Guild Wars 2

I understand the meta build right now is Earth and Water. I’m wondering if taking Fire or Air over Earth would be viable? Seems to me like the real reason you take Earth is for Elemental Shielding, but this is a condition damage meta, and for example Burning Fire and Blinding Ashes under the Fire line sounds extremely good. So does Zephyr Boon and Tempest Defense under Air.

Any thoughts?

Fire has no good GM at all…they are all pretty bad in pvp. Blinding ashes isn’t all that good anymore with the rate people attack, and burning fire isn’t that great unless you also get cantrip reduction.

Air offers NO condi defense, and is only worth it for damage if you are a dps build.

Earth offers more than just prot on aura, it also, very importantly, reduces the CD on focus earth skills (16s CD on magnetic wave and 33s on obsidian flesh is amazing), reduces the duration of immob/chill/cripple (with all that chill flying around, this is helpful), and diamond skin does give a good amount of cleanse if you play carefully. Stoneheart is a good option if they are burstier.

Arcane is a viable switch from earth traitline, b/c you can still get good amounts of prot, but get more team cleanses/heals from water-swap/water dodge, and lower attunement CD after overloads is helpful. You are more susceptible to focus fire, but have more team cleanse if the opposing team is heavily condi.

Depends on the level you wish to attain. Air won’t make it for tournament meta. Though, it will do it for a more casual, semi-pro level with air/water/tempest.

Trust me man. I am pretty sure we have all tried making different builds work. The introduction of reapers dragon hunters and revenants have made close-range dps eles a thing of the past. Anet has intentionally made close-range eles perform a bunker/support role. Maybe someday if scepter gets the buffs it deserves we can perform some type of dps build.

I still play fire and i always come back to it. Two specs play best for me and that are fire/earth/tempest or earth/arcane/tempest. It suits me much better then annything els. But i admit that i sometimes swap to water line after looking at oposing team. I realy dislike water and propably play not good with it but its no help when i can do more damage and win most 1:1 but my team goes down against two necros …. If is see more then one necro i alwas trait for double cleanse on auras …. Sigh …