Guild Wars 2

Do raiding groups prefer a cleric tempest auramancer d/f or d/d build? Or do raiding groups want the ele to be a zerker dps staff user?

Please advise. Thank you all. :-)

The only off hand weapon people like, for 5/6 bosses, is warhorn. Staff is universally good though. And if you’re auramancer, it’s more like zealot’s than celestial, and with fresh air.

Dps is the most in demand role, whether it’s staff or d/w

I had celestial, but the elitism of other ppl forced me to change it to zerk. They told me they would not allow me to play raids with them unless I was a zerk,

It’s not elitism. Celestial doesn’t do what the team needed. If you’re in a dps role, using celestial means you aren’t doing enough dps to pull your weight. You can’t expect people to carry you.

on the other hand, celestial is good for being the tank at VG
but that’s about it

reikken.4961:

on the other hand, celestial is good for being the tank at VG
but that’s about it

This was the exact one I wanted to do as a tank, jet they did not allowed me.

Yeah celestial ele in most pve formats just barely covers what you need damage wise. Sure the rest of the bonuses are relevant in so many different ways since ele can flip into a lot of different roles quite quickly. I’d rather stick to two roles than try to be everything at one time. That and the armor stats back that up since even using 4 stat armor means that you get closer to the average than spreading focus out in celestial.

Jhoul.6923:

reikken.4961:

on the other hand, celestial is good for being the tank at VG
but that’s about it

This was the exact one I wanted to do as a tank, jet they did not allowed me.

If the group needed a tank, and they said no to a celestial ele tank, then that’s still not elitism: they’re just bad, because ele is arguably the best tank for VG. and zerk would be terrible for an ele tank. but I don’t think anyone would want an ele tank to swap to zerk. Did they know you were signing up for tank?

but if they already had a tank, then of course they’d say no to someone wanting to be tank.

or if it was an experienced group looking for a quick kill, and you weren’t very experienced, then they’d also say no. tank requires the most experience and is the most important job at VG, so an inexperienced tank is absolutely the best way to prevent a quick kill.

you can still tank as a zerk ele with the toughness signet

You can, in that you can hold aggro, but you won’t be a good tank. The boss hits for 6k, in addition to the passive periodic 2k AoE, so you’ll need constant attention from the healer, and you won’t be able to make good pulls to ensure good green circle placement because you’ll die from pulling before the floor change, and you’ll have to pull away from seekers unless your groups seeker control is absolutely perfect, etc. It’s a very good way to have a messy run that fails repeatedly.

If you’re in a group that’s organized and experienced enough that 4 people could literally be afk the entire fight and still clear the boss, then yeah, you can tank with a zerker ele. The only other scenario in which a zerker ele tank would be even remotely good is if you had 4+ magi’s healers such that people dying isn’t an issue but dps is.

A good tank actually does a lot of dps. I tank VG in zealot/marauder, not because I want/need to, but because I can. Ele is great for self heals.

Yeah, but zealot’s+marauder isn’t zerker. That gives both vitality and healing power, both of which are important for tanking on ele. No one said you needed to go full nomad’s or something and do no damage. You just need to have some defensive stats. And some defensive traits (or a lot of party support).

reikken.4961:

Yeah, but zealot’s+marauder isn’t zerker. That gives both vitality and healing power, both of which are important for tanking on ele. No one said you needed to go full nomad’s or something and do no damage. You just need to have some defensive stats. And some defensive traits (or a lot of party support).

Ok. I’ve done it with berserker before too. So has many others. Toughness signet tanking is a thing. Just like how berserker main healer tempest is a thing.

of course it can be done
raiding in masterwork gear can also be done
5-manning can be done too
and clearing in less than half the time can be done as well

If whole group is extremely experienced and coordinated, you can do whatever you want. But if you’re trying to do as much as you can to help the group kill the boss, it’s a very bad idea.

Agree to disagree. If you know what you are doing you definitely don’t need to rely on outside heals. Especially for bosses like VG. The only time you’re really fail is enraged gors.

Well, the main thing for me is, having that healing power and those defensive stats allows you to correct for other people’s mistakes. If someone gets cleaved by the boss or clipped by a seeker, most of ele’s self healing is also ally healing, so I can heal them up. If someone pushes a seeker out of a green right into my face, no problem. I can deal with it. And I need absolutely no help from anyone else in tanking the boss. I’m fine even if the healer never heals me at all and if no one gives me protection.

And, importantly, I can pull the boss early inside a still lit section before the breakbar so that even if the break isn’t fast enough, the green will spawn in the correct section. And for anyone else who also comes into the damage zone, I can heal them too. It just makes everything so much smoother. You can all but guarantee a kill.

Sure, I don’t do as much dps as an ele in full zerker, but I do do enough dps such that if everyone else did as much dps as me, the timer would be met. And everyone else, except the chrono and healer, should be doing notably more than that. And keeping the run as smooth as possible ensures that they do.

Also, ele doesn’t have the tools to not get hit while tanking—unlike chrono or DH, you have no blocks or invulns, and you have no extra evades except burning speed—so I have a hard time believing that you can tank VG in full zerker without needing outside heals, even if everything does go right. which it usually doesn’t. If you can, great, more power to you. but, see above.

Can someone point me to a video of a zerker ele with toughness signet tank please. It would make a good study for me. I’m all for improving myself but the best i could do is zerker gears with cleric rings/accessories; Fresh Air/ Earth; Wash the Pain Away/Feel the Burn/ Flash Freeze/ Signet of Fire.