Guild Wars 2

I am running a D/D elementalist with permanent fury buff.

My question is:

Is vitality a stat worth investing? Because I am wondering why there are only few ascended accessories which offer vitality and non of it are paired with useful stats. Is toughness a stat more worth it to invest into as compared to vitality?

Currently I am running, full knight armors and weapons while my accessories are power vitality and condition damage. But now I need to upgrade my gear for fractals and WvW the only way to go is to make these accessories ascended. But I am really confuse as to which accessories should I take.

I mean should I go for power toughness vitality? because this is the only accessory that has worth it stats paired with vitality. Or should I go with power toughness crit damage? or power precision crit dmg in order to boost up my dps capabilities greatly but by doing this, I will be losing around 2k hp and I’m afraid that maybe losing 2k hp will make me become like a glasss cannon where in i take a few hits and I die or will my 2.6k armor save me from deaths?

I am not a pro elementalist user but I do know how to play well.

For You : Toughness
When you’re DD, Vitality wont prove needed. You already have many Condition Removals. Vitality is not needed and to you it’s USELESS !!!

For Me : Staff Tank Vitality is a MUST
If it ain’t 22k HP on me it ain’t tanking
;)

PS : If you didn’t know

Toughness : ANTI Direct Damage (Warriors, Thiefs, Mesmers, Elles, Guardians etc….)
Vitality : ANTI Condition ( Necros and few Rangers )

I’m more of a pve player farming fractals. In PvP i know vit is useless for a DD playstyle, but for dungeon I’m not sure, so it would be great if those elementalists with high level in fractal can give their insights wether vit is important or not. I’ve been doing fractals below level 20 and so far I can survive them with my 15k hp. I Was wondering if it will be the same when i go to higher levels

When you get to higher levels, you’ll drop the daggers

In fractals, Agony damage is dealt based on a % of your max hp. This means that increasing vitality increases the damage you take from Agony. Healing, however, doesn’t work based on your max hp – it’s purely linear scaling, and hence increasing your max HP only moves the point at which you should start healing.

On the other hand, toughness directly increases the value of self-healing vs direct damage (1/Damage Multiplier = Effective Healing Multiplier; for example 25% damage reduction = 1/0.75 = 1.33 x healing on self), while not being adversely affected by agony.

Toughness doesn’t help against condition damage in any way; however, elementalists have a large amount of on-demand condition removal if you trait for it. With staff: EA water dodge = 1 condi removal per 10 seconds, Healing Rain = 4 condition removals over 9 seconds (40 sec CD, 32 if 20% CD reduction traited), Traiting Cleansing Wave (Water V) = 1 condi removal per 10 seconds by attuning to water, Traiting Cleansing Waters (Water XI) = 1 condi removal per 10 seconds when attuning to water if you have the buffs-on-attunement, 4 extra condi removals from Healing Rain, 1 condi removal from water-attuned Glyph of Elemental Harmony and 1 condi removal per cantrip if you also trait Soothing Disruption; finally you can have 3 condi removals on one slot if you using Cleansing Flame.

With all that condition removal, and the sheer amount of healing options a staff elementalist has, Vit… isn’t really necessary, and toughness will multiply the effective self healing. Slotting full minor stat toughness gives elementalists a total damage reduction of about 30%, giving a 42% effective increase to healing. If that minor stat toughness gear is cleric’s, you also have about 1.3-1.5k healing power, most of which is applied at a 1:1 ratio on our heals, for 1.3-1.5k additional hp per healing ability (which is effectively 42% higher due to damage reduction). On staff that’s: GoEH, Attuning to water, dodging while in water, blast finishers on water fields including: Eruption, dodging while in earth and arcane wave (and with allies you could grab a Warrior’s banner to drop it for a blast finisher). Geyser’s a 1:0.8 on healing power and then there’s regen effects all over the place for staff eles at a lower rate.

You can easily set up an elementalist so more vit than the 300 provided by Water trait points isn’t necessary.

Edit: Blah, I got caught up responding to the guy above me and forgot you’re talking about D/D in OP. If it existed, I’d go Power/Healing/Toughness on any ele weapon set (as opposed to Healing/Power/Toughness on ele – I want power as the main stat)

Edit 2: In PvE, D/D ele can carry Healing Seed Pods to generate water fields on demand for blast finishers. They’re not useable in WvW or sPvP, however. D/D has as many options for blast finishers as Staff, but Churning Earth’s on a longer cooldown than Eruption.

Lillian Wandom Hale.7102:

For You : Toughness
When you’re DD, Vitality wont prove needed. You already have many Condition Removals. Vitality is not needed and to you it’s USELESS !!!

For Me : Staff Tank Vitality is a MUST
If it ain’t 22k HP on me it ain’t tanking
;)

PS : If you didn’t know

Toughness : ANTI Direct Damage (Warriors, Thiefs, Mesmers, Elles, Guardians etc….)
Vitality : ANTI Condition ( Necros and few Rangers )

You must of not heard of burst. When a GC thief ista gibs you for 16 to 19k on your 14K health pool Vitality is far from useless.

Shinji.2063:

Lillian Wandom Hale.7102:

For You : Toughness
When you’re DD, Vitality wont prove needed. You already have many Condition Removals. Vitality is not needed and to you it’s USELESS !!!

For Me : Staff Tank Vitality is a MUST
If it ain’t 22k HP on me it ain’t tanking
;)

PS : If you didn’t know

Toughness : ANTI Direct Damage (Warriors, Thiefs, Mesmers, Elles, Guardians etc….)
Vitality : ANTI Condition ( Necros and few Rangers )

You must of not heard of burst. When a GC thief ista gibs you for 16 to 19k on your 14K health pool Vitality is far from useless.

Hence a healthy balance of both toughness/vitality is necessary for a D/D elementalist playing roamer/frontline. You need both. High vitality, but no toughness you can still get hit for ridiculous amounts. High toughness, but no health, means you can reduce the damage, but don’t have enough of a healthpool to survive even the reduced damage.

I aim for 16K health anad around 2.6k armor. That saves me from being instagibed by any theif by having a good amount of damage reduction and a good health pool for conditions/being hit with big moves.

The spec is also important to factor into this. I use the 0/10/0/30/30 build and run with 3 cantrips and ether renewal in WvW so I can have a lot of healing and condition removal, but I run a mix of PVT/Berserkers/Cavalier stats so I’m not a bunker in so far as stats, as I go for high crit/crit damage and high power but still aim for 16k health and 2.5-2.6k armor to survive the frontlines in T1 WvW.

Tough/healing is your defence, you tank with sustain not with healthpool. BUT vitality is what saves you from burst damage (thief opening, mesmer shatter, quickness warrior…). Without vitality you are going to die from bursts. So, vit is less needed but u can’t totally ignore it.

Lillian Wandom Hale.7102:

When you get to higher levels, you’ll drop the daggers

That’s weird. I saw a youtube vid of high level fractals (50+) and 2 of the 4 elementalists were using daggers.

Dingle.2743:

Edit 2: In PvE, D/D ele can carry Healing Seed Pods to generate water fields on demand for blast finishers. They’re not useable in WvW or sPvP, however. D/D has as many options for blast finishers as Staff, but Churning Earth’s on a longer cooldown than Eruption.

I believe that’s been changed recently so that you can’t use those consumables in dungeons either.

Shinji.2063:

You must of not heard of burst. When a GC thief ista gibs you for 16 to 19k on your 14K health pool Vitality is far from useless.

How often do you actually get hit by back stab? Just hit mist form after the CnD/mug then swap to water and dodge roll. If you see the thief coming you can dodge when they get to about ~900 range or as you see them shadow step.

You can avoid the main burst from any class with proper play.

just get a tad bit of vitality enough to boost your hp by 1-2k that way you’ll have a little extra time to cast vital cantrips or RTL the hell away.
Lots of bosses do 12kish dmg so if you don’t put just that little bit of extra vitality in you’ll find yourself in a tight spot.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

just get a tad bit of vitality enough to boost your hp by 1-2k that way you’ll have a little extra time to cast vital cantrips or RTL the hell away.
Lots of bosses do 12kish dmg so if you don’t put just that little bit of extra vitality in you’ll find yourself in a tight spot.

I at least try to shoot for 16k HP on my elementalist.

As for armor? I’ve never tried slotting it. At some points though, I had over 18k HP. Really just required learning to not get hit.

Leo G.4501:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

just get a tad bit of vitality enough to boost your hp by 1-2k that way you’ll have a little extra time to cast vital cantrips or RTL the hell away.
Lots of bosses do 12kish dmg so if you don’t put just that little bit of extra vitality in you’ll find yourself in a tight spot.

I at least try to shoot for 16k HP on my elementalist.

As for armor? I’ve never tried slotting it. At some points though, I had over 18k HP. Really just required learning to not get hit.

Are we talking PVE or WvW? Because in WvW, if you didnt have some toughness in the frontlines, you would be obliterated in some tiers of play due to the zergball effect.

PVE, you can get away with it, but why bother, toughness serves better than vitality in PVE due to the lack of condition damage bosses do. Most bosses do mainly direct form of damage so you could mitigate that with toughness instead of a healthpool. A healthy blend of both is what is best IMO until you learn to master your class and find a balance you are comfortable with, however no toughness on a D/D ele (and I mean none) is just asking for it. Unless you want to go full berserkers and are a perfect dodger, then I would advise against it. Staff is something else, but D/D needs a bit of toughness/vit to make sure you dont eat dirt. Remember you are the class with the lowest armor/health in the game and are going melee where things are a lot more unforgiving.

vinceftw.5086:

Lillian Wandom Hale.7102:

When you get to higher levels, you’ll drop the daggers

That’s weird. I saw a youtube vid of high level fractals (50+) and 2 of the 4 elementalists were using daggers.

probably this movie was from before the AI/fractals improvement path or they used dd only on trash mobs (which I still do even at 40+). Using gc d/d on fractrals bosses is way way harder than ranged build. I use s/d almost on all frac bosses starting from level 30+ so its like Lillian wrote - in hard content you will drop the daggers - except for trash mobs.

ele just needs all weaponsets…

D/D can be used on some bosses… its optimal for cliffside BOSS for example.

Best thing is:
Having ALL weapons:

Suggestions:
zerker D/D (with might sigils and stuff)
zerker STAFF (with sigil to refill 1/2 energy on swap)
Scepter/FOCUS (healing vitality etc) (with staff sigil and hydromancy if possible)

Also having a zerker armor with you can save your life…..because sometimes you just need damage.

For trinkets i’d go with pvt (i prefer balanced …) because they are quite costly (and you possibly want just 1 set per character to play www and stuff)….but take with you some balanced rings at least.

I carry every weapon with me and usually i switch at most bosses…..

Usually:
swamp bloom (D/D with guardian tricks, staff otherwise)
swamp mossman (D/D or S/F)
imbued shaman (S/F …..too many reflects to even consider something else…AVOID staff it sucks against bubble).
Ascalon (Staff)
Uncategorized (S/F or D/D if someone tanks the boss)
Cliffside (D/D)
dredge (D/D on switches obviously, staff otherwise; you need staff CC)
snowbind (D/D)
MAW (staff any weapon is bad….)

The problem is you will constantly change weapon even during the same fractal… ._.
Its not that we need D/D for trash mobs, we need D/D for fast reliable damage……a thing that at higher level is important.

as for me:
swamp bloom (D/D with guardian tricks, S/D otherwise)
swamp mossman (29- D/D, 30+ S/D )
imbued shaman (S/F if no or bad guardian S/D otherwise).
Ascalon (Staff and FG till first gate, D/D till final boss, S/D on boss 30+)
Uncategorized (S/F on haripies, D/D if someone tanks the boss S/D otherwise)
Cliffside (D/D, or S/D on boss if party mights needed)
dredge (D/D on switches obviously, staff otherwise; you need staff CC)
Snowbind (D/D)
MAW (S/D)
+ in all fractals if correctly used FG in ber gear is the most deadly weapon ele has.

Rings/amul + all stats , earrings ber
I also carry four 4 sets of armours (MF, PVT, BER,RAM/BER), changing them depending on party and situation, sometimes I change only chest or legs etc…

Raif.9507:

PVE, you can get away with it, but why bother, toughness serves better than vitality in PVE due to the lack of condition damage bosses do. Most bosses do mainly direct form of damage so you could mitigate that with toughness instead of a healthpool. A healthy blend of both is what is best IMO until you learn to master your class and find a balance you are comfortable with, however no toughness on a D/D ele (and I mean none) is just asking for it. Unless you want to go full berserkers and are a perfect dodger, then I would advise against it. Staff is something else, but D/D needs a bit of toughness/vit to make sure you dont eat dirt. Remember you are the class with the lowest armor/health in the game and are going melee where things are a lot more unforgiving.

Because toughness does practically nothing without HP. Having played on a warrior wearing Knight’s armor, I’d still get bursted down in boss fights even with 22ishk HP. On an Elementalist, this was compounded to the point if you didn’t react properly, you’re down. More HP gave me more opportunity to learn how to dodge properly to not get hit in the first place.