Guild Wars 2

So I just hit 80 with my elem using D/D and all the attunements, I think I nailed the thing even though I never went into dungeons with this guy.

Now I’m looking for a build to run dungeons with, I usually play with my guild and we destroy 3/4 of the dungeons every night, they’re used to my mesmer with her huge damage and time warp.

We’re all for the speed, running more or less full berserker most of the time.
I want them to accept my elem as they do with the mesmer, how should I build?

I fear that the elem can’t match the dps and utility my mesmer provides, hope you can prove me wrong.

Could you tell us more about your Mesmer? Just the really important stats, at least? Power, Precision, Toughness, Vitality, Condition Damage, Critical Damage?

zTales.4392:

Could you tell us more about your Mesmer? Just the really important stats, at least? Power, Precision, Toughness, Vitality, Condition Damage, Critical Damage?

Krag.6210:

zTales.4392:

Could you tell us more about your Mesmer? Just the really important stats, at least? Power, Precision, Toughness, Vitality, Condition Damage, Critical Damage?

Oh my. I see what you mean. O_O

I honestly don’t think that an Ele could match that without dying constantly, but I have no idea because I haven’t played a glass cannon Ele…

zTales.4392:

Oh my. I see what you mean. O_O

I honestly don’t think that an Ele could match that without dying constantly, but I have no idea because I haven’t played a glass cannon Ele…

Oh, alright, thanks for your input though.
I hope someone can help, I see everyone talking about PVT gear but I don’t see this helping us clear dungeons faster, sure I can bring more boons for my group than with the mesmer but even with a few might stacks and fury, it’s still not enough I think.

I rarely see people talking about full glass pve builds here.

Build your ele in similiar fashion. There’s nothing that should stop you from doing that if you pay attention to what happens around you.

haviz.1340:

Build your ele in similiar fashion. There’s nothing that should stop you from doing that if you pay attention to what happens around you.

The thing is, if Krag wants full glass, what would his traits and utilities look like? That’s mainly what I’m thinking about. Also, what weapon(s) and attunement(s) would be the best in this case?

Biggest problem, I have Mesmer/Ele too, is Mesmer has a lot of utility packed away in it’s utility slots meanwhile for the Ele all the utility is packed away in the skills and traits. It’s difficult to match the Mesmer’s level of efficiency character wise because of this fact. TimeWarp, projectile reflect, etc is always going to be colossal to a group while easily maintaining an absurd level of survivability.

As Ele I play a number of specs and the biggest thing you can do to help the group is play a D/D spec with Aura sharing. I typically run this build when doing dungeons (0/10/0/30/30).

I run PVT armor, and Berserker/Knight Jewelry and Weapons. This gives me around 16000 HP and 2000-2600 armor at 80. Also gives me fairly decent crit and attack. I use 2 Superior Monk, 2 Major Monk and 2 Superior Water for a mega +70% boon duration with 30 Arcana. I use Battle and Force for sigils.

This lets me:

1. Apply all auras to allies. This also grants them Fury and Swiftness from Zephyr’s boon. This is great since with Frost and Lightning auras and your massive +boon duration you grant Fury basically forever.

2. Stack numerous amounts of Area Might through Fire Field and Earth skills. Some basic combos are (I typically rotate between the two):

Ring of Fire → Earth (backing up) → Dodge Forward (Evasive Arcana blast) → Earthquake → Arcane Wave (instant) → Churning Earth = 12 stacks of might AOE, 15 for you with Sigil of Battle up (45 second cool down).

Ring of Fire → Earth (backing up) → Dodge Forward (Evasive Arcana blast) → Magnetic Grasp + Leap → Arcane Wave → Churning Earth = 9 stacks of might AOE, 15 for you with Sigil of battle up plus add in Fury and Swiftness for yourself due to Fire Aura. (30 second cool down)

(Note: Ring of Fire will end prior to Churning Earth but it’ll still grant might when it’s done casting)

3. Numerous defensive cool downs with Water. Swapping to Water alone will do an AOE heal, AOE condition removal, and Regen. You then got Cleansing Wave for another heal/condition removal right after on top of a large AOE Chill and Frost Breath for damage + heal (which I typically angle towards the melee ball).

4. If Dodge rolling for extra might isn’t your thing, you can take 10 out of Arcane and put them into Earth for Elemental Shielding but also remember this takes off 10% boon duration and increases swap time. Personally I don’t take this in favor of Arcana’s extra blast finisher for more might.

With that much might and that much fury being spread around, on top of what I presume is an Empowering Might Guardian and Warrior, you should always be at maximum Might Stacks and Fury and should just chew through content like no ones business.

Knowing how to land your Might combos and the encounters is important. For example setting up a Might stacking combo on AC Explore P1 right as the guy is just about to scream could lead to bad news but doing it post scream works fine. It also runs into the problem of certain encounters not being stackable. For example in CM Explore P2 the end boss that does a lot of poison/chill fields it’s a bad idea to stack there.

The biggest downside is how many other auras and ground targeted abilities your group runs. A well necromancer is going to screw up your might stacking combos just the same as a Guardian or another Mesmer dropping Chaos/Light fields. In this case I’m not sure you can really beat your Mesmer in terms of group play simply because a lot of the group buffs are all reliant on you being able to time, land and pull them off.

Another huge disadvantage is a lack of range. You can feel it on certain melee unfriendly encounters. You can swap out to a staff in these scenarios, but it’s certainly lackluster by comparison since you aren’t really spec’d for it.

Kodiak.3281:

snip

Nice write-up. Love it.

I personally prefer the 0/10/10/30/20 Elemental Shielding alternative you mentioned. It makes me feel more supporty! lol

There’s a reason speed run groups go with mesmer and either 4 warriors or 2 warriors and 2 thieves. Elementalists cannot do what mesmers do.

Kodiak.3281:

Thanks, that was more or less what I tried in the mists with boon duration runes since I was amazed at how many boons you can grant to yourself and your allies so I guess I’ll try that while gearing for damage.

Shimond.2478:

There’s a reason speed run groups go with mesmer and either 4 warriors or 2 warriors and 2 thieves. Elementalists cannot do what mesmers do.

That’s sad, I think. :<

I can do decent damage! I can survive! I can also give you auras, which can give you swiftness, fury, and protection! Why won’t you accept me?!

Shimond.2478:

There’s a reason speed run groups go with mesmer and either 4 warriors or 2 warriors and 2 thieves. Elementalists cannot do what mesmers do.

It’s very true. Mesmer is just built character wise so perfectly. It has a powerful group elite. It has powerful group utility in the utility slots from invisi, boon sharing (I get 12 stacks of might from warriors then inspire signet to spread back 12 to them for max stacks), mobility, projectile reflect, condition/boon removal, etc. This lets it bring a ton of damage in the weapon slots (be it phantasms, clone shatters, or just raw damage). It’s innate survivability (clones, perma vigor, leaps, evades, distortion, etc) lets you easily equip Knight/Zerker (or just full Zerker) and survive with a decent chunk of base hit points.

Krag.6210:

Kodiak.3281:

Thanks, that was more or less what I tried in the mists with boon duration runes since I was amazed at how many boons you can grant to yourself and your allies so I guess I’ll try that while gearing for damage.

I’m telling ya, you buff the hell outta your team you’ll just mow through content. I’ve done a lot of dungeon runs on the Ele and it’s always been the easiest when you got a group balling up together maxing out Might Stacks and Fury. It’s not as efficient as 4 warriors and a Mesmer but it comes pretty darned close. Your damage certainly isn’t bad either as I’ve seen Lightning Whip easily double crit for 2k total damage on a single in higher end dungeons with all that stacked up together.

You’d think at the very least they’d let you try it and see how it goes and if it doesn’t work out you can always fall back to the Mesmer. That’s what I typically do

Kodiak.3281:

Your damage certainly isn’t bad either as I’ve seen Lightning Whip easily double crit for 2k total damage on a single in higher end dungeons with all that stacked up together.

Well that’s pretty awesome. Could you tell me what your Power, Precision, and Crit Damage is? :o

Krag.6210:

So I just hit 80 with my elem using D/D and all the attunements, I think I nailed the thing even though I never went into dungeons with this guy.

Now I’m looking for a build to run dungeons with, I usually play with my guild and we destroy 3/4 of the dungeons every night, they’re used to my mesmer with her huge damage and time warp.

We’re all for the speed, running more or less full berserker most of the time.
I want them to accept my elem as they do with the mesmer, how should I build?

I fear that the elem can’t match the dps and utility my mesmer provides, hope you can prove me wrong.

Use the staff and make good use of water/fire/lightning fields, placing them at the right time and location.
Also invest in 20 pts in fire along with 20 water, as utility have arcane wave and 1-2 cantrips of choice, all I can say is go and try play staff…the entire enemy mob will be dead even before your team reach them

You could also use elemental surge+ frozen ground+arcane wave = frost armor+15s aoe chill or with other fields, or maybe you could use a s/d ele ( with the same fire traits) and destroy anything on sight

Honestly, a mesmer or an ele is a boon to any party. An ele can do what a mesmer can’t do – combo field out the wazoo increasing party DPS and giving boons to all. Plus they can also drop weapon summons to allow any other class member fill a role gap along with themselves. They may not be a “speed run” boon that a Mesmer is, but they are an awesome party rounder. I’ve seen more than one ele carry pugs.

Does that mean you can be a DPS build and do that? Not on the mesmer level – dipping into DPS trees lower your support, but think of it this way – your damage is you + your party as you’re giving them that DPS. I would take an ele over a mesmer for any class but my Warrior (as my warrior can give plenty of might and fury to himself, and doesn’t need ice bow or fire GS)

zTales.4392:

That’s sad, I think. :<

I can do decent damage! I can survive! I can also give you auras, which can give you swiftness, fury, and protection! Why won’t you accept me?!

Because a lot of people for whatever reason like to simplify things down into fastest/best/most powerful/what have you and don’t even consider things that aren’t at that top level.

note: I’m not one of those people (hence playing an elementalist :P)

Shimond.2478:

zTales.4392:

That’s sad, I think. :<

I can do decent damage! I can survive! I can also give you auras, which can give you swiftness, fury, and protection! Why won’t you accept me?!

Because a lot of people for whatever reason like to simplify things down into fastest/best/most powerful/what have you and don’t even consider things that aren’t at that top level.

note: I’m not one of those people (hence playing an elementalist :P)

This is exactly right.

A lot of people like to make the argument that providing boons will provide a great service to your team. As if your lack of damage is somehow carried through by the fact you’re buffing other people’s DPS. There’s a lot of math behind the scenes most people don’t want to look at or calculate and boons rarely add up unless they can be applied in large numbers. Simply adding 3 stacks of might isn’t going to cut it.

Think of it like this. Ele 1 stays in Fire the entire time and does 20000 damage in 20 seconds. Ele 2 stays in Fire for 5 seconds and does 5000 damage, then swaps to earth and only does 3000 damage over 10 seconds but provides an Area Might which adds +100 damage to everyone, then swaps back to Fire for 5 seconds for another 5000 damage. You’re comparing 20000 vs 13500.

The numbers may be a bit off, but the ratios are pretty much right in that scenario (for staff). However when you’re able to stack 9-12 stacks of might the numbers become much closer together to each other especially for D/D because once you’re done with Fire and Earth you’re immediately moving on to Air and not wasting any down time of DPS stuck waiting for Fire to come back up (which you have to for staff).

You always want to keep that in the back of your mind when playing or saying that your support enables other people’s DPS especially when comparing it to a class like a Mesmer who not only enables other people’s DPS but also brings plenty of pain on it’s own. Things like combo fields require a group who takes advantage of them. You can drop every field in the world but if no one actually uses combo finishers to take advantage of them properly then not only are they wasted but you’ve wasted your own time providing them.

There are groups that get away with simply rotating cool downs and blazing through content at lightning speeds. They don’t bother with maximizing combo fields or wasting time on buffing up boons outside of what they can do naturally. You see this in places like COF path 1 speed runs for cash with 4 war 1 mes. To imply that something is better is largely wrong but instead typically is said just to justify playing a different way than what is actually the best.

That said in general it largely doesn’t matter. Whether or not you go “boon-way” style support or “mesmer-way” style support the results will largely come out in a difference of a few minutes in each case. Your average pick up group will never even recognize the difference. Last night I had a 3 elementalist group with 2 of us staff, 1 d/d, a guardian and a thief and we just blazed through HOTW path 3 like it wasn’t even there. The only time it even slightly matters is getting into the real details of what is technically best is high end fractals.

I had the same doubt as OP so I have theorycrafted a dps build: http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/elementalist/?1|8.1g.0.8.1g.0|0.0.0.0.0.0|1g.7j.1g.7j.1c.7j.1g.7j.1c.7j.1g.a1|2t.e14.1c.67.1c.67.1g.67.1g.67.1c.67|0.f1.0.p35.u56b|e
What do you think? Will I survive enough?

DD ele aurashare and might stacking rotations with full berserker gear work exellent with melee heavy group. Alot of fury and might really pumps up the damage when you move organised. Fastet cof1 runs I have had was actually with two standard aura share eles. 25 might constant, + other boons to let everyone 100% focus on dmg, minimal in selfhealing/avoiding. Ofc many other setups, like extra war&mesmer can do it just as fast, but point was 2 dd eles didn’t slow it at all.

If you are alone in the melee, then you are gonna have to avoid too much and loose dmg.

Stack up and move organised in ur group, and you are gonna have great time as a ele.

Ignore teh pvt nubs, just go full berserker’s. If you’ve done it on your mesmer (nice gear worth 3k~ gold btw), then you can do it on an elementalist.

As an ele you can heal your group and provide them with lots of boons (might, regen, protection. Fury and swiftness only if you go 30 into water).

My current pve build is 0/25/0/15/30 (2k power, 57% crit chance and 105% crit dmg) and I couldn’t be happier with it. I constantly switch through weapons depending on the encounter, but for boss fights I tend to prioritize S/D. It’s just so fun to give 20+ might stacks to your party on your own! (with sigil of battle you reach 25 easily).

I rarely use staff for boss fights, I mostly just pull it out when there are a lot of trash mobs that need to be kited / aoe’d and fought from far away, or simply when I need the range or the reflecting aura (earth 3).

S/D is great for the reasons I’ve explained.

D/D is point blank aoe, it has the strongest autoattacks out of all the ele weps and some sick, instant burst. And it’s the most fun too! Stacking might with d/d is also easy but less effective than s/d.

Some numbers off the top of my head:

Dragon tooth’s damage on a crit: 6000 on average
Fire grab’s damage on a crit: 8000 on average
Lightning whip’s damage on a crit: 2000 x2 on average
Churning earth’s damage on a crit: 7000 on average

^

I use full zerker and D/D for pretty much every dungeon I run, 0/30/0/10/30 if I’m with a pug, 30/30/10/0 with premades.

The reason Eles get bad reputation is because people do instances with kittenty builds and deal no damage. I outdps most warriors in my groups and fart might stacks on top of that.

You might wanna bring at least 2 cantrips though.

I’m curious as to how D/D can outdps a warrior… a warrior can just sit and spam axe 1 and average over 6k per second. 100B + WW + axe or rifle filler can beat that. If a D/D can beat that, there’s zero reason to be running warrior over ele. D=

Drawing Guy.3701:

I’m curious as to how D/D can outdps a warrior… a warrior can just sit and spam axe 1 and average over 6k per second. 100B + WW + axe or rifle filler can beat that. If a D/D can beat that, there’s zero reason to be running warrior over ele. D=

Don’t you see, that’s the fun bit of it all! We can all quote random numbers and make wild proclamations and no one ever has any way to back it up! If anyone ever calls you on it, all you gotta do is call them a noob who doesn’t know what they are talking about and you never have to actually prove anything! Just keep the numbers high but somewhat within reason and you can totally get away with it.

4 warrior and a mesmer combo? That’s for noobs. It’s all about the 5 Ele groups all able to dish out 8000 DPS each and each able to stack might to 25 while healing for 3000 on demand in berserker gear with permanent of every other boon while being immune to conditions. Don’t know how to do it? Don’t be a noob. Want a video of it? You ain’t worth the time to make a video. I’m too busy DPSing to take a screen shot of my numbers let alone a video. I dare you to disprove anything I just said!

The AoE damage of a D/D zerker Ele is pretty insane, 5k burning speed 3k ring of fire, 1.5k per tick of drake’s breath, 10k fire grab, 3k autos and that’s the max amount of damage i’ve been able to put out without might stacks. All AoE.

This is personal experience mind you, you can run anything you feel comfortable with, but Eles DPS is one of the best when spec’d for it.

Kodiak.3281:

Don’t be a noob. Want a video of it? You ain’t worth the time to make a video. I’m too busy DPSing to take a screen shot of my numbers let alone a video. I dare you to disprove anything I just said!

This was a quick test in Orr, no might stacks or food. So Razor’s numbers were pretty accurate, simplified even.

http://imgur.com/Q1cHXYB

Gotta love smartasses.

Daharahj.1325:

The AoE damage of a D/D zerker Ele is pretty insane, 5k burning speed 3k ring of fire, 1.5k per tick of drake’s breath, 10k fire grab, 3k autos and that’s the max amount of damage i’ve been able to put out without might stacks.

This is personal experience mind you, you can run anything you feel comfortable with, but Eles DPS is one of the best when spec’d for it.

It’s more like 7k burning speed and air auto attack strikes twice. Last time I was in Arah, lightning strike hit for 7-8k on first bosses and 4-5k on lupi. But you have to go through very painful way of acquiring berserker’s gear instead of knight’s/soldier’s/cleric’s.

Kodiak.3281:

Drawing Guy.3701:

I’m curious as to how D/D can outdps a warrior… a warrior can just sit and spam axe 1 and average over 6k per second. 100B + WW + axe or rifle filler can beat that. If a D/D can beat that, there’s zero reason to be running warrior over ele. D=

Don’t you see, that’s the fun bit of it all! We can all quote random numbers and make wild proclamations and no one ever has any way to back it up! If anyone ever calls you on it, all you gotta do is call them a noob who doesn’t know what they are talking about and you never have to actually prove anything! Just keep the numbers high but somewhat within reason and you can totally get away with it.

4 warrior and a mesmer combo? That’s for noobs. It’s all about the 5 Ele groups all able to dish out 8000 DPS each and each able to stack might to 25 while healing for 3000 on demand in berserker gear with permanent of every other boon while being immune to conditions. Don’t know how to do it? Don’t be a noob. Want a video of it? You ain’t worth the time to make a video. I’m too busy DPSing to take a screen shot of my numbers let alone a video. I dare you to disprove anything I just said!

lfmao! luv it. I sometimes wonder also myself if anyone actually plays the way they write they do. I’ve never been in a dungeon yet where anyone is standing still long enough for anyone to stack anything lol. It’s plainly not needed.

Arcane Shield op.

Although I’m a D/D main, I run S/D in dungeons. It’s just superior in terms of damage vs. survivability vs. team buffing with very low risk to yourself if you position correctly. It also stacks AoE might better than any other weapon set; your team will melt everything if you play correctly.

Thank you for all your answers.

Kodiak.3281:

Drawing Guy.3701:

I’m curious as to how D/D can outdps a warrior… a warrior can just sit and spam axe 1 and average over 6k per second. 100B + WW + axe or rifle filler can beat that. If a D/D can beat that, there’s zero reason to be running warrior over ele. D=

Don’t you see, that’s the fun bit of it all! We can all quote random numbers and make wild proclamations and no one ever has any way to back it up! If anyone ever calls you on it, all you gotta do is call them a noob who doesn’t know what they are talking about and you never have to actually prove anything! Just keep the numbers high but somewhat within reason and you can totally get away with it.

4 warrior and a mesmer combo? That’s for noobs. It’s all about the 5 Ele groups all able to dish out 8000 DPS each and each able to stack might to 25 while healing for 3000 on demand in berserker gear with permanent of every other boon while being immune to conditions. Don’t know how to do it? Don’t be a noob. Want a video of it? You ain’t worth the time to make a video. I’m too busy DPSing to take a screen shot of my numbers let alone a video. I dare you to disprove anything I just said!

You know… there has to be a reason behind mockery, that’s how it usually goes. My guess is that you actually think that I made those numbers up, and I’m a big liar (otherwise your blatant sarcasm tone would hold no purpose).

All of what I said is true, but you win, I’ll waste my time to take some screenshots, since apparently what I said is so extremely hard to believe that I can’t blame you for doubting me! (I don’t wanna imagine what numbers you pull off with your super PVT build for you to doubt me so much)

Daharahj.1325:

This was a quick test in Orr, no might stacks or food. So Razor’s numbers were pretty accurate, simplified even.

http://imgur.com/Q1cHXYB

Gotta love smartasses.

Yeah, I made that on average but it usually goes higher depending on vulnerability stacks and other factors.

I was running with full berserker elementalist some time ago and he was dying from sneeze, so his dps was nearly equal to mine in full clerics. In my opinion, berserkers is for those who know encounter and class like their own pockets, clerics is for people who like to disregard “we don’t have healers”.

and pvt is for www

Razor.6392:

All of what I said is true, but you win, I’ll waste my time to take some screenshots, since apparently what I said is so extremely hard to believe that I can’t blame you for doubting me! (I don’t wanna imagine what numbers you pull off with your super PVT build for you to doubt me so much)

No worries, it’s same on guardian forum. Try to convience them that guardian can be build with really nice dps setup and you’re gonne be told that if you want to deal damage you should have rolled a warrior.

If you know your class and dungeon, not playing with berserker’s gear is just gimping yourself because of your own laziness to actually use two hands for playing.

You can go scepter/dagger
gear mix cleric (just enough to get ~400 healing power)/berserker with some traits:
0
20 VI X
0
20 VI V
30 V I XI
et you really good dameges , and with the healing you can put out still survive well , + lot’s of combo field for might helping your whole group
Utility spell you take:
healing signet
arcane wave
arcane blast
mist form
fire greatsword and you’re good to go

Winds.3087:

I was running with full berserker elementalist some time ago and he was dying from sneeze, so his dps was nearly equal to mine in full clerics. In my opinion, berserkers is for those who know encounter and class like their own pockets, clerics is for people who like to disregard “we don’t have healers”.

and pvt is for www

That’s always been my viewpoint: Give people a launching point and let them go from there.

I mean personally I’m always trying new mixtures of traits, specs, skills and gear. I mean realistically other than upgrading Ascended items there isn’t much to spend money on if you don’t want a Legendary. Even then most of that gear is buyable with dungeon tokens. I also know boss fights and when to adjust my gear and play style and what I can and can’t get away with.

However if you get someone who’s coming to the forums asking they’re most likely not on this same level of familiarity with the class yet. In general I feel it’s best to give these people a mixture of offense and defense and let them adjust from there as needed even if in this case they’re asking purely about DPS. Without DPS meters you have to give people visuals. They can visually see the boons. They can visually see them melting opponents. They can also visually see you lying on the ground dead most of the time because you didn’t know how to pull off zerk gear in zerk spec some guy on the forums wanted to brag that’s what he does.

Kodiak.3281:

Winds.3087:

I was running with full berserker elementalist some time ago and he was dying from sneeze, so his dps was nearly equal to mine in full clerics. In my opinion, berserkers is for those who know encounter and class like their own pockets, clerics is for people who like to disregard “we don’t have healers”.

and pvt is for www

That’s always been my viewpoint: Give people a launching point and let them go from there.

I mean personally I’m always trying new mixtures of traits, specs, skills and gear. I mean realistically other than upgrading Ascended items there isn’t much to spend money on if you don’t want a Legendary. Even then most of that gear is buyable with dungeon tokens. I also know boss fights and when to adjust my gear and play style and what I can and can’t get away with.

However if you get someone who’s coming to the forums asking they’re most likely not on this same level of familiarity with the class yet. In general I feel it’s best to give these people a mixture of offense and defense and let them adjust from there as needed even if in this case they’re asking purely about DPS. Without DPS meters you have to give people visuals. They can visually see the boons. They can visually see them melting opponents. They can also visually see you lying on the ground dead most of the time because you didn’t know how to pull off zerk gear in zerk spec some guy on the forums wanted to brag that’s what he does.

In case you didn’t notice, OP already mentioned that he pulled off full berserker mesmer, so he actually has experience on being glass with a light armor class.

I believe ele’s have equal survivability compared to a mesmer, so it’s pointless to go PVT.

Here’s a damage chart I made just for you, I was using the highest damage buffs (with my current setup, I didn’t respec to 30/30/0/0/10 or anything), and was killing solo at orr (so no 25 vuln stacks).

I’m not bragging, but the way you typed back then you made it seem like those numbers are actually impossible to achieve and well you’re wrong. Now tell me how much damage do you do on your pvt whatever gear? I rarely get downed or die in dungeons, so don’t even go there.

Razor.6392:

In case you didn’t notice, OP already mentioned that he pulled off full berserker mesmer, so he actually has experience on being glass with a light armor class.

I believe ele’s have equal survivability compared to a mesmer, so it’s pointless to go PVT.

Here’s a damage chart I made just for you, I was using the highest damage buffs (with my current setup, I didn’t respec to 30/30/0/0/10 or anything), and was killing solo at orr (so no 25 vuln stacks).

I’m not bragging, but the way you typed back then you made it seem like those numbers are actually impossible to achieve and well you’re wrong. Now tell me how much damage do you do on your pvt whatever gear? I rarely get downed or die in dungeons, so don’t even go there.

Numbers are quite good, but what buffs are you running? I use a mixture of berserker/knights with only 52% crit dmg and my churning earth does around 8-9k in fractals 30+ with 20+ stacks of might, so i guess that specific number is without might?

NdranC.5107:

Razor.6392:

In case you didn’t notice, OP already mentioned that he pulled off full berserker mesmer, so he actually has experience on being glass with a light armor class.

I believe ele’s have equal survivability compared to a mesmer, so it’s pointless to go PVT.

Here’s a damage chart I made just for you, I was using the highest damage buffs (with my current setup, I didn’t respec to 30/30/0/0/10 or anything), and was killing solo at orr (so no 25 vuln stacks).

I’m not bragging, but the way you typed back then you made it seem like those numbers are actually impossible to achieve and well you’re wrong. Now tell me how much damage do you do on your pvt whatever gear? I rarely get downed or die in dungeons, so don’t even go there.

Numbers are quite good, but what buffs are you running? I use a mixture of berserker/knights with only 52% crit dmg and my churning earth does around 8-9k in fractals 30+ with 20+ stacks of might, so i guess that specific number is without might?

I had around 10-13 might for that churning earth I think.

I was using the +200 power after getting a kill for 30s (10% crit dmg) and 25 stacks on my sigil of bloodlust.

This was solo tho, in groups it’s even higher due to the vuln stacks.

What rune setup do you use Razor?

divinity .

Alright, I just did Arah p3 as my first dungeon and it went pretty well on my side with the standard aurashare build, the damage is alright even though I’m not fully geared yet.
Playing d/d most of the time and I struggle a bit with the scepter, can’t land might combos properly, what’s the optimal order?

Got full zerk armor and ring/earring, soldier weapons and amulet, I’m not gonna buy 6 more Divinity runes so I guess I’ll go with Ruby orbs or Boon duration runes (or mix).

Any tips or thoughts on what I said are welcome.

Personally I do:
1. Dragon’s tooth
2. Move to where it’s about to fall really quick (or you could already be in melee range)
3. Ring of fire under the dragon’s tooth right before it falls
4. faceroll arcane wave -> phoenix -> switch earth -> dodge roll -> earthquake

free +15 stacks! Attuning to fire gives 1 and using glyph while in fire (not recommended unless you need it) also gives 1. On top of the boon duration and sigil of battle, you can consistently keep 20plus stacks all the time as long as you keep switching.

Arcane shield helps to do this when it’s too risky

I could go for something more dps-y but loosing the aurashare trait seems like a huge loss of dps for the whole group.
What are some traits I should aim for in the fire/air trees to make up for this loss?

I find aurashare to be useless tbh, other classes can give fury to the group. I have never really played other professions but I find myself with fury quite often.

Aurashare only shines in pvp.

Alright, will try some new builds tomorrow.
Seen some 9k Churning Earth in dungeon which I’m pretty happy with, 10-15 perma might for my group and 15-20 for me and some other cool stuff.

Thank you all for your help, this has been a pretty interesting topic, hopefully it will turn people into more dps-y builds.

S/D still better in stacking Might compared to D/D. Since dungeon mobs are predictable, S/D would be a better choice.

I always stack 25 stacks of Might by the 2nd cycle, meaning Fire → Earth → Air → Water.

ChaosDoom.8459:

S/D still better in stacking Might compared to D/D. Since dungeon mobs are predictable, S/D would be a better choice.

I always stack 25 stacks of Might by the 2nd cycle, meaning Fire -> Earth -> Air -> Water.

S/D has 2 more blast finishers so its definately a better might stacker, but with D/D i can stack 25 for the second rotation too while doing more damage and having better aoe. I guess its a matter of taste.

I’m playing a 0-20-0-20-30 build right now, trying both S/D and D/D but I can’t tell which one deals more damage. Can swap between the two no problem but I like to have a “main” and “secondary” set still.
Is Zephyr’s Boon even worth it when playing S/D?

Krag.6210:

I’m playing a 0-20-0-20-30 build right now, trying both S/D and D/D but I can’t tell which one deals more damage. Can swap between the two no problem but I like to have a “main” and “secondary” set still.
Is Zephyr’s Boon even worth it when playing S/D?

If you’re running S/D it’s better to grab Bolt to the Heart (VI) and Air Training (X).