t seem to find a solid foundation of what exactly makes a “boon build”, well, a boon build. Something to do with boons, obviously, but can anyone link me the standard starting point of one? Please include gear choices in your builds or ideas as well. I’ve heard about a 10/10/10/10/30 build that I liked the sound of, but I think it’s long since nerfed?

Also, while I do like D/D, I also really like my Staff for groups and WvW. Is there a version of the Boon build, or rather, any build, that proves good DPS + minor support/boons and works for both weapons? I don’t mind carrying around weapon sets, but I don’t like the idea of swapping talents every time I want to WvW, Dungeon, etc.

Please note: I have absolutely zero interest in sPvP, so let’s pretend it doesn’t exist when thinking of what I am trying to achieve.

TL;DR – Link/explain to me a “boon build”, or build that works well with D/D and Staff both in PvE + WvW, focusing on DPS and minor support/survival(boons).

Cheers,
Euc

The optimal build for most elementalists is considered that by daphoenix:

daggers:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-D-D-ele-3-13-12/first

staff:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-Staff-Ele-1-18-13/first

This build focuses on 0/10/0/30/30 and is good for both d/d and staff (just change which major traits are selected).

For d/d you pick zephyr’s Boon (Air I) for swiftness , Cleansing Wave for condition removal (Water 5), Soothing Disruption for regen/vigor(Water 3), and either cleansing water (condition removal) or powerful aura (group support). elemental attunement for positive BOONS on switching (Arcane 5), renewing stamina – dodge more (Arcane 6), and evasive arcana – extra healing/damage/conditions (Aracana 11).

For staffs, you more or less just replace renewing stamina with blasting staff (Arcana 8 ) for larger AOE circles, and Vital Striking for extra damage (Water 6) for soothing disruption.

This is a boon build b/c the runes increase boon duration (up to 40% using clerics/water runes). They also use the sigil of battle to stack lots of might to deal damage (another boon thing). These can also share boons using powerful aura.

There are other builds that can be used for staff, but the 0/10/0/30/30 works well and can switch back and forth pretty easily. Good luck and enjoy your elementalist!

The standard boon build revolves around 0/10/0/30/30 and D/D game play. With that build you got access to swiftness, fury, regen, vigor, protection and might stacks which when added up (which only really occurs during brief intervals) is very powerful. This is all accomplished by Zephyr’s Boon (Swiftness and Fury), Fire field Blast finishers (Might stacks), Soothing Disruption (Regen and Vigor), Renewing Vigor (Vigor), and Protection (Elemental Attunement into Earth). It all combos very well as is very popular once you get how to do it down.

The problem with Staff by comparison to D/D is that DD has a lot that plays off itself. For example Firebreath -> Fire Grab for a big damage boost. Ring of Fire -> Earth -> Dodge Roll Evasive Arcana -> Arcane Wave -> Earthquake -> Churning Earth for massive might stacks. Hell just swapping to Water triggers off a heal, regen, condition removal on top of being able to use Cleansing Wave for another heal and condition removal instantly. It all fits very neatly and has a lot game play where each attunement plays well off each other.

Staff by comparison has at most a few combos almost all revolving around Eruption from Earth (such as Eruption -> Lava Font or Eruption -> Geyser or Eruption -> Static Field). Other than this, there’s very few abilities that really play off each other and in general most Attunements in staff are separate from each other. It also doesn’t benefit nearly as much from Evasive Arcana anymore (which is what that old 10/10/10/10/30 build was) since it’s rarely feasible to drop a field down, switch and roll into it since you’re very rarely close up. It’s not terrible, but it’s a far cry from what it once was. This all makes the number of actual boons you have up at one time pretty limited to usually maybe few stacks of Might, Regen and Vigor.

Personally I rock a 0/20/0/30/20 template now. This more than suffices in any role in any circumstance and I can pull off a D/D boon build or a Staff build (support or offense) while still bringing my standard level of group support with the 30 points in Water (clearing off AOE Fear and other conditions with Healing Rain and Cleansing Water is great for group fights in WvW). This way I’m only swapping around Major traits based on what I am doing and not constantly respecing out.

Thanks guys, great responses!

Am I mostly correct when assuming that I won’t use Drake’s Breath and Cone of Cold very often, if ever? Seems like I just have too much “stance dancing” to do with D/D and they aren’t that great. Same goes for the Air #2, can’t remember name. Ever useful?

Still trying to get the hang of a “rotation” of sorts, or rather what combos with what.

Nevermind. Didn’t realize Cone of Cold also healed me.

Let me put it this way then: Are there any skills that you find yourself not using ever, or not often at all, simply because others (attunements) are off CD instead?

Eucalyptus.9784:

Nevermind. Didn’t realize Cone of Cold also healed me.

Let me put it this way then: Are there any skills that you find yourself not using ever, or not often at all, simply because others (attunements) are off CD instead?

The only skills I don’t use often is auto-attack (maybe once every 50 attacks) and Earth 3 (only to catch people running) . I use everything else.

Earth 3 even combos well in Ring of Fire to proc Fire Aura which will also grant you Zephyr’s Boon.

Also Firebreath combos well with Fire Grab. A lot of the time I do that just to set my 45s cool down prior to using Earthquake since that’ll let me know when it’s up again for a Might combo.

Kodiak.3281:

Staff by comparison has at most a few combos almost all revolving around Eruption from Earth (such as Eruption -> Lava Font or Eruption -> Geyser or Eruption -> Static Field). Other than this, there’s very few abilities that really play off each other and in general most Attunements in staff are separate from each other. It also doesn’t benefit nearly as much from Evasive Arcana anymore (which is what that old 10/10/10/10/30 build was) since it’s rarely feasible to drop a field down, switch and roll into it since you’re very rarely close up. It’s not terrible, but it’s a far cry from what it once was. This all makes the number of actual boons you have up at one time pretty limited to usually maybe few stacks of Might, Regen and Vigor.

Have to disagree there, sorry. For one thing, you can also place fields and the swap TO earth, and get some projectile finishers (works especially well with Frozen Ground). Also, you can combine skills like Gust and Static Field to ensure your target gets stunned by the field. You can also cast a Meteor Shower, then switch to Water mid cast for Ice Spike. Assuming you use Arcana, this will increase your shower’s damage substantially.

Also, with boon duration runes, Elemental Surge will ensure permanent swiftness, protection, regeneration and might on any elementalist build.

ThiBash.5634:

Have to disagree there, sorry. For one thing, you can also place fields and the swap TO earth, and get some projectile finishers (works especially well with Frozen Ground). Also, you can combine skills like Gust and Static Field to ensure your target gets stunned by the field. You can also cast a Meteor Shower, then switch to Water mid cast for Ice Spike. Assuming you use Arcana, this will increase your shower’s damage substantially.

Also, with boon duration runes, Elemental Surge will ensure permanent swiftness, protection, regeneration and might on any elementalist build.

Swapping to Earth for projectile finishers provides limited usefulness for yourself to combo. Can it work? Sure. However since everyone’s natural reaction is to roll the hell out of any AOE field they sure as hell aren’t going to just sit there in the combo field to be repeatedly Chilled after the fact projectile or no. This means you pretty much have to drop it on yourself to get the Chill combos reliably which is roughly the same as just dropping it on them.

Gust is atrocious and if you can reliably land it from far out well thumbs up to you because you’re literally like the only one. The projectile is completely unreliable due to how slow it is on anything outside of very short range.

My experience with Meteor Shower and Ice Spike combo has always been I’m now stuck in Water for 10 seconds and usually want to be back in Fire to drop another Lava Font which will do considerable more damage over time than Ice Spike when combined with Fireball (which won’t hit every time but the few it does with Lava Font hits pretty darned hard combo’d).

As for Boons, at max you got around 70% boon duration. You can’t keep a 3s boon up forever like that when the skills got a 9s recast. Even at 100% you’re still looking at a 33% downtime on top of the fact that in order to keep it up you’re forced to swap every 10 seconds even if it’s not advantageous to do so in order to maintain that boon up time. With Staff, you don’t always want to swap because a particular scenario may be more beneficial to stay in your attunement. Can you get some boons? Sure. But it’s no where near the same efficacy as D/D boon setup.

Generally speaking, here is how most combats with D/D go for me using the 0/10/0/30/30 build.

I try to start in air so I can air4 into combat (assuming it’s safe). If there’s multiple targets, I’ll air5 before air2 (yes, it’s good). I’ll then start stacking might- switch to fire, fire3>fire2>fire4, switch to earth, earth4>dodgeroll into the fire4 ring for six stacks. Then I’ll earth2>switch to air, air2>air1.

At this point, your fire4 should be off cd, so you can start the fire>earth chain again to continue stacking might, replace earth4 with earth 5 as needed.

I generally just switch to water as needed (this will be fairly often, and I try to time it so that it doesn’t disrupt the fire>earth sequence). Also pay attention to your water and air auras to keep up swiftness and vigor.

It says this in daphoenix’s guide, but the runes you want are not clerics, but monks. Use 2x superior monk (from AC), 2x major water, and 2x sup water for max boon duration.

Kodiak.3281:

Swapping to Earth for projectile finishers provides limited usefulness for yourself to combo. Can it work? Sure. However since everyone’s natural reaction is to roll the hell out of any AOE field they sure as hell aren’t going to just sit there in the combo field to be repeatedly Chilled after the fact projectile or no. This means you pretty much have to drop it on yourself to get the Chill combos reliably which is roughly the same as just dropping it on them.

Granted, I was speaking from a dungeon perspective here. However, since any attunement you swap from will have a field, you might was well make use of the combo finishers you have. After that, you can eruption and swap again for the second combo.

Also, I forgot to mention it, but Evasive Arcana allows you to combo from another attunement into earth as well.

My experience with Meteor Shower and Ice Spike combo has always been I’m now stuck in Water for 10 seconds and usually want to be back in Fire to drop another Lava Font

My playstyle usually involves going through the attunements repeatedly because although Lava Font is good, swapping back and forth to (or even staying in) Fire isn’t the optimal way to contribute to a fight. Both Ice Spike, Blinding Surge and Eruption deal considerable damage, and while they individually lack the dps of Lava Font, casting the in sequence gives a higher damage output that just spamming Lava font every 4 seconds. Especially if you add in the fury.

As for Boons, at max you got around 70% boon duration. You can’t keep a 3s boon up forever like that when the skills got a 9s recast.

On its own, no, it doesn’t. Combined with a GoEH every 20 seconds, you can easily get permanent protection and/or regeneration.

With Staff, you don’t always want to swap because a particular scenario may be more beneficial to stay in your attunement. Can you get some boons? Sure. But it’s no where near the same efficacy as D/D boon setup.

While swapping should always be done intelligently, for the vast majority of the time, switching quickly will be preferable to not switching quickly. Why sit in fire waiting for Lava Font to recharge when you can pour on some CC in the meantime? The other attunement’s skill 2’s will more than make up for that 1 missed Lava Font.

ThiBash.5634:

While swapping should always be done intelligently, for the vast majority of the time, switching quickly will be preferable to not switching quickly. Why sit in fire waiting for Lava Font to recharge when you can pour on some CC in the meantime? The other attunement’s skill 2’s will more than make up for that 1 missed Lava Font.

While the rest of your post is pretty debatable still (I mean really, blowing your heal just to maintain protection?) this seems pretty contradictory. Intelligent swapping should always take priority over all cases and circumstances. Rifling through your attunements looking for cool downs to spam is actually atrocious on Staff and completely sub-par game play that really shines only in S/D or D/D game play due to all the cross attunement combos.

You also discount the damage done by Fire 1 which vastly outpaces Water 1 or Earth 1 and when combined with that extra Lava Font blows away Water 2 and Earth 2 respectively. In general if you want to really maximize DPS you’ll stay in Fire unless you need to swap for another reason (such as needing the CC of Water or Earth or the condition cleansing of Earth). It’s at that point you then roll through the attunements (because you’re already out of fire). For example…

You’re DPSing as Fire, then you need to drop a Healing Rain to clear off conditions. You setup a Fire skill (Meteor is best cause it’s animation can be clipped) then swap to Water and do Ice Spike. Follow up with Healing Rain. If the encounter is really tough you can drop the Chill field as well and then swap to Earth (and if Evasive Arcana blow it up for Area Frost). Finally you lead in with a Eruption and now Fire will be back so you swap back to Fire and throw down Lava Font for Area Might and now stay back in Fire to continue DPSing till you need to switch again.

If you don’t believe me that sticking with Fire is higher DPS, simply pick a suit of gear (doesn’t matter really what kind, go naked if you want) and DPS a target dummy for 30 seconds. Go through the combat log and add it all up. Now repeat with the second play style (same gear) and compare. I did this previously and Fire still came out ahead.

Kodiak.3281:

While the rest of your post is pretty debatable still (I mean really, blowing your heal just to maintain protection?) this seems pretty contradictory. Intelligent swapping should always take priority over all cases and circumstances.

Yes, you’re right. I believe we’re pretty much in agreement, except the way we go about it is differently. You prefer to remain in fire for optimal dps, and then switch whenever the need arises. I prefer to switch preemptively, and get some cc conditions active straight away. There’s of course some plan behind it, but it’s not always in response to something my opponents do. It’s probably true that against dummies, fire’s dps is in fact optional. However, the damage from Ice Spike, Eruption and Blinding Surge (as well as the fact they have larger AoEs) is pretty solid too. And in zegr vs zerg, I much prefer the added snares, blinds and stuns over the little extra damage that fire may have.

That’s not saying that your way doesn’t work. It actually sounds like a solid strategy.

Because you’re focusing on boon generation, also note that there are a few fields you can cast before quickly switching to Earth attunement and using Eruption. These include Burning Retreat, Ice Field, and Healing Rain. If you have Evasive Arcana, you can then dodge into the field for a second blast finisher, doubling the boons/healing you provide (or tripling if you also use Arcane Wave). The cooldown on Eruption is pretty short, so you could lay some CC or spam Stoning (weakness and projectile finishers are quite nice) on your target, then use Eruption > Field-of-your-choice to get more blast combos.

Honestly, I think Staff is more dependent on swapping attunements, than, say D/D. Fire has no CC to keep targets in your fields, so I find myself needing to swap around for immobilizes, cripples, stuns, chills, etc. With D/D, you just need your targets to stay in your sights long enough to finish casting skills.

That’s kind of what I meant Kaleden. You however explain it better than I did. With the playstyle you describe, generating boons is a byproduct of the the playstyle. Attunement swapping doesn’t occur for the boons themselves though.