Guild Wars 2

Ever since GW2 launch, I’ve never seen more than 2 Ele’s on a single match. Why? People think they’re squishy and hard to play. These are both facts. The elementalist is a high skill class and encourages you to learn ALL the skills and their respective range. They are also very squishy if you don’t know when and how to use your dodge/skills.
The question everyone has been asking me since launch will be answered here.

1. Q. What’s the best setup for elementalist weapon wise?
A. Weapon wise is really personal preference and what role you’re playing on a group. I personally choose Scepter/Dagger for burst purposes.

2. Q. What spec are you running?
A. I have several builds for different purposes. These builds are also a matter of preference and comfort. I’ve attached several links for you guys
My usual spec: http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.1.2.0.13.0.5.0.20.0.2.21.20.9.24.2.2.6.0.0.0.21.25.0.0.0.0.50.0.0.65.61.72.0.25.0.15.30

Staff spec:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.1.7.0.0.0.5.0.0.0.2.17.11.9.24.1.1.8.0.0.0.0.0.0.33.0.0.46.48.56.65.68.71.0.0.10.30.30

Here’s a quick build for FireCCEle [Immobilize]
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.1.2.0.13.0.5.0.20.0.2.9.20.14.24.2.2.0.6.1.0.21.25.0.0.0.0.50.0.0.65.0.0.20.20.0.15.15
Needs divinity runes btw, not showing up on site.
Basic combo is, immobilize signet, fire 2-5-3, air 5-4-2.

New Spec I’m running [Scepter/Dagger Valkyrie’s Amulet]
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.1.2.0.13.0.20.0.4.0.2.20.21.9.24.10.2.6.0.0.0.18.25.0.0.0.0.50.52.0.65.61.72.0.20.0.20.30

3. Q. What runes do you use for armors and weapons?
A. I personally use Divinity Runes just for the Critical Chance and balanced stats. For weapons, I’d go with Force and Air.

4. Q. What’s your usual combo rotation?
A. Earth 2-3, Air 2-3-4-5, Fire 2-3-5-4, Arcane skills. This rotation usually kills squishy and some tanky ones if you get your combo right.

If you got anymore questions regarding the Elementalist class, post it here and I’d try to address it as much as possible.

Sorry, but you seem INCREDIBLY pompous. Who, exactly, are you that you’re some sort of PvP authority?

Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t think you people knew me in any way. Let me introduce myself.

My In game name is Panginoon. I’ve played GW2 since BWE1. Currently I am a Rank 28 player that mains Elementalists. I never said I’m sort of PvP Authority, I’m merely helping people understand the class. If you can’t appreciate the help I’m giving out that’s not my problem.

Hence, I’m not here to tell you HOW to play it. I’m merely suggesting HOW to play the class. There’s a difference.

Thanks for posting this. Always interesting to read up on how others play their Ele’s. Any insight I can get on playing my main class is always useful.

Just ignore him, given the complexity of our skill set we need threads like this. I appreciate it.

He’s probably having a hard day.

Anyway, thanks for the inputs everyone. I’d be more than willing to help other Eles out there too

I use this build:

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.1.1.0.13.0.20.0.22.0.2.10.11.9.24.3.2.10.6.4.0.16.18.0.0.0.0.48.54.0.65.0.0.20.20.0.20.10

The sigils should actually be double might sigils, since they dont have a CD and make for great might stacking; however, you can use lightning strike and fire blast sigils if you prefer direct damage.

Of course because the build is non-weapon specific, you can use a scepter instead of a dagger(or even a staff, though I’d switch out the aura stuff). I prefer the dagger for the extra aura (which is also a sweet stun), the immobilize from earth, and I prefer the fire damage skills of dagger over the delayed AOE of scepter.

That is really a good build, I would try it later in the morning and post my input about it. Overall great build.

In your opinion, is it possible to make a damage staff build work in sPvP at all?

Yes, I believe it is. Its just not enough burst compared to Scepted/Dagger and Dagger/Dagger.

It is in fact better in maps like Khylo and Foefire. I use staff in breaking trebs and whatnot. Only downside is, the fire attunement is the only viable element for now.

I think your scepter/dagger build could benefit from one of those on-swap runes. Perhaps the might one?

Maybe it’s a bad idea, I’m just very interested in using on-swap runes for Elementalists since I found out they get the bonuses on attunement swaps.

Are you really using a 5% damage Sigil in your Staff Support spec? Seems a bit silly.

Otherwise pretty decent builds!

Nothing new here really….seen dozen of these guides and they all come to the same conclusion:" If you want to play ele …go glass cannon", but thx no….
I don’t want to play in a way that I need to constantly watch over my back if not a random sneeze from somebody would kill me, I really don’t care to see a big 5k white number appear on screen…

I will try your hints, at the moment I’m using this, sometimes with 2 daggers.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fEAQJArYhImIblR5gjDAEFmoi4hFOIRRRMzA;ToAg0CnoQygkAJLSOkkINgYiB

@Orzwark, Yes indeed. The might on swap sigils are fair advantage. I might try them too and see which are better.

@Intigo, Apparently, yes XD I use them mainly for the fire attunement. 5% goes a long way.

@Arhuendel, there’s really nothing new here. Just a bit of mixing up and making it my play style. Like I stated earlier, it’s personal preference. Why would you want to play a damage class when you want defense? I choose glass cannon because it heightens your awareness, you time and choose your skills wisely and dodgerolling is also a factor. But hey, if that’s how you like to play your Ele then do so

@bennyrosso, that’s a fairly good build. Personally, I tried using 2 daggers but it didn’t fit my play style.

Ayame Yoshimoto.1860:

Sorry, but you seem INCREDIBLY pompous. Who, exactly, are you that you’re some sort of PvP authority?

I didnt feel that his post was in any way pompous. A lot of eles have been complaining about needing to be buffed and they are too squishy. He is just trying to educate to ele community on how they can be played well.

In talking with some of the bigger streamers for gw2 spvp like Erho and Phantaram they feel that Ele’s are where the dps/roamer classes should be and that thiefs and mesmers just need to be brought down a bit because right now they are a little too strong. I feel the same, I dont feel that the thief and memser are broken but they do need to be brought down a little.

Anyway great post the build is solid. Especially with the Valkyries over the Beserker. This is what I have been using for the past few days and really love it. So much more survivability with the Valkyries. I stole this build from Phantarams stream though, lol. He is a really sick Ele check him out sometime twitch.tv/phantaram

Arheundel.6451:

Nothing new here really….seen dozen of these guides and they all come to the same conclusion:" If you want to play ele …go glass cannon", but thx no….
I don’t want to play in a way that I need to constantly watch over my back if not a random sneeze from somebody would kill me, I really don’t care to see a big 5k white number appear on screen…

To play a good ele you dont have to go glass cannon. I dont think the build that the OP and I use as well is a complete glass cannon. Between water and earth attunement you will be suprised at the ammount of survivability you will have. With PROPER POSITIONING, you can deal a lot of damage and stay in a fight without being insta gibbed.

And if you want even more survivability this build works great, lots of healing and toughness. http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.1.7.0.0.0.5.0.0.0.2.17.11.9.24.1.1.8.0.0.0.0.0.0.33.0.0.46.48.56.65.68.71.0.0.10.30.30

Spec survival and watch your damage be crap. Spec glass cannon and watch you damage be crap. Might as well get the extra toughness

@everreal, I actually agree. Water and Earth attunement gives me a whole lot of survivability with proper positioning. Works great every time.

@Tarinis, I agree with this as well. This is why I just go pure damage. I can position properly anyway.

Panginoon Thanks for the guide i will try it out, how is your staff build against 1v1 situations? i play alot of WvW so just curious how it the build is?

Hey Lukien, thanks for the input. And no, staff builds aren’t meant for 1v1 for me. I use it for certain maps in tournaments. You would however love them on WvW.

Wait wait wait, “Fire 2-3-5-4”?? And you labeled this topic how to play like a pro? I laugh at you sir. If you had any sense of skill you would recognize the beauty of scepter / dagger fire atunement self-combo field triggering combination right off the bat. When you use 4 first, that initiates a combo field. Then using 2 and 3 (and personally an arcane damage on 7) triggers a finisher which gives you a solid stack of might. Why on earth would you not want to take advantage of 9 stacks of might with this build if you are playing like a pro?

Lol good point, I’m no pro but even I know to start with Fire-4 with dagger offhand followed by two to three combo finishers.

What I was referring to was actually updraft combo, but hey if yours is a better one then I appreciate your input.

I actually tried that, and it works just as nice.

I can only roll a staff ele. I dont suck but i still believe we need some buff.

S/D Fire 4-2-3 is definitely nice. And as Skyfire said, I also have Arcane Wave on 7 to get the extra might stacks (9 total off that). Usually everything is burning at that point, so Fire 5 will do extra damage. I’m only PvE right now and just lvl 48 so I’m far from experienced.

Yeah, I tried it too and its really really good. Too bad the updraft combo is at par with it. Can even kill squishies with just the fire 2 – 3 – 5

LOL this is phantaram build…from team paradigm

Elementalist players can have different and builds alike. For one, we all have the same traits, sigils to use, runes, skills. These are purely personal preference. Nobody owns these builds.

Please don’t use sites that require us to see advertising in order to see the build! I refuse to see the ‘video’ they are forcing me to watch.

Really? That’s the build site we use for guild wars. I don’t get any advertisements nor videos from it.

Recently I’ve changed from glasscannon 30/30/10 fire/air/arcane + staff into this
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.1.2.0.18.0.5.0.0.0.2.20.16.15.24.2.1.8.6.3.12.0.0.0.34.37.0.51.0.0.0.0.0.30.0.25.10.5
with pure power/toughnes/vitality items and scepter + focus. I noticed insane boost in survivability and I lost maybe 20% of power, but I lost all the burst (which isn’t important in dungeons anyway). It’s all about rotation between all 4 attuments.

A good build for PvE I must say.

everreal.9862:

In talking with some of the bigger streamers for gw2 spvp like Erho and Phantaram they feel that Ele’s are where the dps/roamer classes should be and that thiefs and mesmers just need to be brought down a bit because right now they are a little too strong. I feel the same, I dont feel that the thief and memser are broken but they do need to be brought down a little.

What about rangers, necros, warriors, guardians and engineer? Why are they blatantly stronger then elementalist?
Because yes they are. Their damage output might be the same in PvE, but in PvP the elementalist get all the slow moving missiles, delayed spells and easily avoidable AoE.
We have far less CC possibilities then other professions.
The traits push us toward staying in one attunement as if we spec for an attunement our damage will suffer greatly from leaving this attunement.

P.S. I think the guy who called the OP pompous was talking about the thread name…

Rassilon.2459:

In your opinion, is it possible to make a damage staff build work in sPvP at all?

I don’t think so, since both d/d and s/d fullfill that roll better. Not saying Staff is overall bad, just when it comes to building for max dmg (that only applies for 5v5’s. PvE, WvW and 8v8’s are different)

Because yes they are. Their damage output might be the same in PvE, but in PvP the elementalist get all the slow moving missiles, delayed spells and easily avoidable AoE.
We have far less CC possibilities then other professions.

I’d suggest trying d/d if you’re feeling this way. It’s skills are way more reliable.

Deith.7596:

Recently I’ve changed from glasscannon 30/30/10 fire/air/arcane + staff into this
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.1.2.0.18.0.5.0.0.0.2.20.16.15.24.2.1.8.6.3.12.0.0.0.34.37.0.51.0.0.0.0.0.30.0.25.10.5
with pure power/toughnes/vitality items and scepter + focus. I noticed insane boost in survivability and I lost maybe 20% of power, but I lost all the burst (which isn’t important in dungeons anyway). It’s all about rotation between all 4 attuments.

This should be crazy in dungeons! Unless you get hit. Can you estimate how much extra damage your water talent (vital something) gives?

I assume this has been a very helpful thread for people out there. Personally, I don’t have any experience with PvE as I am a PvP kitten. About thread titles, it doesn’t really matter XD