Guild Wars 2

I’m the kind of person that love playing glass cannon in pretty much any game I play. So, while I’m really liking the d/d elementalist build variation I’m using, there are alot of times when I feel my damage output is a pretty low. I was thinking of replacing my weapons and trinkets with berserker instead of cleric, to get play a more glassy, harder hitting d/d ele, and keeping my soldiers armor to have some semblance of survivability. If anyone who has tried this, share their experiences with it? Or if anyone has a better gear spread for more damage while keeping a bit of survivability please share that as well, I would be eager to get some feedback on this plan. I running on masterworks right now, and would really like to get some feedback before I make the jump to exotics on this character.

The two builds I usually swap between are 0/15/0/25/30 or 10/15/0/25/20, depending on my mood.

Thanks in advance.

All your questions depend on what game type you’re playing and what type of player you are. Do you play with a structured team, do you solo a lot, do you run with the zerg, duo? If you go full berserkers you will be on the razor’s edge, able to deal damage but also susceptible to being insta-gibbed by: DPS thieves, DPS warriors, Ballistas and any combination of focused fire.

IMHO d/d ele’s are more suited for sPvP. A staff ele is best for large scale pvp and good for team PvE. Scepter/dagger for PvE and Scepter/Focus simply to block trebuchet fire in WvW (good for dungeons too)

I’ve never played a d/d ele. I heard they were built tanky.

I play a d/d thief with shortbow, full zerks, who I use for solo roaming in WvW or farming in PvE:

Staff Ele, who used to be full bersekers, then went knights/valks and now am a combination of the three. (still searching for a fit), my Ele runs in WvW with the zerg.

An Engineer who is full clerics/clerics with dolyak runes, a rifle an elixir gun, toolkit and healing bombs.

and Ranger, who is full ravagers, using Axe/Warhorn with longbow and also runs with the zerg.

My d/d thief always wins 1v1 against d/d ele’s in WvW. In sPvP the ele has more of an advantage since we are battling over a small area.

In WvW an ele gets close to my thief and gets more dps in his face than he can handle and retreats to range, which is when I swap to my shortbow and easily chase him down. If he starts getting the upper hand I go stealth and re-engage when safe. I’m Asura so I run with technobabble, it allows me to do maximum dps while the d/d ele can not do anything at all.

In sPvP I don’t have technobabble and we’re battling over control points. The d/d Ele is more in his element here and usually can pressure me into leaving the control point.

In WvW my staff ele is a huge contributor to the group, with all his combo fields, heals and area crowd control. I think of him as a mobile siege weapon. But he is rather weak alone and can get picked off, although not very simply thanks to mist form, lightning flash and armor of earth. But for example one time I was walking out of the base by myself and a thief landed a backstab on me for 22k, yes 22k. This was before the big nerf to thief damage but still, I’ve been burst down recently before I even knew I had a thief behind me.

My ranger, rocks in sPvP and in WvW group fights he brings a lot of support. But he is not a good solo roamer in WvW. I can put the sword/torch on him with a shortbow and win every duel I get into in WvW.. but that’s not WvW, it’s more often about group battles, 1v3. 5v40 5v8 10v2.

My engie a great tank who can control agro exceptionally well and is very difficult to kill with all his heals, blocking skills and invulnerability. In sPvP he is great at keeping people out of his spot with his amazing CC. In WvW he has amazing condition removal, can tank all the pve content and heal everyone on the rams / front lines. But doesn’t have any ranged dps and no buffs for anyone except himself. (minus the med-kits)

sOooO my answer, tldr. you’re gonna need different weapons/runes/armor for different play styles and settings. (and in my case different classes for different group roles :P)

Grizledorf pretty much has it down right. It’s about your playstyle. Do you want a shorter battle where it’s more intense and based on second to second perfect hits or a stretched out battle of attrition? Berserker jewels will lower your lifespan considerably but in turn give you much greater damage. Clerics give you almost invulnerability but you won’t be doing much damage.

I’ve found a compromise to this and it’s valkyrie or power/tough/critdamage. You can have perma fury up which gives 20%. That’s 1/5 hits critting. With a high critdamage, you crit hard while giving you good survivability