Guild Wars 2

Been playing a D/D ele since beta which I adore. Currently sitting at 70 and have found little use for using anything but Fire/Earth. Granted I am currently specced as a glass cannon and power/precision.

I try and stay informed as possible in regards to the class I play and since the beginning all I have heard is that good ele’s constantly switch attunements and if you aren’t you are doing it wrong. What I have found is that at least with D/D, all I need is Fire/Earth. In most cases, I can burn most groups of mobs down without ever needing to use anything else but fire. In fights that require more, I switch to earth, burn cooldowns, set down my bleeds then back to fire. As for air, aside from Ride the Lightning for a gap closer, air I only use for travel. Water, I cannot find a compelling reason to use at all since at least in my build the heals do next to nothing, dps is terrible and I get more survivability with Earth. From my experience, using water or air in my rotation just equates to a longer fight. While this mainly applies to PvE, I am curious opinions on both PvE and PvP.

Are there others that feel this same way or am I missing something?

Water is good for minor heals and freezing (slows movement and skill recharge).

As far as doing damage, yes d/d damage is in fire and earth. Air is mostly mobility (since the primary attack loves to miss). And I mostly use water for condition clearance (as well as the aura since I’m running an aura build at the moment). The vuln stacking can be okay for some boss fights in PvE.

ride the lightning, shock aura, updraft are all good.

Vapor blade (range is the longest of the auto attacks, so it gets more use than youd think) the 2 heals, frost aura and the freeze are all prettykittengood

Of course, I run a build thats focused around stance dance revolution, so switching to water usually means popping off every skill then switching out, likewise for air. But that’s not to say they’re not useful.

This is in both normal PvE and Dungeons.

Thanks for the feedback all.

Hehe I was bracing myself for the response “fail- you aren’t using all 4 for every single fight?”. To me it is shaping out to be that you need to both spec traits and build your gear properly to get the most out of water. I have never been saved by switching to water since my heals do so little they are hardly noticeable. Plus the fact that using air or water in a fight puts my actual useful attunements on CD, its just not worth it imho.

Don’t forget that alot of your healing comes from the regeneration aspect of going into water in the first place. While the heals themselves may not be much, one of them does remove a condition and the other heals players around you while doing damage. Stacking all that healing from regen, ice breath ticks, and the direct heal/condition removal of cleansing wave adds up to be a good swap to make.

For sPvP i’ve had some success with this build

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fEAQJAoYhMmebyR4gjEAkCnEUIACjHhIyIlCzA;TsAg0Cno2xsjYH7Oudk7Mq4IyMDA

Kinda tanky, but still retains the great damage potential of D/D. I was tearing Thieves and warriors apart 1v1, but there is always the chance they were scrubs.

I really think all D/D builds should have Zephyr’s Boon. The Fury & Swiftness you get from the Aura usage is amazing, both for mobility and general damage.

i can’t understand why you’d purposely avoid healing slowing, and condition-breaking, but okay. though i can agree with you that air is largely useless.

wertyuio.8630:

i can’t understand why you’d purposely avoid healing slowing, and condition-breaking, but okay. though i can agree with you that air is largely useless.

Ride With Lightning > Magnetic Grasp
It doesn’t have to hit with a projectile. Not to mention the fact that you never know when you might need one while the other is on CD.

Shocking Aura is also incredibly useful for self-defense, as well as for auramancers. I think Updraft is terrible, however, and Lightning Touch is underwhelming.

norael.2104:

Water is good for minor heals and freezing (slows movement and skill recharge).

And condition removal.

If you are in pve its fine to only use 1 or 2 attunements; that’s what I do.

I think there’s more than one way to skin the ele cat, and that that’s by design, and that that’s a good thing.

Having viable choices is good game design.

DrakeWurrum.6049:

Ride With Lightning > Magnetic Grasp
It doesn’t have to hit with a projectile. Not to mention the fact that you never know when you might need one while the other is on CD.

Shocking Aura is also incredibly useful for self-defense, as well as for auramancers. I think Updraft is terrible, however, and Lightning Touch is underwhelming.

well, not terrible in that way. air is amazing in terms of control in SPvP and mobility, but when it comes to PVE, it’s not that great.
for PvP… you definitely need every element.
ride the lightning+ updraft + magnetic grasp + earthquake+ring of earth+ring of fire is pretty awesome. it keeps your opponent down for 4-5+ seconds… rather awesome imo… while the combo’ll take off at least 20-30% of your opponent’s HP. it’s the perfect initiation in a 1v1. if they run, burning speed + sigil of fire + fire grab can sometimes crit for enough damage to finish off your opponent. if they survive and fight back, water attune abilities + heal will chill your opponent, deal another 1.5k damage, and heal you for around 70% of your HP. by then, your earth or air attunement CD will probably be done then, so you have 2 range closers back at your disposal…. keeping up that lethal stream of DPS is more difficult than “roll thief, bring a dagger, and 2+2+2+2+2+2+FINISH THEMMM,” but it’s still great.

for PVE, i just run in a giant mob of people, pop my arcane shield, and churning earth ALL the things. then i switch to fire, summon hounds of balthazar (or earth elemental or mistfire wolf or something tanky) if there are more than 5 mobs, and just dance around until everything’s dead.