Guild Wars 2

here’s my current solo landscape build: 6/0/6/0/2

fire: adept: more damage when attuned to fire
master: reduce cooldown of fire skills
GM: gain might when you use a skill while attuned to fire

earth: adept:+10% damage when closer than 600 to target
Adept 2: reduce recharge on signets
GM: written in stone (passives stay passive even when the active is on cooldown)

arcana : blasting staff

my new build under the current iteration of specializations.

fire:
adept: conjurer (gain fire aura when someone picks up conjured weapon or you use a signet, +10 charges to conjured weapons)
master: pyro traiing: fire skill cooldown + damage when attuned to fire
GM: gain might when casting spells while attuned to fire

earth:
adept: elemental shielding (gain protection when you gain an aura)
master: geomancer training (reduce cooldown of earth skills and reduce duration of chill, immob, cripple)
GM: written in stone (signet passive affect always, + signet cooldown)

air:
adept: auras grant fury and swiftness
master: tempest defense (gain shocking aura when disabled
gm: bolt to the heart (+20% damage against foes with less than 33% hp)

how my build will change with the specializations

i lose +20% damage from earth line (no more +10% damage under 600 range, no more +10% damage when endurance is full) but the following makes up for it:

i gain fire auras when i use signets or someone picks up a conjure
i gain protection, fury, and swifness when i gain auras
i gain might from fire auras when i’m hit
i apply vulnerability on crit

enemies within 600 range of me do 20% less damage to me

blasting staff is no longer a trait, but is now baseline for all staff users.

(for someone who thinks this gives too much defense… someone could take arcana gm trait elemental attunement for boons upon weapon swap, while still taking air and fire GMs, and would receive a good amount of defense.)

and we still don’t know what the new Tempest “elite specialization” will bring yet.

conclusion: as a staff ele running around in silverwastes (with a very small health pool due to zerker gear) i finally feel like the low HP pool is justified, in that i’ll finally be able to use use protection, and take less damage in melee range.