Guild Wars 2

This is a help me thread just a heads up. I have been playing GW2 sense beta and I consider myself to be pretty decent 1v1/1vx (we are talking PvP/WvW ofc) I usually play Engi Or Necro but I have Maxed out both of those toons and my next is going to be ELE.

Now I want to be clear that I use the term “Bunker” loosely hints the "" but I know absolutely nothing about building an Ele and if its anything like Engi it takes really knowing your class to come up with good builds.

With all that in mind im looking forward to a tough to master class with high payoff. What builds centered around survival/dueling can you recommend.

Also if anyone knows of some GREAT eles i can look up and watch videos are always helpful, is anyone currently considered one of the best Eles?

Xunleashed sometimes realeases some very impressive WvW videos. He released a new video just recently (he also links his build in the thread):

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Video-Xun-d-d-new-roaming-duo

Currently there are not that many renown successful elementalist players in sPvP but I could say the same about other classes as well. A lot of the youtube video footage is at least 5-6 months old. The meta has changed a lot since then, so the older videos are likely not that helpful.

Intigo also has a youtube channel with some older videos as well. At least the newer videos are worth watching:

http://www.youtube.com/user/IntigoGW2

Currently engineer and necro are considered to be a lot stronger in 1v1 especially against elementalist. That’s why the devs came up with that strange “diamond skin” idea in the last patch.

new build. For Advanced DnD players only.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/elementalist/?1.0|8.5g.h4.8.5g.h19.d19.0.d19|0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0|1c.71h.1c.71h.5j.71g.1c.71g.5j.b1m.1c.b1m.0.0.0.0.0.0|211.d1b.211.d1b.311.d1b.211.d1b.311.d1b.3v.d1b|0.a1.0.u15b.u28b|15.1|1n.1u.25.1v.29|e

Thanks for the assist thats exactly what i was looking for, I have seen a ton of celestial gear for D/D eles i guess ill have to craft like a mo. Do you think Clerics is an ok stand in untill i get celestial or should I mix it up with knights/soldiers/zerker?

I second the mention of Intigo, and would like to add Serane as well, as between the two you get a really good idea of how to run a D/D or Staff build in WvW or PvP.

As for what gear to run, I was told by a friend of mine who runs Elementalist to aim for 3,000 Attack, 25 to 30% Critical Hit Chance, 1500 to 1600 Toughness, 16k to 17k Health, and around 70% Critical Damage. If you do that then your pretty well set as far as stats go on an Elementalist. But that isn’t exactly a Pure Bunker Build Elementalist. That is a build that gets you both offense, defense, and mobility.

The way I will be managing it is by having Exotic Weapons of the Berserkers Stats, Exotic Armor of the Cavalier Stats, Ascended Trinkets & Back Piece with 2 being Berserkers, the rest being Soldiers, 6 Superior Rune of the Scholar, 6 Resiliant Infusions of whatever variety you have so long as they provide +5 Toughness, Dragon’s Breath Bun, and Maintenance Oil.

I also want to go 0/10/0/30/30 and with that build I can swap between D/D and Staff quite easily. This makes my character much more useful in WvW and arguably PvE. I don’t really play this character in PvP though.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

I second the mention of Intigo, and would like to add Serane as well, as between the two you get a really good idea of how to run a D/D or Staff build in WvW or PvP.

As for what gear to run, I was told by a friend of mine who runs Elementalist to aim for 3,000 Attack, 25 to 30% Critical Hit Chance, 1500 to 1600 Toughness, 16k to 17k Health, and around 70% Critical Damage. If you do that then your pretty well set as far as stats go on an Elementalist. But that isn’t exactly a Pure Bunker Build Elementalist. That is a build that gets you both offense, defense, and mobility.

The way I will be managing it is by having Exotic Weapons of the Berserkers Stats, Exotic Armor of the Cavalier Stats, Ascended Trinkets & Back Piece with 2 being Berserkers, the rest being Soldiers, 6 Superior Rune of the Scholar, 6 Resiliant Infusions of whatever variety you have so long as they provide +5 Toughness, Dragon’s Breath Bun, and Maintenance Oil.

I also want to go 0/10/0/30/30 and with that build I can swap between D/D and Staff quite easily. This makes my character much more useful in WvW and arguably PvE. I don’t really play this character in PvP though.

Using celestial armor instead, and cavalier trinkets will get you more stats overall. The crit damage to stats lost ratio is much better on trinkets. Also, celestial armor has equal or more critical damage to zerkers armor, as opposed to trinkets, where it has less.

Figured I’d help you before you make a bit of a silly mistake

I know Xunleashed is good, but does anyone know what happened to Excala, as far as D/D streamers go?

Gokil.2543:

Using ascended armor instead, and cavalier trinkets will get you more stats overall. The crit damage to stats lost ratio is much better on trinkets. Also, celestial armor has equal or more critical damage to zerkers armor, as opposed to trinkets, where it has less.

Figured I’d help you before you make a bit of a silly mistake

using my build I sit at: 3165 Attack, 28% Crit Rate, 1509 Toughness, 16285 Hit Points, and 68% Crit Damage.

Using your build I would be looking at: 3150 Attack, 25% Crit Rate, 1691 Toughness, 15655 Hit Points, and 86% Crit Damage.

This means that with your build I would do less damage with a standard attack, and crit less often. Yes I would take less damage, but I would also have less hit points, meaning that it would take fewer high powered hits to take me down.

I am sorry but I would prefer to stick with the build I had originally planned on using. Yes I know that Ascended Armor and Weapons are generally speaking better than Exotic Armor and Weapons, but I am not rich enough to get Ascended Weapons and Armor the instant I hit level 80 on a given character. The best I can hope for for quite a while is probably going to be Exotic. The only reason I am going to be able to get the Ascended Trinkets is because I have already started saving up the appropriate currencies needed to buy them, and because they don’t require crafting in the strictest sense.

Please note that stat data comes from en.gw2skills.net

I’m sorry I meant celestial armor :o

That made no sense, sorry for the confusion

Celestial armor is better than celestial trinkets, and cavalier trinkets is better than cavalier armor

To clarify, this is what you’re proposing:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoIGAIKcxERBAKPyZGbA-jkCBYLBkgAkEBIHtIaslhBp6KslXRTVTQWlET5KpSBonwI-w

And this is what I’m proposing:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoIGAIKcxERBAKPyZGbA-j0CBYfgYLAEEgkIAJqFRjtMMIVXht8KaabYKXJVFTQWKA9EGB-w

Both builds have pretty much exactly the same stats, except the second one gets 10 percent extra critical damage. This is due to weird roundings which make celestial armor better than trinkets, and cavalier trinkets better than cavalier armor.

Hope it helps!

Gokil.2543:

To clarify, this is what you’re proposing:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoIGAIKcxERBAKPyZGbA-jkCBYLBkgAkEBIHtIaslhBp6KslXRTVTQWlET5KpSBonwI-w

Um… nah uh. That is not what I am proposing.

The build I am working with is as follows:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhEmkbwx5QlDAkHuYCLiCPUeszM2A-jUCBYLBhgAgKAJVtIasFXFRjVZDT5KRqXC1G0FRrWKArGGB-w

Gokil.2543:

And this is what I’m proposing:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoIGAIKcxERBAKPyZGbA-j0CBYfgYLAEEgkIAJqFRjtMMIVXht8KaabYKXJVFTQWKA9EGB-w

In fact, both of the builds you presented in your response to me that I just quoted are actually WORSE than the build I am proposing. My build has more Power, more Defense, and more Hit Points. The only thing your two builds have going for them is that they have slightly more Critical Hit Rate and Critical Damage than my build. But unfortunately for you, I come from a long history of Role Playing Games. And I know a thing or two about Critical Hits.

Taking Dungeons and Dragons as an example, it does not matter if your Critical Threat Range is 15-20 (meaning you get a chance to score a critical hit if your attack roll pops up a 15 through 20 on a 20 sided die), it also does not matter if your Critical Damage Multiplier is x4 (the highest that it can get with most conventional weapons), assuming the damage your weapon does is a paltry 1d3 (that is the lowest damage you can get on a weapon without modifiers and means half of a six sided dice) instead of say a 2d6 or a 1d12 (those are the highest damage you can get on a conventional weapon and refers to two six sided dice, or one twelve sided die).

Point is, my build does more base damage than your build, meaning it will do more critical damage when it does score a critical hit, which doesn’t happen significantly enough less often with my build to cause me to change builds.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

Gokil.2543:

To clarify, this is what you’re proposing:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoIGAIKcxERBAKPyZGbA-jkCBYLBkgAkEBIHtIaslhBp6KslXRTVTQWlET5KpSBonwI-w

Um… nah uh. That is not what I am proposing.

The build I am working with is as follows:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhEmkbwx5QlDAkHuYCLiCPUeszM2A-jUCBYLBhgAgKAJVtIasFXFRjVZDT5KRqXC1G0FRrWKArGGB-w

Gokil.2543:

And this is what I’m proposing:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoIGAIKcxERBAKPyZGbA-j0CBYfgYLAEEgkIAJqFRjtMMIVXht8KaabYKXJVFTQWKA9EGB-w

In fact, both of the builds you presented in your response to me that I just quoted are actually WORSE than the build I am proposing. My build has more Power, more Defense, and more Hit Points. The only thing your two builds have going for them is that they have slightly more Critical Hit Rate and Critical Damage than my build. But unfortunately for you, I come from a long history of Role Playing Games. And I know a thing or two about Critical Hits.

Taking Dungeons and Dragons as an example, it does not matter if your Critical Threat Range is 15-20 (meaning you get a chance to score a critical hit if your attack roll pops up a 15 through 20 on a 20 sided die), it also does not matter if your Critical Damage Multiplier is x4 (the highest that it can get with most conventional weapons), assuming the damage your weapon does is a paltry 1d3 (that is the lowest damage you can get on a weapon without modifiers and means half of a six sided dice) instead of say a 2d6 or a 1d12 (those are the highest damage you can get on a conventional weapon and refers to two six sided dice, or one twelve sided die).

Point is, my build does more base damage than your build, meaning it will do more critical damage when it does score a critical hit, which doesn’t happen significantly enough less often with my build to cause me to change builds.

Sorry bro, that’s not the way it works here in GW2 land. Also you are not considering the extra condition damage from celestial. Don’t forget about healing power as well this stat alone makes celestial the beter choice In the long run. My original question was not if celestial was good or bad but if clerics was an ok stand in UNTILL I got celestial.

Just an observation for other classes btw

tattoohead.3217:

Sorry bro, that’s not the way it works here in GW2 land. Also you are not considering the extra condition damage from celestial. Don’t forget about healing power as well this stat alone makes celestial the beter choice In the long run. My original question was not if celestial was good or bad but if clerics was an ok stand in UNTILL I got celestial.

Just an observation for other classes btw

I am sorry but you are blatantly wrong.

Average damage = Base damage * (( 1 – Critical Chance) + Base Damage * (Critical Chance * (Critical Damage + 1.5))

That is the formula that determines how much damage that you do with a Critical Hit. You need to notice that your Critical Chance and Critical Damage are all jumbled in together with a bunch of other figures that ALL get multiplied by your BASE DAMAGE.

And how is your Base Damage determined? by another formula that is as follows:

Damage done = (Weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

You will notice that Power and Weapon Strength (the two factors that determine your Attack Power) are present in this formula.

What this means is that the higher your Power and Weapon Strength, the higher your damage when you perform a Critical Hit will actually be, because it is actually your ((Attack Power * Skill-Specific Coefficient) / (Target Armor)) that everything in the Critical Damage Formula gets multiplied by.

I misread the build you described as saying you were going for celestial trinkets, where you said you were going for ascended trinkets. I’m sorry. Massive kitten , want me to remove these posts?

Btw I would say a little celestial is nice for the healing power and critical damage, but thats a matter of opinion, not fact which is how I presented my proposal.

no point in removing them as it would just confuse people.

Viking Jorun.5413:

I know Xunleashed is good, but does anyone know what happened to Excala, as far as D/D streamers go?

I talked to him about a month ago he has been traveling lately no time to really play much.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

I am sorry but you are blatantly wrong.

Average damage = Base damage * (( 1 – Critical Chance) + Base Damage * (Critical Chance * (Critical Damage + 1.5))

That is the formula that determines how much damage that you do with a Critical Hit. You need to notice that your Critical Chance and Critical Damage are all jumbled in together with a bunch of other figures that ALL get multiplied by your BASE DAMAGE.

And how is your Base Damage determined? by another formula that is as follows:

Damage done = (Weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

You will notice that Power and Weapon Strength (the two factors that determine your Attack Power) are present in this formula.

What this means is that the higher your Power and Weapon Strength, the higher your damage when you perform a Critical Hit will actually be, because it is actually your ((Attack Power * Skill-Specific Coefficient) / (Target Armor)) that everything in the Critical Damage Formula gets multiplied by.

All Good Info’s here!! To add

The condition damage on celestial is kind of a non factor.

Many advocates of full celestial point to the condition damage but when it is pointed out that you have low power the counter is well I have might stacks it doesn’t work that way because power and condition damage don’t scale the same.

Luckily ele has burns which are a good condition with high base but as soon as you start lightning whipping someone and they don’t have any damaging condition on them wouldn’t it be better to put those points somewhere else? Burning for Ele should be looked at as our poison which allows us to help reduce someone’s passive healing over time.

If people want to put some celestial on that is fine you just can not neglect power as it double dips into your critical strikes and your white damage whereas critical damage only effects your crits and nothing else.

Heh I was in a mood when flaming the while power vs crit/crit dmg thing sorry, I is true that pow is important. That’s why zerker > assassin but the overall point of the post is for bunker/survival builds right? So healing power is a factor for sure.

tattoohead.3217:

Heh I was in a mood when flaming the while power vs crit/crit dmg thing sorry, I is true that pow is important. That’s why zerker > assassin but the overall point of the post is for bunker/survival builds right? So healing power is a factor for sure.

Yea it definitely is after my past 2 weeks playing guardian I have much better appreciation for Elementalist healing ability. Altruistic Healing is selfish through and through. Selfless Daring is a great heal similar to our Evasive but has no icd so you can abuse it with energy sigils. I haven’t played staff guard yet but comparing guardians 0/5/30/30/5 AH or Med Variations and 0/0/10/30/30 Healway builds our 20 water 30 Arcana puts out much better damage than those and to get great damage out of 0/5/30/30/5 you almost have to go full zerk so far from my experience and have to have the right weapons for the job or your screwed whereas our D/D builds are much better all around.

I thought Guard would be similar to Ele but it really isn’t they are so different. I feel like it is either you go full out dps or full support the middle ground is there but it is much much harder to secure a kill with guardian.

Sorry for the side rant.

I am jelly of strength in numbers trait and guards have some good passive condition removal options there burst removal I don’t think is as good as ele for self sustain but party removal is awesome.