Guild Wars 2

I leveled up to 80 a month ago and is on the verge of giving up the elementalist.
I used the most common and beginner-friendly spec, DD ele with 0/10/0/30/30 traits. While survivability is ok, damage is just insufficient to 1 vs 1 any other profession.

I had read lot’s guide and video about ele and see that my stats are not that much different from them, but the ele in the youtube video seems to do well in 1 vs 1 in WvW.

This is the spec I used based on a number of DD ele experts in youtube. I can only might stack to about 12 to 16 using ring of fire then arcane wave, earth dodge roll, earthquake and churning earth with sigil of battle

Power 1749
Precision 1320
Toughness 1686
Vitality 1690
condition damage 160
boon duration 60%
Critical damage 12%
Healing power 472.

Is this a viable ele spec for WvW roaming and occasionally 1 vs 1?

Why not give other professions a try? I have 8 different lvl 80 characters and after I thoroughly played all of them I decided to go with eles. Yes it’s a hard professions and yes you’ll be frustrated a lot when you see what other professions can do… but being an Ele in GW2 is more about having the heart for it!

That power and crit damage is very low. I would never lose to a d/d ele with those stats no matter how good the player may be. I can go on once again how the build by itself doesn’t determine on how good you play the profession but Ill give you the advise of trying a different weapon set/build/playstyle that might work for you instead.

Yeah your crit dmg is really now. It should be at least between 50~60%. Otherwise you won’t be able to kill anything.

if you’re going to complain about not doing enough damage, then build more damage.

Thanks for the replies

Initially, I do have about 50% crit damage with divinity runea and berserker gears, but then I don’t last more than 3 shots against a warrior. Most dd video I watched told me to go power vitality toughness with boon duration, so I have to sarcrifice my precision and crit damage to go to exotic soldier gear and use rune of traveler, monk and water to increase my boons duration

Anyway, I started a warrior now, was thinking of a mesmer, which seems more fun, but I can’t take the chance on another light armor prof again.

Arthas the Great.8765:

Anyway, I started a warrior now, was thinking of a mesmer, which seems more fun, but I can’t take the chance on another light armor prof again.

Probably how ever player reacts when starting with ele currently, goodluck though lol.

Ele is in a bad place.

But I kept hearing play zerker, it will make you a better player being forced to react and move faster. I stayed true to that and I feel like I’ve gained a lot from it.

Zerker ele as is, it’s frustrating and life expectancy is about 1-2 shots. But you will learn, adapt, and become a great player in the process.

And just maybe when ele gets a buff, working through the bad will help you excel in the future. I think the people who just play flavor of the month are obviously subpar players. They depend on the aspects players once excelled without.

This is just food for thought, I hope you decide to try out new builds and find something you enjoy.

Arthas the Great.8765:

Thanks for the replies

Initially, I do have about 50% crit damage with divinity runea and berserker gears, but then I don’t last more than 3 shots against a warrior. Most dd video I watched told me to go power vitality toughness with boon duration, so I have to sarcrifice my precision and crit damage to go to exotic soldier gear and use rune of traveler, monk and water to increase my boons duration

Anyway, I started a warrior now, was thinking of a mesmer, which seems more fun, but I can’t take the chance on another light armor prof again.

You have berserkers gears. 50 crit damage is still low who are you watching on youtube? It doesn’t matter what class you play damage works the same in this game and you have to understand that and how to build it regardless of the class you play.

You will probably like warrior more its straight forward and you can even build it so you don’t have to dodge roll just go S/S LB apothecary and face tank kills.

I am glad that Ele isn’t face roll people that don’t even know how to get over 50 crit damage while slotting berserker gear just don’t understand basic things about the game. I didn’t even know that was possible.

You can’t do blow up damage with certain trait choices no matter the class. Let me explain.

Healways guardian is 0/0/10/30/30 it is a tanky build relies on boon duration. You can’t turn that into a dps spec to rival 0/5/30/30/5 with the same survivability it wont work you would be a one trick pony like a 0/10/0/30/30 Ele in full zerker. Any guardian on the guard forums will tell you that.

Mesmer 10/30/0/30/0 Phantasm spec will out damage 20/20/30 all day long. You can build 20/20/30 PU as zerker but it wont pump damage out that 10/30/0/30/0 will because you get 2 15% damage modifiers there.

Thief 30/30/0/0/10 Instagib signet spec 14k backstabs will always out damage a 10/30/30/0/0 the most common backstab build. why? Damage modifers that are present in the build.

Warrior 0/20/30/0/20 is common build for many weapons you can swap out but a 0/20/20/30/0 shout heals wont out damage the above and if you try to build it to do so then your heals wont be as effective.

0/10/0/30/30 has certain specifics that you can run it but if you are going for damage and know what you are doing there wont be to much difference between the output because of the basic 20 water 30 arcana. That’s 30 trait points allocated to boon duration and class mechanic.

These are just basics of GW2 no matter the class you play. People many times compare classes with out looking at weapons and builds.

Warrior is brought up alot 0/20/20/0/30 another common build in WvW no matter your weapon. Remove the warrior equation and you have +200 precision +30 crit damage. Ele 0/10/0/30/30 D/D = 100 precision 10 crit damage. Basics of the game says +200 precision/30 crit damage > 100 precision/10 crit damage

I started playing GW2 as Ele and got accustomed to needing to have good timing on dodges, ability usage, awareness, etc and getting brutally punished for mistakes. I just thought the game was really a huge step up in difficulty compared to other MMO’s since I hadn’t tried any other class than Ele.

Then I tried a class that’s actually viable in PvP (e.g. Engineer) and my performance is that much better.

Ele, as it stands, is a good “tool” to improve yourself at the game.

Oh and of course PvE. Nothing beats wall-zerging PvE bosses with FGS, or Meteor AoE. Mmmm those numbers!

Arthas the Great.8765:

I leveled up to 80 a month ago and is on the verge of giving up the elementalist.
I used the most common and beginner-friendly spec, DD ele with 0/10/0/30/30 traits. While survivability is ok, damage is just insufficient to 1 vs 1 any other profession.

I had read lot’s guide and video about ele and see that my stats are not that much different from them, but the ele in the youtube video seems to do well in 1 vs 1 in WvW.

This is the spec I used based on a number of DD ele experts in youtube. I can only might stack to about 12 to 16 using ring of fire then arcane wave, earth dodge roll, earthquake and churning earth with sigil of battle

Power 1749
Precision 1320
Toughness 1686
Vitality 1690
condition damage 160
boon duration 60%
Critical damage 12%
Healing power 472.

Is this a viable ele spec for WvW roaming and occasionally 1 vs 1?

Your spec is out dated and virtually is a dinosaur. You should try to experiment starting with the recent trait changes, try weapon set combinations you would never have tried and go off from there. If you can’t do any of that, use a 0/10/0/30/30 staff spec and follow the zerg.

An ele who doesn’t experiment with builds is a sad ele.

Do what I did— I bought quite literally every set of armor, every type of trinket and I tried all sorts of combos.

I wrote my results on a piece of paper, and I figured out what the optimal choice was.

Too many people seem to forget that having the same build as someone else doesn’t automatically make you as good as them.

You said you’ve only been playing Ele at 80 for a month, that’s a very little amount of time. Keep playing it and experimenting with builds, eventually you’ll find something that suits your style, and then you’ll start to find ways to improve it until you find something that you’re good at.

S/F and D/F is about the best you can get on ele right now.

Anyways, I haven’t been playing ele much after having one as my main for near a year. I mean I still small group roam WvW with a cheese zerk d/d build every now and then, but thats it.

Myst.5783:

S/F and D/F is about the best you can get on ele right now.

Anyways, I haven’t been playing ele much after having one as my main for near a year. I mean I still small group roam WvW with a cheese zerk d/d build every now and then, but thats it.

Not even close to being true, people are misguided to think focus is better than off hand dagger for some reason. Have you even compared the skills between the 2 weapons ? Some people prefer to run focus because it’s ranged but personally I’ve been running scepter dagger since beta and I’m still more then fine with. Truth is it doesn’t matter that much which weapon set you run, most of them are equally good (or equally bad.) It depends on what playstyle you prefer and what weapons you think will do better in most scenario’s.

Pvt gear is outdated for ele, you can be quite bunker in that gear, but you wont kill anything that is not afk.

I run D/D in wvw in a mix of celestial, valks and knights with boon duration for balanced build or settlers/apothecary giver weps with perplexity for condition build (diamond skin in zergs is amazing with aoe torment on hit sigil you get a ton of bags and can run side-by-side with warriors and guards on the front train)

for any ele build you need to know how to buff yourself during a fight.
its not just about doing your rotations, but about knowing when to go for water to cleanse or for air to CC and time your bursts right.
I see some eles out there that dont seem to be fighting me, just repeating their rotations as fast as they can and expecting to win…

Arthas the Great.8765:

I used the most common and beginner-friendly spec, DD ele with 0/10/0/30/30 traits. While survivability is ok, damage is just insufficient to 1 vs 1 any other profession.

This is the spec I used based on a number of DD ele experts in youtube. I can only might stack to about 12 to 16 using ring of fire then arcane wave, earth dodge roll, earthquake and churning earth with sigil of battle

Power 1749
Precision 1320
Toughness 1686
Vitality 1690
condition damage 160
boon duration 60%
Critical damage 12%
Healing power 472.

Is this a viable ele spec for WvW roaming and occasionally 1 vs 1?

First, a defensive build is only beginner friendly in the sense that you die slower. To play a bunker/support build well you need to react, dodge and kite just as well as a dps build. The point of bunkering is to be just as good at dodging and make just as few mistakes while also having better personal defenses and support. Your defense as a bunker d/d ele should be way better than ok.

Now, some actual advice. Don’t might stack in pvp with long cooldowns. Using your 45 second cooldown aoe cc to stack might is a waste. Use it to interrupt a heal or enemy finish/revive. Use it when you think a stealthed thief is about to backstab you. If your skill takes a long time to cooldown, you should save it for a clutch situation. This is especially true when using a defensive build. You should be surviving a long time and have good sustain; there is no rush, time is in your favor, and you have time to wait for enemies to use up their stunbreaks and get to low hp before stunning them.

Attune to earth for protection as a fight starts. Generally, people will try to hit you hard right off the bat. Reduce the damage with protection and gauge how dangerous the people you’re fighting are.

Get rid of any condition damage gear that isn’t celestial. Eles have conditions, but they don’t have enough to warrant purposefully increasing condition damage. Yes, your crit damage is too low. This is coming from someone who uses a measly 40 crit damage. Cavalier gear is your friend.

Stop following guides and listening to people so much. What works for them may not work for you. Those Youtube people likely aren’t experts anyway. Take a little advice here and there, but you should base your build on your own play experience. Your build doesn’t have to be optimized or popular so long as it works for you. I’m still using the outdated bunker build with minor adjustments for personal taste. Some of my gear decisions aren’t even logical or efficient.

I don’t expect you to grab ascended gear. I’m just linking my build for the sake of showing exactly what works for me. Fyi runes of dwayna don’t ever trigger cleansing water.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhImkbzx4wjDAkHuYCLiCPUekzM2A-jUDBofAYggUDgEIApmRN7MjJqBpupIasKbYaXQqXo6XIqYBGA-w

Also, don’t be apprehensive about trying mesmer; it’s the easiest class in the game to play and can be tough to kill.

Tei,

I looked at your stats, it is not that much different from mine, except for crit damage,

If I read the link correctly, you have

Power : 1793 vs my 1749
Precision: 1336 vs my 1320
Toughness: 1705 vs my 1686
Vitality: 1534 vs my 1690
Crit damage: 40% vs. my 12%
Boon duration: 30% vs my 60%
Healing power: 502 vs. my 472

Other than Crit damage, I don’t really see a huge difference. If that is a viable spec. I can definitely sacrifice my boon duration and a bit a vitality to get it close to 40% crit dmg. But honest, I don’t think the power is enough to 1 vs 1 any other prof.

Maybe it is just my skills, let me level up my warrior, then I will know if it is just me or is really because ele is not viable.

I 1v1 people all the time. You don’t need that much damage to kill most people. Just look at most of the responses in this thread. People like their damage, which means they make themselves easier to kill. Most solo roamers are using dps builds because they’re worried about exactly the same thing you are. Plus, what little defense most people bring usually has a counter and/or lengthy cooldown.

However, I won’t argue that there are better 1v1 ele specs out there. I picked one gear set to solo and group roam, and I’m frequently the only bunker/support in a group that is usually smaller than 5.

Arthas the Great.8765:

If that is a viable spec.
Maybe it is just my skills, let me level up my warrior, then I will know if it is just me or is really because ele is not viable.

If the profession and spec aren’t viable, that just means that I’m viable.

As Tei said, “cavalier’s gear is your friend.”

Half the fun of playing a d/d ele is experimentation. That, and trolling others in wvw. If played right this class “subtype” can whittle down an opponent through a battle of attrition. I have learned to be patient and to wait for others to make mistakes.

I’m just rehashing a lot of what others have said above, but these are people who love this class and know all the ins and outs. It takes time to truly master the ele (which I still am nowhere close to).

I run a variation of the Boon duration/cantrip build. Maybe my build will give you some help, maybe it won’t I’m not saying to copy it but if you see something that others aren’t using then it might further your knowledge of the class.

0/10/10/20/30

air 10
I – Zephyr’s boon, everyone knows what this one does. auras and swiftness

earth 10
III – armor of earth, armor of earth when health drops below 50%. great when you get caught in a kitten storm and don’t have a cantrip off cd. also the added toughness from the earth line is in my opinion better than vitality (i’ll get into that later)

water 20
III – cantrip mastery, reduces recharge time of cantrips 20%
IX – soothing disruption, regen and vigor when using a cantrip (dodging is the best damage mitigation)

arcane 30

III – final shielding, arcane shield when health drops below 25% (also explodes if hit 3 times) once again…and great for oh kitten kitten kitten moments.
VIII – elemental attunement, boons based on attunment.
XI – evasive arcana, dodge rolling (which you do a lot as an ele) procs an attunment based field.

signet of healing – continuous heals for every spell cast (you are a spell caster)

mist form – oh kitten, stun breaker. also you can rez and/or stomp an enemy, pop mist form and take no damage while channeling.

armor of earth – improved toughness, stun breaker coupled with the earth trait and the boons you can keep this up for almost 18 seconds if needed.

lightning flash- teleport, great to get out of trouble/catch up to an enemy, or cast it while channeling earth 5 and teleport into a group of enemies who think they have escaped your field.

fiery greatsword – great damage but more than that, awesome mobility if you need to move somewhere fast, running away or catching a victim. (most people who 1v1 a decent d/d ele will have to move away to heal and then come back to finish the fight. don’t let them.

Cavalier’s gear (over Valkyrie)
I like the toughness over the vitality because it mitigates burst better. Some will argue that you get your toughness from the protection that procs from all the boons and auras that carry over with the auramancer/boon duration build. Well I think there’s nothing wrong with a little extra toughness, that, and you can clear any conditions that you receive in a matter of seconds so the high health pool isn’t something that “I personally” worry about. Add in the oh kitten shields from the proc’d armor of earth, the cantrip armor of earth, the proc’d arcane shield, and any protection from your boons and you are one of the most survivable classes in the game.

I also use the “standard”…is it standard? 2 runes of the traveler, 2 runes of the monk, and 2 runes of water, for the heals and boon duration.

Zerker daggers with 1 sigil of battle and 1 sigil of bloodlust (once i hit 25 stacks) then switch to zerker dagger with sigil of force to make up a little for not speccing at least 25 in water to get the bountiful power skill that gives you 1% damage for any boon you have.

I do have a few ascended celestial trinkets, and clerics earrings for the added healing power.

This is just my personal build. I hope it helps to convince you not to give up on this class. I like many others have played other classes and no matter what I always come back. There is no class that is more fun to play and more rewarding than the ele.

You will not one shot anyone with this build, but you will troll the heck out of them until they make a mistake. That’s how you win. Bury them with constant pressure, make them eat their CD’s and wear them down into the ground.

Here’s a cheap balanced build template you can try out before giving up on D/D or deciding to upgrade the gear if you like it.

Cheap because there is no laurel or massive gold investment for ascended or celestial gear to try it out.

Balanced because it covers the majority of the bases while keeping stats competitive yet having enough room for tweaking.

Ten trait points free for you to put where you want or where you feel you need them. Sigils left open for user preference apart from a stacking weapon.

16000 HP, 2478 Armor, 440 Healing power
2793 Attack (3043 with full bloodlust), 30% crit. chance, 60% crit. damage
50% Boon duration.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJAoYhEmgbyx5gjDAkHwcCLiCPUUkzMA-jUzA4uASQQyeApPl1EYEruBp8GxmRW1LY6zkqUB0rR2nUEtahAktFA-w