Guild Wars 2

Let me start off by saying I’m no ele expert. That’s why I wanted you real eles to look over this build I am putting together and tell me how well you think it will work out in PvE/WvW. In Dungeons I want to swap out a staff of scepter to be a little bit safer but I don’t think it will effect the build very much.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEIQJAoYhMmebsR3QlEAUBjHg0BJSGY4QpQOA-j0xAkFASEYyvIasthioxqWwUlER1ejioVHDQeA-w

This is my second run through as an ele and I feel like I didn’t really master it the first time I went though. I decided to reroll as a charr this time for the tier 3 armor and stay away from cantrips. The celestial gear is because I have the mats for it preped in my inventory but I am willing to take other suggestions.

Tear away >.<

Alright, first off you got 2 sigils that share the same cooldown, other than written in stone your build gets nothing from being a signet build, an almost complete lack of condition removal other than cleansing wave on dagger. Your power is on the low end but this was caused by celestial which isn’t really worth it. Your vitality is also dangerously low, those 5 points in water seem very random would better end up to get fresh air considering you haven’t got it lingering either.

I wouldn’t go without condition removal with only 12k vitality. The only way I would consider that is if I was pushing 20k vitality. Also things to consider are signets themselves are terrible. The passives are average, but the actives are just bad. We have the worst signets in the game.

You’re better off swapping up your traits, changing your offhand dagger to a focus, changing fire signet for water, getting rid of tornado and don’t go full zerk trinkets.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEIQJAodhMmabvR3wjDIjHdwGQCiHWwDwhlCzAA-jkyAo+ASfApCAJ/iox2HKiGr2GTXmUtbgUxwujkKDQxYA-w

That’s exactly what I run in pve/wvw. No complaints yet and I have little to no problems with the current cc/condi meta. For spvp is basically the same but diff rune choices and trinket choice.

The cons to signet builds is like frownyclown said, we have the worst signets. The passives are OK and we can make them work but not nearly a swell as wars or thieves or even necros. Only having 1 stun break from air signet. Not much condi cure aside from passive water signet and earth focus 4.

Now the pros. You have insane toughness of over 1800.(the build I linked) you lack consistent condi cure but make up for it with the defensive properties of focus and total toughness. Using earth like you would use water with ea you can do pretty well. But you simply cannot take more than 1 condi spammer at a time. Crit dmg is awesome and you will almost instantly down glass builds if not, you only need to hit them maybe 2 more times. Ranged fights become easier with earth signets root, root dagger earth 3, cripple water signet cripple focus 4 and knockdowns on focus water 5 and focus air 5.

Going with arcana V and fresh air lets you keep nearly constant swiftness/fury. So you’ll almost always crit. The focus sigil helps you regain that endurance almost as well as arcana VI.

FrownyClown.8402:

Also things to consider are signets themselves are terrible.

Totally agree with this. Using signets over other utilities is just bad, especially in WvW. Of course, almost anything goes in PvE…

Retsuko.2035:

FrownyClown.8402:

Also things to consider are signets themselves are terrible.

Totally agree with this. Using signets over other utilities is just bad, especially in WvW. Of course, almost anything goes in PvE…

I think it’s to Each their own, but for wvw I’d only recommend using d/f with signets. S/f works too but I think you have more sustainability in dagger /f.

Running signets over cantrips and off hand dagger you only lose a little mobility but make up for it in survivability without having to go into a bunker build so you can also keep nice sustained and burst dps.

Treborlavok.3504:

Retsuko.2035:

FrownyClown.8402:

Also things to consider are signets themselves are terrible.

Totally agree with this. Using signets over other utilities is just bad, especially in WvW. Of course, almost anything goes in PvE…

I think it’s to Each their own, but for wvw I’d only recommend using d/f with signets.

And what about staff in WvW?

Treborlavok.3504:

Retsuko.2035:

FrownyClown.8402:

Also things to consider are signets themselves are terrible.

Totally agree with this. Using signets over other utilities is just bad, especially in WvW. Of course, almost anything goes in PvE…

I think it’s to Each their own, but for wvw I’d only recommend using d/f with signets. S/f works too but I think you have more sustainability in dagger /f.

Running signets over cantrips and off hand dagger you only lose a little mobility but make up for it in survivability without having to go into a bunker build so you can also keep nice sustained and burst dps.

You don’t necessarily make it up in survivability when going signets. You are VERY prone to stunlocks/chain stuns, which will then kill you. With cantrips you have atleast a slight chance to move away.

I used to run Signet of restoration in wvw, and I loved it. But after several encounters with dhuumfire necros and immobilize/bleed rangers I instantly switched over to ether renewal. Signet of water is great, but falls short versus ether renewal when it comes to condition spam.

Imo, the best signet(and the only useful one) is signet of Air. It is a stunbreaker on 30 sec cooldown which gives a passive speedboost. On the other hand, the passive side of it is somewhat redundant if you have perma-swiftness.

Spectre.6452:

You don’t necessarily make it up in survivability when going signets. You are VERY prone to stunlocks/chain stuns, which will then kill you. With cantrips you have atleast a slight chance to move away.

S/F would help with that. You can use Air #3 to blind your attacker and weaken the spike, or Earth #5 as a stopgap stunbreaker.

ThiBash.5634:

Spectre.6452:

You don’t necessarily make it up in survivability when going signets. You are VERY prone to stunlocks/chain stuns, which will then kill you. With cantrips you have atleast a slight chance to move away.

S/F would help with that. You can use Air #3 to blind your attacker and weaken the spike, or Earth #5 as a stopgap stunbreaker.

If you are using focus, you could pop obby flesh to negate the stunlock entirely. My point was, signets would not help much in this case.

This is all really helpful. I’m think I am going to drop the signet of fire for water since it will help with condis and the active is a chill. I’m also going to look the focus like mentioned above because it appears to have more survivability. Other than that I guess it will be trial and error as a level up and reach my gear.

In WvW I don’t roam alone or in the zerg either. I’m usually part of a small 3-5 man hit squad to take camp, yaks, runes, and wandering enemies. There is also almost always a guardian there so I am not too worried about stun locks. I’m really just looking to be a quick survivable striker to clean up. I don’t know if that changes anything.

And thanks for not telling me I MUST go 30 in water and arcane. I hear that a lot on forums =P

Spectre.6452:

If you are using focus, you could pop obby flesh to negate the stunlock entirely. My point was, signets would not help much in this case.

Agreed. My point was that a signet build doesn’t work equally well with each weaponset. Focus seems optimal because it compensates for the lack of stunbreakers while also providing more ranged single target CC, something which signets seem to excel at.

Storm of the Ages.9076:

I’m really just looking to be a quick survivable striker to clean up. I don’t know if that changes anything.

There may be better choices for that than signets though. There’s a Scepter/Dagger spike build with Fresh Air that does something like that really well. I’m not sure what the build is, but I’m sure one of the other eles here does.

I’ve seen the build and im not really a huge fan. The scepter doesn’t feel right to me at the moment. That’s why I have been staying away from it all together.

Then maybe you could give Arcane skills a try. They’re much faster than signets in terms of activation, and you can burst quite well with them.

EDIT: The only downside being though, that you’d likely have to spec into Arcana for Arcana XII…

ThiBash.5634:

Spectre.6452:

If you are using focus, you could pop obby flesh to negate the stunlock entirely. My point was, signets would not help much in this case.

Agreed. My point was that a signet build doesn’t work equally well with each weaponset. Focus seems optimal because it compensates for the lack of stunbreakers while also providing more ranged single target CC, something which signets seem to excel at.

Storm of the Ages.9076:

I’m really just looking to be a quick survivable striker to clean up. I don’t know if that changes anything.

There may be better choices for that than signets though. There’s a Scepter/Dagger spike build with Fresh Air that does something like that really well. I’m not sure what the build is, but I’m sure one of the other eles here does.

100% agree about signets only working with focus. Since you lose some survivability from taking signets. You need the dmg mitigation/stuns/condi cleanse/reflects from focus. That being said, i think focus is our strongest off hand weapon in pvp/wvw.

I still feel like d/f signets is an up in your face type of play. But not nearly as much as d/d cantrips/arcana. But i definitely feel the difference of being able to get almost 1900 toughness and keep a decent health pool with signets.

Scepter and dagger or focus is nice… but its too much of a gimmicky build. Its out single highest burst dps dmg build we have. But its easily stopped with well timed stuns and blinds and then you get left out to dry. But you could also make the build i posted above work with s/f and take channeled toughness from earth line to get over 2k toughness while constantly casting air 1 and bouncing in and out of air for some nice spikes.