Guild Wars 2

Looks like a fun build. I’ve always been wondering about an effective way to utilize stone heart. Like a zerk conjure build, never tried though.

Earth line has so many good things in it for this build. I wonder how obsidian focus (+290 toughness while channeling) would work with the near perma AA channel. There’s signet mastery, serrated stones and elemental shielding too to consider along with strength of stone. Only two spots for five good choices.

I also wonder how melandru runes would work. Condi cleansing and stun breaks are certainly a weakness, but would it be worth losing a bit of condi damage. Was also thinking of krait runes to bump up the bleed duration for a little less damage on tick.

There’s probably a sliding scale on tradeoffs between condi damage output and survivability. Too much survivability and you no longer have the condi pressure to win a fight, and even if you stack up physical resistance you’re still weak against conditions.

hey I used this build over a year ago though (but I had not made the video :P )

(google translator, sorry guy .. )

Pix.8173:

hey I used this build over a year ago though (but I had not made the video :P )

(google translator, sorry guy .. )

Hello, yeah but unfortunately condi ele wasn’t viable back then. Post 9th sep patch, our signets received quite good changes which has now led to a lot of condi ele build floating around. :-)

+1 for this build. A great build that will definitely catch enemies off guard. Also a good build for new players.

Dahkeus.8243:

+1 for this build. A great build that will definitely catch enemies off guard. Also a good build for new players.

I totally agree on this, people new to elementalist profession (I know many of those) are really liking this build for the easiness+effectiveness it provides, the wvw version is undoubtedly better since we can promptly use poison also which kinda lacks in pvp version.

Would this build be at all viable in PvE?
Maybe with some adjustments?

Litania.7095:

Would this build be at all viable in PvE?
Maybe with some adjustments?

Simple answer would be: No. Reasons being, it’s a pure condi build and we know very well in pve, condi builds aren’t very viable over direct damage, 2ndly, even tho I’m sure monsters do crit damage too but their normal damage would be a lot to take considering we have very low hp hence, it wouldn’t be that great anywhere in pve content. :-)

Tried the build, was amazing, the fact that crits had no affect was really cool.

Snorcha.7586:

I play a similar build to this one except with a staff for the control.. The only class I have any issues with are any half decent necros, they just nail me.. Any ideas on that matchup?

Being a main on condition necro, my advice is to avoid as much as possible. When you load up a condition necro with conditions, you’re just giving them ammo. This is very important to recognize and plan for. Generally speaking, the advice for taking on a necro with any condition build is “try not to.” The profession is incredibly resistant to them.

That said, it is possible, but you will be at a disadvantage. First, keep your distance as best you can. This is primarily so you can avoid Dark Path and Deathly Swarm as well as entirely deny Tainted Shackles. Although the OP’s build is mono-attunement so Chill doesn’t hurt quite as much, the chill alone will cause problems, not to mention the possible boon corruption. When they switch to Staff, then things get tricky. You want to avoid Putrid Mark. Don’t bother blinding the necro, it doesn’t stop Putrid Mark (instead, you get it). However, its cast animation is similar to Mark of Blood and Chillblains. Not a lot of advice I can give you, as the biggest difference in animation is after the Mark is finished casting. Reaper’s mark has a unique animation, though, so keep an eye on that as well.

Doom is usually reserved for when the necro is CC’d, when you’re using your heal, or to try and ensure a Dark Path’s landing. If you see the Necro pop into death shroud when you CC him or you’re healing, dodge. You don’t have time to try blinding him. Other uses of Doom are tougher to react to. If he sets up a Spectral Wall, then goes into death shroud, ready your stunbreak as he will fear-chain you if possible.

silvermember.8941:

I haven’t played your build but I love builds that are non standard and not rotation based. IF I wanted to play like a bot, I might as well not play at all.

A rather amusing comment considering this build requires sitting in one attunement, pressing 1 skill on wep bar and using signets as they go off cd.

Jayden Ennok: and did anybody say that every elementalist must be an ambidexterous octopus to play ele well? I usually link this thread for a newby. Solid damage… Survability… Easy to play… Effective…

But they have to get better quick…

Aggrostemma.1703:

Jayden Ennok: and did anybody say that every elementalist must be an ambidexterous octopus to play ele well? I usually link this thread for a newby. Solid damage… Survability… Easy to play… Effective…

But they have to get better quick…

Somewhere between the lines where I quoted someone talking about not playing if it involves a bot type gameplay and where I described the build almost same way the OP did, your “lets defend no matter what” kicked in. Feed your dog instead of burning witches.

Well done! You’ve done the impressive: you’ve made me enjoy playing my Ele in PvP.

Explanation:
As one of the oldies whose been playing since beta, I’ve dalied with maining an ele several times, but I always leave the class because of the necessity for rotations. Very few other classes are so dependent on rotation patterns for viability.

The meta rotations are dull, overly predictable, and are about as much fun to play as pressing the right arrow key to play “Snake.” Looking all the way back to GW1, I have always preferred discretion-oriented builds to rotation-dependent builds. (E.g. I hated playing “PermaSin.”)

I said all that to say that I find that this mono-element build actually gives me far more discretion than pretty much any other ele build I have used – and I’ve used a lot. The autoattack supplies decent pressure, but the timing of the signets, elite, and heals make all the difference in the world.

So, thank you! I will continue to enjoy this version of the Ele in PvP and will try to recommend changes as the build evolves. Hopefully it does not become too meta or it will surely be nerfed into oblivion.

Jack Angelfoot.2697:

Well done! You’ve done the impressive: you’ve made me enjoy playing my Ele in PvP.

Explanation:
As one of the oldies whose been playing since beta, I’ve dalied with maining an ele several times, but I always leave the class because of the necessity for rotations. Very few other classes are so dependent on rotation patterns for viability.

Rotations explanation for the needy

hide spoiler

Yes, I know that every class has a theoretical maximum DPS possible with a particular chain of skills based on a two weapon skill cycle. But theory seldom works in PvE, let alone PvP where some other idiot is trying to disrupt you. Most other classes have a large contingent of discretionary capability to their viable builds. Elementalists, historically, lack discretionary capability: failure to follow the rotation exactly = loss of competitive viability.

The meta rotations are dull, overly predictable, and are about as much fun to play as pressing the right arrow key to play “Snake.” Looking all the way back to GW1, I have always preferred discretion-oriented builds to rotation-dependent builds. (E.g. I hated playing “PermaSin.”)

I said all that to say that I find that this mono-element build actually gives me far more discretion than pretty much any other ele build I have used – and I’ve used a lot. The autoattack supplies decent pressure, but the timing of the signets, elite, and heals make all the difference in the world.

So, thank you! I will continue to enjoy this version of the Ele in PvP and will try to recommend changes as the build evolves. Hopefully it does not become too meta or it will surely be nerfed into oblivion.

Thanks Jack! I’m glad you are enjoying pvp as ele now. Whenever I see someone running this build in pvp or wvw, it makes me smile You should check it’s wvw version also and let me know your views as you continue to play this.

I’m going to try this build with aristocracy runes for crazy might stacking. Here is my version for WvW. I went with ER for my heal for the Condi cleanse and the low CD to proc Aristocracy 6 more often. Also FGS because I like mobility.

Jayden Ennok: yes you are right… I cannot read…

I mean bot playing as skill-bot, like water and fire fields on demand… That’s a field bot (in wvw). This build is a bot in a different way: using only a handful of abilities in earth attunement…. Like a zerg staff ele does in three attunement….

Snakebyte.2804:

I’m going to try this build with aristocracy runes for crazy might stacking. Here is my version for WvW. I went with ER for my heal for the Condi cleanse and the low CD to proc Aristocracy 6 more often. Also FGS because I like mobility.

Sounds interesting! Let me know how it goes for you :-)

Hello all,

I stumbled across this post a few days ago and I was intrigued.

I wanted to try something a little bit different. So I tweaked a few things.

Same logic and concept applies, load up your opponent with conditions and watch them die whilst you stay in Earth attunement to avoid being critically hit . . . however . . . As a little twist instead of signets I decided to try out conjure weapons instead. Please hear out my madness first.

My ideology was simple.

Load conditions > switch to Earth (so can not be critically hit) > use conjure weapon to hit harder while still applying more conditions whilst still staying in earth rather than staying with just the Earth attunements skills.

Theoretical analysis complete, time to try it out on the battlefield.

Video 1 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLucU7x6yLY

Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9N3wxH1HUo

I would just like to point out this was like my first time ever solo roaming so I am still learning.

Upon review I know I make a ton of mistakes like for some reason using water skill 3 on the enemy??? (fail I know) / not using earth skill 4 at better times / using the mouse clicker -_- old habits die hard . . . But . . . I am using this as a learning curve to see on how to improve.

I believe with a bit more time there could be some potential. The footage taken is over the past 4 days so I am still trying to learn the completely new build. Still looking for areas to improve upon. I know some may say having 2 conjure weapons as part of my utility skills is an utter waste and pointless and you are correct. I am merely at an experimental stage at the moment seeing and speculating what could go well with what.

Because I know the element of surprise can be a very powerful factor, most people don’t expect to see someone hurtling towards them welding an earth shield and then when you pop earth shield skill 5 . . . woahh well . . . I wish I could see the players reaction as I bet most of them are thinking “What the?!”.

Being unpredictable & tactical will rather win or lose you the fight.

Overall I think its a pretty fun build. Could have a bit of potential. Just something a little bit different.

Any feedback would be great.

Thank you for your time.

@The Geeky Rocker:
apart from some improvable gameplay, i wonder if most of ur opponents fight that ‘good’. i think none of em removed the imibolize so they all got hit by dragons tooth + phoenix (oke not those guards coz u failed ur earth signet by using it as they still had their aegis up) . If u play a freshair build and ur opponents gets hit by thoses 2 skills ..they are most probably dead. so if the majority of ur opponents fight that way u might try a fresh air build
most roaming vids simply show only fights they won, so if a person only wins in his vid against real bad opponents, then one might think the videomaker lost every fight against ppl that were slightly better than the ones in ur vid…
IMO to give u a feedback it would be great to see fights u have lost in order to see weaknesses of that build or ur gameplay, coz in ur vids u do some mistakes but ur opponents do a lot more.

btw i think u dont use icebow in ur vids..if they stay in ur dragonstooth i bet while they r immobilized u can even cast icebow 5 on them. and skill 4 provides a lot of bleeding + skill 3 for chill

The Geeky Rocker.2873:

Hello all,

I stumbled across this post a few days ago and I was intrigued.

I wanted to try something a little bit different. So I tweaked a few things.

Same logic and concept applies, load up your opponent with conditions and watch them die whilst you stay in Earth attunement to avoid being critically hit . . . however . . . As a little twist instead of signets I decided to try out conjure weapons instead. Please hear out my madness first.

My ideology was simple.

Load conditions > switch to Earth (so can not be critically hit) > use conjure weapon to hit harder while still applying more conditions whilst still staying in earth rather than staying with just the Earth attunements skills.

Theoretical analysis complete, time to try it out on the battlefield.

Video 1 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLucU7x6yLY

Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9N3wxH1HUo

I would just like to point out this was like my first time ever solo roaming so I am still learning.

Upon review I know I make a ton of mistakes like for some reason using water skill 3 on the enemy??? (fail I know) / not using earth skill 4 at better times / using the mouse clicker -_- old habits die hard . . . But . . . I am using this as a learning curve to see on how to improve.

I believe with a bit more time there could be some potential. The footage taken is over the past 4 days so I am still trying to learn the completely new build. Still looking for areas to improve upon. I know some may say having 2 conjure weapons as part of my utility skills is an utter waste and pointless and you are correct. I am merely at an experimental stage at the moment seeing and speculating what could go well with what.

Because I know the element of surprise can be a very powerful factor, most people don’t expect to see someone hurtling towards them welding an earth shield and then when you pop earth shield skill 5 . . . woahh well . . . I wish I could see the players reaction as I bet most of them are thinking “What the?!”.

Being unpredictable & tactical will rather win or lose you the fight.

Overall I think its a pretty fun build. Could have a bit of potential. Just something a little bit different.

Any feedback would be great.

Thank you for your time.

Nice video man. Apart from several mistakes (which we all tend to do) you played well this build, but personally I prefer playing her build as it is reason being, signets over conjurer weps are far more superior, they have 1200 range, lower cd and do massive condi pressure on your enemy if don’t dodge it (like Diva also said need to time it well). Next I want to see if someone try perplexity runes with this build lol jk

@MUDse
Thank you for your constructive feedback.

I do agree with pretty much everything you have said. And if I do shoot another video I will include some of the fights I failed miserably in ie. pretty much any other condition roamer. (Then it seems to be a case of who can load up the other with condition and cleanse the fastest.)

I have heard of the fresh air build, but I wanted to try and stay away from that and try something a little bit different. I know it’s not going to be a game changing build but heck so far I’ve had some real fun trying out and experimenting different skills & rotations in the limited amount of time I have.

I know I made a ton of mistakes, and I am totally out of my depth here and I am not ashamed to admit it. But I’m hoping as time goes by I will learn from my mistakes and become a better player so I can then film some good fights.

Thank you for your time and feedback. I have tried the icebow once but I couldn’t pull it off =/ but I might have to re-think my approach thanks to your little tip.

@gaurav

Fair and very true point, I can’t disagree.

The Geeky Rocker.2873:

Hello all,

I stumbled across this post a few days ago and I was intrigued.

I wanted to try something a little bit different. So I tweaked a few things.

Same logic and concept applies, load up your opponent with conditions and watch them die whilst you stay in Earth attunement to avoid being critically hit . . . however . . . As a little twist instead of signets I decided to try out conjure weapons instead. Please hear out my madness first.

My ideology was simple.

Load conditions > switch to Earth (so can not be critically hit) > use conjure weapon to hit harder while still applying more conditions whilst still staying in earth rather than staying with just the Earth attunements skills.

Theoretical analysis complete, time to try it out on the battlefield.

Video 1 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLucU7x6yLY

Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9N3wxH1HUo

I would just like to point out this was like my first time ever solo roaming so I am still learning.

Upon review I know I make a ton of mistakes like for some reason using water skill 3 on the enemy??? (fail I know) / not using earth skill 4 at better times / using the mouse clicker -_- old habits die hard . . . But . . . I am using this as a learning curve to see on how to improve.

I believe with a bit more time there could be some potential. The footage taken is over the past 4 days so I am still trying to learn the completely new build. Still looking for areas to improve upon. I know some may say having 2 conjure weapons as part of my utility skills is an utter waste and pointless and you are correct. I am merely at an experimental stage at the moment seeing and speculating what could go well with what.

Because I know the element of surprise can be a very powerful factor, most people don’t expect to see someone hurtling towards them welding an earth shield and then when you pop earth shield skill 5 . . . woahh well . . . I wish I could see the players reaction as I bet most of them are thinking “What the?!”.

Being unpredictable & tactical will rather win or lose you the fight.

Overall I think its a pretty fun build. Could have a bit of potential. Just something a little bit different.

Any feedback would be great.

Thank you for your time.

Very nice effort, Geeky !! using of Conjurer weps makes it interesting enough to give it a try, I watched your first video and i’m gonna post it on our guild facebook page so others can watch and give some feedback as well. :-)

Though I still run my own condi signet build in WvW roaming together with a few friends and our giggles never end, it hits like a truck, ele condi pressure is real!!

This is a solid build against most of the things you’ll run up against in sPvP and WvW in 1v1 situations. Thieves, Rangers, Mesmers, most Warriors, and other Eles are easy kills for this sort of build. Necros and DPS Guardians are pretty nasty (as is any build with good condition removal that doesn’t rely on critical damage), but they are typically bunkering and can be ignored.

My question is, why isn’t this build more popular? The fact that it’s not on Metabattle? It’s easily better than any other condition damage build for Ele I’ve tried thus far. While it lacks the versatility of D/D Ele, it crushes Thieves, and who doesn’t love that?

irrumatio.4893:

This is a solid build against most of the things you’ll run up against in sPvP and WvW in 1v1 situations. Thieves, Rangers, Mesmers, most Warriors, and other Eles are easy kills for this sort of build. Necros and DPS Guardians are pretty nasty (as is any build with good condition removal that doesn’t rely on critical damage), but they are typically bunkering and can be ignored.

My question is, why isn’t this build more popular? The fact that it’s not on Metabattle? It’s easily better than any other condition damage build for Ele I’ve tried thus far. While it lacks the versatility of D/D Ele, it crushes Thieves, and who doesn’t love that?

Thank you so much for your feedback on this. Indeed it’s a very solid build and I still run in it spvp time to time. If you simply compare it with any other condi build out there, this is still better reasons being you can’t get critically hit at all. For people’s knowledge, I submitted this build on metabattle.com but they trashed it after a few days. It might not have gotten enough up votes by their team, problem is people compare everything to existing meta builds and superior gameplay and they tend to forget we all have different skill level, different opponents, different play style preferences in pvp but oh well, as far as this build can crush opponents and win you matches, who cares!!

Though I have often seen people using it in game but not as many as I had expected, so I tried to figure out why, there are some flaws also with this build what people told me and I agree to some extend too, for example, signets could be dodged then you are mainly relying on your auto attack only, not much condi cleanse available, low hp in pvp that is it I hear most commonly. Apart from these issues, it’s a condi bombarding build, oh and some said it’s quite “boring” build, “easy to play”, some learnt it’s a mono attunement build so rejected it right there. These were some common feedback I got from people.

I would also like to mention that I released It’s WvW Version it’s 99% victory in 1 vs 1, we have more hp, condi duration 90%, condi damage upto 2200 with foods and what not. Had it been published by some popular players, it would have gotten some better attention, but
I’m glad it’s liked by a lot of people around specially those who were new to ele profession or those who simply seek build diversity .

irrumatio.4893:

snip

My question is, why isn’t this build more popular? The fact that it’s not on Metabattle? It’s easily better than any other condition damage build for Ele I’ve tried thus far. While it lacks the versatility of D/D Ele, it crushes Thieves, and who doesn’t love that?

D:

I don’t

irrumatio.4893:

My question is, why isn’t this build more popular? The fact that it’s not on Metabattle? It’s easily better than any other condition damage build for Ele I’ve tried thus far. While it lacks the versatility of D/D Ele, it crushes Thieves, and who doesn’t love that?

No idea man, it might not be that good for high tier pvp but I still use it and it works good in pvp lol I miss poison though

gaurav.7340:

irrumatio.4893:

My question is, why isn’t this build more popular? The fact that it’s not on Metabattle? It’s easily better than any other condition damage build for Ele I’ve tried thus far. While it lacks the versatility of D/D Ele, it crushes Thieves, and who doesn’t love that?

No idea man, it might not be that good for high tier pvp but I still use it and it works good in pvp lol I miss poison though

This build is slightly outdated now.

Actually, i will correct my post.

This build, used to focus on the additional defense from not receiving critical damage while in Stone attunement, and focused on stacking Condition damage and burning them down with burn and bleeding.

But what is strange, is that in every fight in the video, he uses different traits, one fight he uses zephyrs boon, another fight he uses Elemental shielding, in other fights he doesn’t, and stuff like that.

The current condition builds, or Signet builds as they are called, don’t focus on earth’s critical immunity anymore, but rather on the Written in Stone passive, to retain Signet passives after they are used, while allowing different statuses to be applied aswell with those signets to empower the builds.
While losing the ability to negate critical damage, the new builds started running Elemental Shielding to replace that trait with, which gives you 3 seconds of damage reduction every time you use a signet, which would be the equivalent of not receiving critical damage.

Anyways, if you want a up—to-date condition build, you should check the Ember Elementalist build, or Zeigeist’s signet build.

Lawful.5314:

gaurav.7340:

irrumatio.4893:

My question is, why isn’t this build more popular? The fact that it’s not on Metabattle? It’s easily better than any other condition damage build for Ele I’ve tried thus far. While it lacks the versatility of D/D Ele, it crushes Thieves, and who doesn’t love that?

No idea man, it might not be that good for high tier pvp but I still use it and it works good in pvp lol I miss poison though

This build is slightly outdated now.

Actually, i will correct my post.

This build, used to focus on the additional defense from not receiving critical damage while in Stone attunement, and focused on stacking Condition damage and burning them down with burn and bleeding.

But what is strange, is that in every fight in the video, he uses different traits, one fight he uses zephyrs boon, another fight he uses Elemental shielding, in other fights he doesn’t, and stuff like that.

The current condition builds, or Signet builds as they are called, don’t focus on earth’s critical immunity anymore, but rather on the Written in Stone passive, to retain Signet passives after they are used, while allowing different statuses to be applied aswell with those signets to empower the builds.
While losing the ability to negate critical damage, the new builds started running Elemental Shielding to replace that trait with, which gives you 3 seconds of damage reduction every time you use a signet, which would be the equivalent of not receiving critical damage.

Anyways, if you want a up—to-date condition build, you should check the Ember Elementalist build, or Zeigeist’s signet build.

Lol dude, it’s not strange if you go through the comments on this post you will know. Diva mentioned she was going to try different variations in fights when she released this build after signets received buff so there is a reason why you see different traits being used in the video. Elemental Shielding is a trait variation already I prefer with the same build in wvw. There are a lot of signet builds variations available now as I see and I will give all a try but this build isn’t outdated at all. I still use it and I wreck people so easily especially thiefs lol the main thing of this build is immunity to critical attacks which imo is amazing, pvp is full of berserker builds, I hardly see people play condi builds which is sad but yeah and heavy condi pressure but condi cleanse is a huge weakness with this build which I consider taking burning fire trait instead to overcome this! The trait changes you mentioned have already been discussed in this entire thread, lol dude get yourself updated!

Also, if you see closely, all signet builds are pretty much same with a few variations only. IMO this build is very unique for it’s critical immunity and good for those who are not much comfortable with switching attunements and still want to kill people using ele! But I am definitely going to try the ones you mentioned and see what works for me better. My 2 cents.

Next I’m going to try is D/F condi signet with Perplexity runes since I’m mainly into wvw roaming.

Cheers!

Its debatable whenether you want to run both Elemental shield and critical immunity in the same setup, it will certainly lower the damage even further, but you are stuck in earth because of that most of the time, otherwise you can just skip the crit immunity and always use the shield, which will yield about the same results.

I ran nearly the same build solo roaming in wvw almost 6 months ago, I found it overall weaker than a “regular”, balanced build in pretty much every way, albeit pretty amusing.

I think the signet fire aura share version for roaming 5man is better.

I happened to come across this build indipendently, for solo-roaming in WvW.
What I think is:

1. Amazing condi dmg (750 burning + 1k-1.9k bleeding + 250 poison via sigil), however easily cleanable. Stacking bleeding isn’t simple on thieves, they dodge a lot, blind you often and earth AA is a bit slow. But you keep dmging them even in stealth, if they don’t cleanse.

2. 4s of immunity is great, but on 50s CD is too long. Meanwhile, you can’t blink away, you can’t switch attunement and heal you (cuz you lose the “uncrittable” buff = instadead), swiftness is not enough to run away and gain time. Plus Vit/tough/HP and passive healing from the signet are not enough to sustain you while 5# earth is in CD.

3. 4# is really cool, but – again – is a long CD.

4. This build is weak vs high CC, high condi dmg, high mobility (blinks/dodges), is slower than condi engi/necro and can’t chase anyone… even a necro run faster than this build.

That said, the build is fun, and often confuse the opponent, cuz’ (s)he doesn’t expect so much condi dmg from an ele.