Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,
I am a new GW2 player and i am in desperate need of help on my build.
I started playing GW2 as a mesmer, but that profession is kinda difficult for me to start. So i then decided to roll a elementalist, leveled my ele to lvl 72 and noticed that only one build works for me – staff fire/air berserker. D/D is kinda difficult for me, cause low range low survivability.
Tbh i am quite bad at GW2 at the moment and i dont like being killed in a single nuke by any vet/champ monsters. So i was thinking is it possible for ele to build tanky and still be effective pve/pvp. Hadnt seen any defensive builds here and i dont actually care about the meta, im more of a casual player myself.

So i thought that condi+vitality+armor stats could be usefull for a full earth/water/smtn build, is it viable? So far im concerned that staff earth autoattack skill does like no damage at all. So is a geomanser of some sort a viable build right now, and can anyone give me some insights on how to build my ele tanky and still be usefull (at least in solo play or some simple dungeons)?

P.s. im not a native english speaker, so go easy on my grammar please =)
P.p.s. why does noone goes defensive builds in GW2 (even guardians go berserker)?

Sounds like you might be interested in something like this for a D/D build that can take a hit: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_-_Dagger/Dagger

There is also a good D/D Roaming build on that site as well that you should look at. These builds are not Meta for PvE but they can make learning how to play D/D a less painful experience for you then later on you can make the move to full beserker stats when you feel confident enough to do so.

As a staff ele the best PvE build is again on that website and full zerker is the way to go. If you have a hard time with survival you can use Knights stats until you feel like you can make the move to full berserk.

While leveling I always recommend to new players to focus your stats on Power and Vitality/Toughness. That way you can kill things and take a hit when a mistake is made.

Good luck and have fun!

Hi

I did such builds you want :-).
Berserker is good because as already trained player, you avoid damage by dodge, control or other active utilities like block or shields.
You want to kill faster then the oponent. I find Berserker is not the efficientest statset, but the fastest to blow someone if hes off guard :-).

Ele is usually difficult for a beginner. you have 4 elements to swap.
But i am happy that i did coose it as my first character. I start at the hard side with low HP and 4 Elements instead of 2 weapon sets. After playing S/F warrior feels booring XD.
I even don´t go for high HP. I got used to 15k now :-).

Staff is not a good option for condition bunker. But you can make a ranged nuker that won´t die within two seconds. For condition scepter or dagger mainhand is better. the most damage comes from mainhand dagger but that is no option for you.

For casual PvE and WvW i did an easy to use staff build for a friend:

It looks like that and plays very comftable. In PvE you use some cheap power food not the -40 condi.

This build was done als mainly camp fire easy to use staff.
It nukes very hard, builds might, well rounded automatic defence.
Easy to adapt with a staff that fits you. Berserker is of course good here.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFEQFAWhcMoshtNwvB0RMQAYRBIAsAmdwLIIITyOQJA-TFyDwAKuAAQV+BwEkIdAJeAAIUCKb/hXq/EAABgde0de0dmMAMbB-w

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Another fun option that might be camping earth with stone heart using conjures.
This is a bunker build. It has a diffrent armor set and staff. Trinkets can be the same. So its something to just try. Has a bit teamsupport with aurashare.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFEQFAWhMMozhNOw6B8RMMAY0WIJUEiAQEYIO/gYwRE-TFCBwAC3fYryvcq/swEEgLAgKdAUeAATUCGAABgde0de0dmMAMbB-w

Just take the standard arcane and water setup from D/D or WvW staff and use fire specialization with the might on hit, might on cantrip and 10% dmg increase traits. Use all cantrips and gylph of elementals and swap them out for arcane brilliance and arcane blast as you feel comfortable. Only problem is you have to get runes of strength, sigil of strength and sigil of battle to be able to consistently keep up 20-25 stacks of might by yourself. All of these are really expensive on trading post. Might is where all your damage compensation comes from after taking arcane and water and cantrips for survivability and support.

Once you learn how to play it and use all the skills correctly, you won’t ever die in open world content. This is my setup I use for pretty much everything. I’ve never had a complaint about my damage output and have done high level fractals with it. I just swap out the might on hit for fury on fire field blast finisher for groups.

I personally run soldier’s armor, berserker trinkets and berserker weapons. I could easily swap out soldiers for berserkers if I only did PvE content and not die much, but I do a mix of WvW and PvE, so I gear more for WvW.

There is still a high learning curve on this, so don’t expect to use it and be all god mode right off the bat.

Hmm its a bit personal taste but i find my valk/captain setup with a zerker staff nearly as hard hiting then full zerker, but stand longer. Also air means significant more damage.
The build i showed has a reason: Be as easy to use as possible for PvE and WvW and don´t be squished by stray fire or conditions. The signets fit very well.
Also this build is hardened against conditions. Chill/Criple/Imob is neutralized (-93%), the first condi bomb autoclensed, evrything else dampened -60% + 1 cleanse per 10s.

For an experienced ele i would take arcane not earth and blast all in my way with an arcane setup + maybe lighning flash. Someone called it Jihad Staff ;-)

It’s mostly personal preference. I’m willing to trade off some damage for strong group support. Just how I play and it makes my life a lot easier in PUG fractals. I’m not discounting anyone’s build. Just sharing my own.

Thank you guys!
The problem with berserker builds is that i am not skillfull enough to play it at viable level. I need some more practice, with more solid builds.
I think i will try “knight” item build, which Bandit mentioned, looks decent from what i see.

But there is one question unanswered:
Why does noone build defence stats? Are defences broken or something (i mean like formula vice)? What happens if in PVP a full zerk meets a full def player, which one will have an uper hand? Will def build mitigate all of zerks damage or just a small portion?

I have got another question, is healing a viable stat for elementalists? I mean is it worth on getting for support purposes, does it scale well with water attunement?

Sorry for so many questions, tried to study Wiki, but hadnt had much luck understanding it on practice.

My signet build has a lot of defence stats. Healing usually scales not good. With staff you have water fields which do the most healing and blasting them counts the healing of the blaster.
Full Zerker usually kills full defence, unless you are a stone heart ele (which has bad damage and dies to conditions), …. But you need speed/catchers when using full defence otherwise oponents will run away after one minute fighting …. Or he will get reinforcements. Zerker means your oponent must be on gurad. If he makes mistakes or isn´t fast enough … kaboom.

soulknight.9620:

Thank you guys!
The problem with berserker builds is that i am not skillfull enough to play it at viable level. I need some more practice, with more solid builds.
I think i will try “knight” item build, which Bandit mentioned, looks decent from what i see.

But there is one question unanswered:
Why does noone build defence stats? Are defences broken or something (i mean like formula vice)? What happens if in PVP a full zerk meets a full def player, which one will have an uper hand? Will def build mitigate all of zerks damage or just a small portion?

I have got another question, is healing a viable stat for elementalists? I mean is it worth on getting for support purposes, does it scale well with water attunement?

Sorry for so many questions, tried to study Wiki, but hadnt had much luck understanding it on practice.

There is only one role where thats needed and thats bunkering points in PvP, because point control is how you win. WvW and PvE involves killing stuff. PvE has content too easy at the moment to justify a full defensive bunker type character and in WvW, elementalists simply can’t live long on the frontline and thus play backline.

I personally run a semi bunker in WvW roaming with scepter/focus. When starting ele i had to low damage trying to bunker and constantly worked to bring it up. I have a berserker staff in my backpack swaping for keep combat.
Defence helps if you are targeted. Offense always help your team by blasting oponents :-).