Guild Wars 2

Anyone who plays ele and do fotm? If so please let me know your build, I’m looking for ways to shape my own build as far as fractals goes. Right now i use dagger/focus with knights gear, going 20-25-0-15-10. I get renewing stamina(gain 5s vigor on critical) for arcana, piercing shards for water(deal 20% more damage to vulnerable foes while attuned to water) , aeormancers alacrity(-20%cd to air skills.), bolt to the heart( +20% more dmg to foes below 33% health) for air, conjurer(conjure weps have +10 charges) and internal fire( +10% damage while attuned to fire) for fire.
I use Frost bow, lightning hammer, FGS and lightning flash (for fgs trick). I am looking to keep my damage at least decent, while keeping focus for its swirling wind and obsidian flesh. I find that i go down, quite a lot , in level 20 fractals.
Any and all input helps quite a bit, and i also understand knowing the bosses key moves is something as well, and not to mention agony too, ive got plenty of AR.

Maybe switch to s/f and swap frostbow for mistform? You will have 2 invurnarabilities and more range to keep you out of harm. And I don’t know if you use it but sigil of energy will also increase your chances.

I do 70+ fractals, I use D/F 0/30/10/20/10 (Fresh air, elemental attunement), full berzerker.
It works really nicely because we have a rather optimized group with tons of reflect (3 D/F elems, some guardians or mesmers).
I find that vigor is not necessary, fire traits are really lacking unless you use staff (even conjurer is weak), and that Fresh air is compulsory.

I think that you should consider switching to more zerker gear and getting rid of fire traits (10 points with + 5% damage to burning foes is ok though), you can put those points in more optimal defensive traits (water and earth).

In the end a large part of how successful you will be in fractals depends on how efficient your group is.

You are running with enough condition removal? Ive been running with x-x-x-15-30 builds for awhile now to get condition removal with Evasive Arcanca and Water Attunement and still find myself carrying Cleansing Fire to have enough.

Baladir.2736:

You are running with enough condition removal? Ive been running with x-x-x-15-30 builds for awhile now to get condition removal with Evasive Arcanca and Water Attunement and still find myself carrying Cleansing Fire to have enough.

Condition removal and fotm in one sentence?

I run a variation of the build Wooden Potatoes does. Just look it up on youtube.

I mainly focus on S/D and using a Focus as a utility more than a constant weapon since I still like the offhand dagger when there aren’t projectiles everywhere.

Traits are 20(VI,VIII)/30(VI, X, XII)/0/10(III/VI)/10(V), and I might fiddle around with it some, but it works for now. Gearwise I’m using Valk armor, rubies, zerk weps (Perception in mainhand and battle in offhand) and Cavalier exotics with Beryl gems. (And a Celestial Amulet, but I’ll change that once I get two earrings).

Utilities are usually Signet of Fire, Arcane Wave, and Arcane Shield…though I do switch them out depending on the content. (Grawl boss usually run Cleansing Fire, Mistform and Shield).

That said I am still debating on what earrings to buy. I’m thinking of going all zerker besides armor until I can afford otherwise (since Scholar runes are expensive). Luckily, I have enough Badges to buy full zerker armor and not even spend 6g

Hope that helps

This belief that you need to rely on guardians to be able to deal damage on your own without being threatened is complete rubbish.
Maybe it is high time people understood that everyone needs to provide a bit of support and control to the group while doing good damage.
A 0/10/0/30/30 ele is almost useless in fractals.
Actually anything with high arcana or without fresh air is weak in PvE.

I have to disagree that Aurashare is weak in PvE. It’s a good jack of all trades build for the jack of all trades class. It’s good for starting out as an Ele and I wish that the radius for the share was larger…and hopefully that will change.

Fresh Air (S/?) has a higher skill floor but lower skill ceiling than a D/D build, imo, in PvE anyway. I would recommend it once you get some practice with Ele in a D/D Aurashare build then switch to a FA one with 0/30/0/10/30 set up.

Zelyhn.8069:

I do 70+ fractals..

We can pass lvl 50+ fractal now without having someone with higher lvl from early release to do only odd lvl numbers? I haven’t done fractal in so many months.

Fade.1743:

I have to disagree that Aurashare is weak in PvE. It’s a good jack of all trades build for the jack of all trades class. It’s good for starting out as an Ele and I wish that the radius for the share was larger…and hopefully that will change.

Fresh Air (S/?) has a higher skill floor but lower skill ceiling than a D/D build, imo, in PvE anyway. I would recommend it once you get some practice with Ele in a D/D Aurashare build then switch to a FA one with 0/30/0/10/30 set up.

Fresh air is not scepter specific trait at all. It’s used in pvp because it synergizes well with cooldown on lightning strike.

Aura share is pretty much useless and d/d builds in fotm are even more useless.

LightningBlaze.4913:

We can pass lvl 50+ fractal now without having someone with higher lvl from early release to do only odd lvl numbers? I haven’t done fractal in so many months.

Nope, only odd levels.

x/30/x/30/x aurashare could work though, with fresh air and air cd reduction, no boon durations runes of course.

Fresh air is nice for scepter because it increases its damage by quite a bit, but since scepter air’s damage is low anyway this trait is actually more beneficial to the dagger MH since the air auto attack is the strongest we have.

Zelyhn.8069:

I do 70+ fractals, I use D/F 0/30/10/20/10 (Fresh air, elemental attunement), full berzerker.
It works really nicely because we have a rather optimized group with tons of reflect (3 D/F elems, some guardians or mesmers).
I find that vigor is not necessary, fire traits are really lacking unless you use staff (even conjurer is weak), and that Fresh air is compulsory.

I think that you should consider switching to more zerker gear and getting rid of fire traits (10 points with + 5% damage to burning foes is ok though), you can put those points in more optimal defensive traits (water and earth).

In the end a large part of how successful you will be in fractals depends on how efficient your group is.

You should almost be immune to projectiles with that many focus eles lol

TGSlasher.1458:

You should almost be immune to projectiles with that many focus eles lol

What about war/war/necro/ele/ele with 20+ 84 lvl grubs? “Just” 50% uptime of projectile defense.

haviz.1340:

TGSlasher.1458:

You should almost be immune to projectiles with that many focus eles lol

What about war/war/necro/ele/ele with 20+ 84 lvl grubs? “Just” 50% uptime of projectile defense.

Swirling winds has 6 sec duration @ 30 sec cd
With cd reduction trait 24 Sec
3×6 = 18 seconds + 3 sec of reflect + 2 sec invulnerability = 23 seconds of projectile defence, but only 75% projectile defence for everyone else (not one of those eles) in the group.

So 2x Ele with S/F
2×6 = 12 seconds, 24 sec cd (when traited)
50% uptime for group
12 + 3 + 2 = 17 seconds = 71% for those eles and possible group IF the ele can get in the road of all incoming projectiles to physically block them (almost impossible to do when lagging :/)

Note: I don’t do fractals so I don’t know the specifics of the mobs in question or builds required. This is all theory based stuffs

Fade.1743:

I have to disagree that Aurashare is weak in PvE. It’s a good jack of all trades build for the jack of all trades class. It’s good for starting out as an Ele and I wish that the radius for the share was larger…and hopefully that will change.

Fresh Air (S/?) has a higher skill floor but lower skill ceiling than a D/D build, imo, in PvE anyway. I would recommend it once you get some practice with Ele in a D/D Aurashare build then switch to a FA one with 0/30/0/10/30 set up.

Auras builds are bad in pve.The problem with auras is you have to get hit for them to do anything.

Magnetic aura is out classed by swirling winds.If you want to provide fury to the group then 30/10/0/20/10 is way better at it.

Also 0/30/10/0/30 is inferior to 0/30/10/0/20/10(which offers more damage) or 30/10/0/20/10(which offers perma fury to the group)

I actually run 20/30/0/10/10. And yes, I know a 0/30/0/10/30 (not 10 in earth…10 in water is waaaay better) is not a high damage build, but it’s good enough to get you to Fractal level 10 or higher without being a full glass cannon.

People have it set in their minds that the highest theoretical DPS is the highest practical/empirical DPS. Even if you’re builds do more DPS on paper, they might not do more in-game because they might not be comfortable with the build…or even enjoy it.

Also, a 30 fire build provides better fury upkeep if everyone is standing in your fire fields when you do blast finishers. That’s not something that you can guarantee. (Only staff has access to Magnetic Aura btw…D/D doesn’t.) If you run a D/D Aura build, you’ll have access to 3 Auras, so you’ll have a better chance of sharing them

TGSlasher.1458:

Swirling winds has 6 sec duration @ 30 sec cd
With cd reduction trait 24 Sec
3×6 = 18 seconds + 3 sec of reflect + 2 sec invulnerability = 23 seconds of projectile defence, but only 75% projectile defence for everyone else (not one of those eles) in the group.

So 2x Ele with S/F
2×6 = 12 seconds, 24 sec cd (when traited)
50% uptime for group
12 + 3 + 2 = 17 seconds = 71% for those eles and possible group IF the ele can get in the road of all incoming projectiles to physically block them (almost impossible to do when lagging :/)

Note: I don’t do fractals so I don’t know the specifics of the mobs in question or builds required. This is all theory based stuffs

You can’t get in the road of all incoming projectiles with 20+ grubs and adding obsidian flesh with 50s cd is not really a good metric here.

D/F, no sane person uses S/F in pve.

haviz.1340:

D/F, no sane person uses S/F in pve.

He’s right. I’m completely and totally mental.

S/F has its uses as a utility…so don’t count it out because it’s not the best. An average player will use a cookie cutter spec and only what is in that spec. A good player will use everything available to him/her.

Actually players need to be within 360 units of were the blast finisher occurred to receive the might/fury.Which is the same range as receiving auras from an aura share build.

I can understand someone not enjoying these builds, but both of them are very practical.

By the way Dagger/Focus is way better than Dagger/Dagger.I’m surprised people still haven’t realized that dagger offhand offers basically nothing in pve.Fire grab is on too long of a cool down to give your a noticeable dps increase, and bosses are immune to know-downs.So you’re left with a 1.5k heal on a 45 second cool down, and a bigger fire field to use combos in.

Fade.1743:

He’s right. I’m completely and totally mental.

S/F has its uses as a utility…so don’t count it out because it’s not the best. An average player will use a cookie cutter spec and only what is in that spec. A good player will use everything available to him/her.

What utility except 2 blinds (one being single targetted), additional toughness that doesn’t do anything and 2 blast finishers? You’re sustained dps is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the whole game. It doesn’t even cleave.

I’m talking about the Focus Air and Earth spells. I usually run S/D.

Smooth Marc.8743:

Actually players need to be within 360 units of were the blast finisher occurred to receive the might/fury.Which is the same range as receiving auras from an aura share build.

I can understand someone not enjoying these builds, but both of them are very practical.

By the way Dagger/Focus is way better than Dagger/Dagger.I’m surprised people still haven’t realized that dagger offhand offers basically nothing in pve.Fire grab is on too long of a cool down to give your a noticeable dps increase, and bosses are immune to know-downs.So you’re left with a 1.5k heal on a 45 second cool down, and a bigger fire field to use combos in.

I find that comment…interesting. I have a hybrid build of sorts. Nothing special in the Power dept and just 50% base crit chance and 45% crit damage. I swap attunements after I have started Churning Earth to get 2 seconds of fury when it goes off and it Crits for 4000+ on 70% of the aoe targets, plus of course the bleeds. That damage is by far the best aoe damage our class has, even better than any single target damage we have. Plus it generates might. Arcane shield prevents interrupts. Higher crit damage and Power of course will increase that substantially. I am runnig with some much smaller numbers for Crit Damage and Power then many Elementalists because I carry about 16K health.

Churning earth has a c/s of 1 compared to 1.22 for LW.
I am pretty sure that even if you factor in the bleeds the damage will be lower.

@Baladir

Pretty much what Zelyhn said

I’ll show you the numbers I get from a spreadsheet

Lightning whip is a 1.15ish second cast time and does 8233 damage per cast.

Churning earth is a 3.4ish second cast and does 18051 direct damage + 5395 bleed damage so 23446 damage per cast.

So you’re getting the same amount of damage if you’re hitting 3 targets.

If you need to hit more than 3 mobs then lightning hammer is a better option because the 3rd part of the auto attack chain hits 5 targets for 10k and blinds them every 3 seconds.

Have no idea where you are getting your numbers. For simplification lets use the wiki.

Damage LW is 1/2 second cast, 232 damage, Range 300

Damage Churning Earth is 3 1/2 second cast, 1092 damage plus 2720 in bleeds and is a combo finisher and 4 seconds of cripple, Range 360

LS is 1/2 second cast and 3 swings in 2.82 seconds= total 3.52 for 358 each per 3 swing. Range 150

But, anyway, take the damge only and anyway you do the math there is no way LW or LS exceeds the damage of CE plus the added benefit of might stacks and cripple. The condition damage of course has no mitagation. The wiki damage stats are mitagated by 2600 armor i believe. You can spam LS and LW all you want, but when CE is off cooldown, nothing is better. This analysis fails to take into consideration condition damage of the character. No doubt you guys will tell me an ele shouldn’t have any

You guys are nitpicking anyway. The post I answered dealt with the advantage of focus over offhand dagger. Nothing to do with mainhand dagger or lightning hammer. If you guys want to hijack the thread, lets start a new thread about the best dps burst weapon set the ele has. True, I did make a general statement about best dps skill.

Again, LW > churning earth in direct damage:
LW damage at 916 power on 2600 armored target is about 235 per hit, two hits, 1.15s cast = 235 * 2 / 1.15 = 408 dps
CE damage under the same conditions is 1090, 3.25s cast (plus some aftercast, ignored) = 1090 / 3.25 = 335 dps
Lightning hammer does even more damage.

I used a spread sheet written by Puandro
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3A3Op-Hj3dOUkJRU0xvcng5ZWc/edit?pli=1
Here is the link if you want to input your stats and traits.

Going off tooltips/wiki isn’t a very good idea because they don’t give accurate skill activation speeds or damage values.

Eyeballing damage numbers you get in game isn’t a very good way to compare skills either,because you can’t control certain variables.The only way to properly figure out skill damage values is by using a spreadsheet.The spreadsheet takes everything into consideration.So the numbers I gave include condition damage,critical damage,power,banners,food,buff etc.

Lighting whip does actually exceed the damage of churning earth.Using lightning whip is not a huge leap forward in damage.It just means you to use focus offhand without losing dps.

I don’t see how we’re hijacking the thread.The op was interested in how to build his character for Fotm.Arguing which weapons are the best is no different from arguing about which traits are the best.

Smooth Marc.8743:

I used a spread sheet written by Puandro
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3A3Op-Hj3dOUkJRU0xvcng5ZWc/edit?pli=1
Here is the link if you want to input your stats and traits.

Going off tooltips/wiki isn’t a very good idea because they don’t give accurate skill activation speeds or damage values.

Eyeballing damage numbers you get in game isn’t a very good way to compare skills either,because you can’t control certain variables.The only way to properly figure out skill damage values is by using a spreadsheet.The spreadsheet takes everything into consideration.So the numbers I gave include condition damage,critical damage,power,banners,food,buff etc.

Lighting whip does actually exceed the damage of churning earth.Using lightning whip is not a huge leap forward in damage.It just means you to use focus offhand without losing dps.

I don’t see how we’re hijacking the thread.The op was interested in how to build his character for Fotm.Arguing which weapons are the best is no different from arguing about which traits are the best.

LOL. That spreadsheet is based, before buffs, on 2842 power, 916 vitality, and 916 toughness. 1) You are taking a skill like Churning Earth which has direct and condition damage. 2) You are comparing that to a direct damage only spell. 3) You are only buffing the direct damage, and to the point you have no extra vitality, toughness, or condition damage. 4) You are using this example to prove that under all conditions, not just this one that only crazy people run, that one skill with maxed buffed direct damage is better than a skill with max buffed direct damage and unbuffed condition damage. 5) And, you are suggesting to the OP, who has trouble surviving and why he posted, that he take zero toughness or vitality in his build. I can assume no less since that build is where you are getting your facts from for your skill discussion.

I struggle to put this in ways you can understand since you obviously posted this believing what you had to day was valid and entirely missed the obvious flaw.

People are using such extreme analysis to compare gear, skills, and builds while entirely ignoring dozens of different variables and while making absurd assumptions. As an academic exercise, it’s fair to see where the extreme limit is. But, what is true at that limit is not true everywhere else.

The difference in c/s of CE and LW is 0.22
Over 3.25 seconds that is 3.25 * 0.22 = 0.72 c/s
let’s assume an in-combat power of 2300, crit modifier of 2 and targets with 2400 armor, the difference in damage of the two spells over the longest cast time is about 0.72 * weapon damage * 2300 / 2400 * 2 = 1314 damage. So yes, if we include conditions (2700 base damage) CE is likely doing more damage.

Fair enough I did not use gear with survival stats when posted numbers from the spread sheet

To simulate what it would be like for the op in a pug I took away all banner/might buffs,vulnerability stacks and put knights gear in the spreadsheet .Under these conditions churning earth was higher damage per cast than lightning whip.However the the small amount of damage you gain is not enough to make using a dagger offhand worth using over a focus.

Also the spreadsheet does count condition damage, so the bleed portion of churning earth is being buffed.

We might as well end the churning earth vs lighting whip debate because like you said we can’t consider everyone gear/traits.

There is not much we can really help the op with if he’s having problems staying alive in full knights gear.He needs to start watching mobs and dodging attacks.

I’ll give a few pointers but most of this stuff should be obvious.

Try to stay behind mobs.
Our daggers skills have a 300 hit range so you don’t really have to be in melee range to hit mobs.
Use sigil of energy for more endurance
Put 20 point into arcana for rewnewing stamina.
If you can’t see the boss clearly use go to earth attunment for protection in case you miss a dodge.

haviz.1340:

TGSlasher.1458:

Swirling winds has 6 sec duration @ 30 sec cd
With cd reduction trait 24 Sec
3×6 = 18 seconds + 3 sec of reflect + 2 sec invulnerability = 23 seconds of projectile defence, but only 75% projectile defence for everyone else (not one of those eles) in the group.

So 2x Ele with S/F
2×6 = 12 seconds, 24 sec cd (when traited)
50% uptime for group
12 + 3 + 2 = 17 seconds = 71% for those eles and possible group IF the ele can get in the road of all incoming projectiles to physically block them (almost impossible to do when lagging :/)

Note: I don’t do fractals so I don’t know the specifics of the mobs in question or builds required. This is all theory based stuffs

You can’t get in the road of all incoming projectiles with 20+ grubs and adding obsidian flesh with 50s cd is not really a good metric here.

D/F, no sane person uses S/F in pve.

Yea, but I’m not sane and I do not do pve, as previously stated :p.
I use S/F in pvp and have for a long time. Why? D/D bugs out too much with lag, and almost no one else uses /F so they don’t expect it. Have managed to beat a few eles who would hold off on their attacks and prepare a defence against RTL updraft lol.