Guild Wars 2

I love the DD ele. I’ve also got a thing for the air magic line. I keep seeing Earth Water Arcana as the #1 spec for DD. Is there a spec just as effective that uses AIR or should I just run the traditional E-W-A

Just change earth to air and take advantage of the traits. It’s not a huge difference in play style we aren’t talking running a mantra mesmer to phantasm to shatter or a non shadow arts thief vs a acrobatics thief. The play styles across d/d are almost identical really.

air water arcana is a good choice. people go earth in pvp because the added protection helps for a celestial ele to bunker.

Till they dont fix ICD of fresh air, there is no reason to run air over earth.
Once its done, both will be interetesting. I’ll keep running earth cause i’m using triple signet build, but air will definitely be nice.

Try this :

http://intothemists.com/guides/5552-dd_truely_fresh_air

I have been loving lightning rod on dd, hits pretty hard with each stun, and the weakness is nearly as strong at damage mitigation as protection, stacks with protection, and even provides offensive value since they can’t dodge as frequently. Sure weakness is easier to cleans then protection is to rip in general but this isn’t so for thieves and mesmers which are the most dangerous bursters now.
For the master slot I prefer reduced cool downs on air skills over tempest defense but both work well. One gets you slightly more shocking aura up time and potential for massive burst on stunned targets, while the reduced cd’s still allow for a really high up time on shocking aura plus short cool downs on updraft, and ride the lightning!

03033 is good. But not easy for first timers. also there is no need for an ICD given how sad our class is when compared to the other classes that dont need to master 29 spells and have 12 fingers

Nivik.2961:

I love the DD ele. I’ve also got a thing for the air magic line. I keep seeing Earth Water Arcana as the #1 spec for DD. Is there a spec just as effective that uses AIR or should I just run the traditional E-W-A

That’s wrong.

If you watched the ESL tournaments to see what top players are actually running, you’d notice that Fire/Water/Arcana is the “#1 Spec” for D/D and D/F based on what teams are winning.

This is simply because fire gives you tons of damage and easy might stacking, with some blind to help mitigate damage. Earth can work for D/D (its best for staff tbh) but its damage is far lower and its sustain isn’t much higher. Top teams will actually use moa morph to get around stone heart rezzes and whatnot, which has been indicated several times by top streamers. Air is honestly only worth it for zerker elementalist builds. The extra critical based damage doesn’t sync well with celestial specs because they are all about having high sustained damage rather than burst damage.

For the admittedly small field of WvW-smallscaling, imho air is an excellent choice.

With Zephyr’s Speed and Zephyr’s Boon you get the much needed mobility (apart from your Fiery Greatsword and without having to rely on Traveller Runes or a sub-par signet).
Furthermore, Tempest Defense gives you an edge (not only) against the ubiquitous roaming thieves and combined with Lighning Rod is nice extra damage.

While the fire line will probably give you considerable more damage (even after the fix of Empowering Flame), I find the extra utility in air worth choosing it after water and arcane.