Guild Wars 2

@ DE: Using condi duration on Vuln to justify 25/25 was clever. I hadn’t thought of that.

In regard to BttH, I’m still hesitant about guestimating a 5% modifier. I’ll work on it some more. In the meantime, though, 5% is certainly more accurate than excluding it, so if you’re using that number, I will as well.

EDIT: In regard to Ascended Armor, I added a new tab to my spreadsheet that deals with it, here. You can find the optimal zerk/assassins mix there. I also fixed some minor inaccuracies in the previous zerk/assassins mix for Exotic Armor.

I think everyone needs to relax a bit, in fact. Both guides are incredibly useful, and both are improving tremendously through the discussions, even if it feels like they are splitting hairs. People’s attitudes here and in the dungeon forums are rarely exactly “professional”, so I would have thought we are used to things like ego and can rely instead on results. I don’t think it’s controversial at all to day that in some spots Anierna has a slightly better recommendation (the assassin’s gear above, I’m convinced by) and in others DE is more helpful (obviously the D/F builds, etc.).

Chill, folks. There’s lots of good work here, and no one is recommending celestial gear.

Thanks also to Zelhyn for the reminders about the benefits of the D/F build!

Thank you for the very in-depth and precise guide keyz.
Much ele
Very guide
How DPS
Wow

10/10

maxinion.8396:

cranos.5913:

The build I’m most interested in is the s/f LH build for might and fury. Checked yours and Anierna’s guide on it. Armor-wise there’s a difference, Anierna says go assassins and here it says go zerk (talking full exotic here).

So I guess the basic question is, which is it?

Notice also that DEKeyz says go for perception stacking, and Anierna for bloodlust. The difference in the armor sets, after full stacking, is going to be basically marginal. Berserker is way easier to get, so I personally just went with that.

I could certainly give more specific armor recommendations for each build. Note that I even make a comment about particular armor sets being slightly better for some particular builds even in my guide. However, as someone who loves the versatility of the elementalist in different situations, I felt it was more appropriate to just recommend a single armor set and stack and eat food accordingly.

Very few dungeons put you in situations where it is difficult to build stacks in the first minute or two of the dungeon. The challenge is then learning to play at a level such that you keep your stacks. Here’s what we have:

• AC: Spiders that trigger the Spider Queen
• TA: Nightmare vines and spiders or archers in the old paths, spiders and other mobs in the first room of the new path
• SE P1: Inquest along the way to Nokk
• SE P3: Dredge along the way to and following Volkov
• CoF: Path 1 doesn’t have much stacking material. Path 2 has devourers and Path 3 has the trash around the torches and first boss.
• CoE: Icebrood up to and including the first champ plus the 4 golems
• HotW P1: First room of enemies or enemies preceeding Aldus
• Arah: Infinitely spawning Risen plus spiders.
• Fractals: Of the starting fractals, only in Swampland is it inconvenient to build stacks.

The other factor that I weight in my recommendations is the EP when wielding an FGS. In many dungeons, the FGS is an important source of DPS for an ele. Using Assassin’s armor and stacking bloodlust may be more optimal for LH use, but is less optimal for FGS and your equipped weapon.

Take, for example, the 30/10/10/20/0 build. I tend to run this one in casual dungeon runs because of its provision of fury – really helpful when the party consists of something like ele/guard/mes/ranger or thief/warr. Our rangers don’t typically use moas for fury, so without PF, our party would not have 100% fury uptime. Such a build would be unnecessary in a party composition of something like ele/guard/war/war/(mes or ranger or war) where there are plenty of other sources of fury. Under the standard assumptions of my spreadsheet (25 might and vuln, permafury, banners of discipline and strength, signet of fire, 100% health for whole battle) here are the effective powers that I get:

• For exotic berserker armor, using Sweet and Spicy Butternut soup with 25 Perception stacks grants an EP of 26356 for my base weapon, 28258 with a LH, and 28258 with FGS.
• For exotic assassin’s armor, using Curry Butternut soup with 25 Bloodlust stacks grants an EP of 26264 (99.65%) with the base weapon, 28361 (100.36%) with LH, and 28131 (99.55%) with FGS.

Thus while assassin’s with bloodlust and precision food is slightly more optimal for LH, it is slightly less optimal for base weapons and FGS. Additionally, if you were going for a speedkill for a boss (implying FGS), the highest EP available using either exotic armor set is 28425 using Berserker’s armor with precision food and stacks.

Overall, for most builds, there is a bloodlust stack and a perception stack option (with different corresponding armors). One option favors LH, the other favors FGS, and in most cases those options will allow you to use the unfavored weapon for less than a 1% loss in EP. Such differences in EP will be hard to see in game with the RNG in the combat system.

Very amazing guide. Definitely deserves sticky.

Thanks DE for the detailed comments on those trade offs, and the tips on stacking.

I absolutely agree that 0.5% is not worth sweating it, especially if FGS is better with berserker.

Like I said, the discussion only makes these guides and tips better and more complete for everyone

santa.1640:

DEKeyzToChaos.7381:

Scepter + Hammer

• Persisting Flames build for highest might stacking and fury stacking: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYnEEVZYACyGwjgAgoIFUCPGQgCGF6QUwCA-jACBYfBk8DgKAMzUZNPVQs4qIas6aYKXER1A-e

thanks to your guide. after read part of s/d, i have a question.

there is a build for might and fury stacking, traits are 25/10/10/25.

while i use build, how can i stacking FURY?

i think there is no trait for stacking fury.

maybe it’s just silly question for you. but plz be generous. i’m a noob.

so, wish your help. thanks.

You must have misread. The build you link/quote is actually 30/10/10/20/0.

Hi everyone,

First of all, thanks for this guide, it was really usefull to me. This made my ele my main character !

I got few questions and maybe you answer to them in your video but i don’t speak very well english so maybe i didn’t understand it.

For the sigils on your weapons, why did you choose sigil with increased damage at night and versus undead ? Is this for a particular situation or dungeon ?

Finally about the gear, if i understood well you want to do helm, chest and pants in assassin set. This set gives power/precision/condition damage. Why don’t you stay in full berzerker ? Is it that worthy to take some condition damage ?

Thanks in adavance for your answer !
Aze’

After you’ve gotten your 25 Bloodlust/Perception stacks and swap to your main weps, the sigils on those main weps ought to be a combination of Night, Force, and Dungeon. Generally you’ll use Night and Force for most dungeons, and for Arah you’ll use Undead Slaying and Force.

Assassins does not give condi dmg. It gives the same stats as berserkers (power/prec/crit dmg), but the power and prec stats are swapped. You use various combinations of zerk and assassins gear to optimize dmg by finding the perfect balance between prec and power for your particular build.

Thanks for the answer. I wanted just a confirmation about the sigil of Night in dungeons. You’re using this sigil because dungeons are considered as night time, right ?

Most of them are. The only ones that aren’t are: Arah, HotW, CM, and a few fractals

The dungeons that are considered night are :
AC, TA, SE, CoF, and CoE

The fractals that are considered night are:
Swampland, Snowblind, Underground Facility (Dredge), Volcanic (Grawl), and Solid Ocean (Jade Maw)

The dungeons that are considered day are:
CM, HotW, and Arah

The fractals that are considered day are:
Aquatic Ruins (Krait), Cliffside, Urban Battleground (Ascalon), Thaumanova Reactor, Molten Furnace, Aetherblade, Molten Duo, and Mai Trin.

If you do a lot of fractals and don’t want an energy sigil or stacking sigil on one of your weapons, it may be worth it to keep a weapon with an accuracy sigil on it so you can run force/accuracy for those daytime instances.

EDIT: Also, updated the staff section of this guide with more detailed build analysis and more instructions on rotations.

I like the updates to the staff section. While I think that particular build is too braindead for my tastes, I still really like the AL/single target variant.

By the way, should not the vuln. stacking variant include shatterstone somewhere in the rotation?

lorddarkflare.9186:

I like the updates to the staff section. While I think that particular build is too braindead for my tastes, I still really like the AL/single target variant.

By the way, should not the vuln. stacking variant include shatterstone somewhere in the rotation?

Shatterstone isn’t worth casting, ever.

P Fun Daddy.1208:

Shatterstone isn’t worth casting, ever.

I like using it versus world bosses if there aren’t enough people stacking vulnerability. I figure the +4% damage over ~20 seconds from 10~30 people beats the damage I can do alone in other attunements.

From the twitch stream yesterday (balance preview):

- burning speed evades
- frozen burst is a blast finisher

I am trying to not get back to this game but when I see buffs like this, buffs I have asked for long time ago, I cannot help but thinking that the devs want me back

And then you see how they address the “problem” of the zerker meta …

Zelyhn.8069:

From the twitch stream yesterday (balance preview):

- burning speed evades
- frozen burst is a blast finisher

I am trying to not get back to this game but when I see buffs like this, buffs I have asked for long time ago, I cannot help but thinking that the devs want me back

You know you want to come back Zelyhn!!

Great guide Dekeyz, I would like to know what weapon and build do you suggest for map completion(I’m already 80).
And I think for Orr it will maybe change…there are lots of skill point that are tough to get alone, since I’m soloing, your input would be appreciated.

Keep up the good work.

oZii.2864:

Zelyhn.8069:

From the twitch stream yesterday (balance preview):

- burning speed evades
- frozen burst is a blast finisher

I am trying to not get back to this game but when I see buffs like this, buffs I have asked for long time ago, I cannot help but thinking that the devs want me back

You know you want to come back Zelyhn!!

We miss you~

Concise, clear, nice movies! I think this guide deserves a sticky.

Perhaps worth a comment: I find that after the patch the conjured Flame Axe has replaced Arcane Wave on my utility bar. Typically I combine it with the Lightning Hammer and/or the Frost Bow. I like to go 30 in Fire for might and fury stacking.

Arcane Wave does 1 blast every 30 seconds (not traited). The Flame Axe can do 1 blast every 6 seconds and has two fire fields on 15s cooldowns. Both AW and the FA blast are now targeted, so there is no difference anymore in that regard. AW has one main advantage: it is quick.

For might stacking, also for pre-fight stacking, the Flame Axe works well together with Scepter/X or even Staff. The idea is to conjure the Flame Axe for just one (perhaps two) blasts and fire fields, then drop it again. Since you get two conjured FAs, this is worth at least 2 blasts and 2 fields.

A simple rotation for Scepter/Dagger, say for pre-fight might/fury stacking, is to start in Earth: FA4 – FA2 – DE4 – DE5 – SF2 – DF4 – SF3 – FA2. This gives 18 stacks of might without Arcane Wave and Arcane Brilliance.

With persisting flames, you can also do FA4 – FA2 – SF2, that is land the Dragon’s Tooth in the Flame Axe field, saving the off-hand Dagger field for a second Dragon’s Tooth and another Flame Axe blast. For example, FA4 – FA2 – SF2 – DF4 – SF3 – FA2 – SF2 – DE4 – DE5, which are 21 stacks of might and lots of fury.

Apart from might stacking, I like the Flame Axe as a 900 range weapon. There are situations where I simply cannot handle stacking on the boss with the Lightning Hammer. In such situations, or when your party is scattered, might stacking becomes difficult. Pop a Flame Axe and you have a hard hitting ranged weapon (single target, though) that provides lots of personal might. You can even trait Fire XII before such fights to get 2 stacks of personal might per second with FA1. Once at 25 might, hit with Frost Bow 4 or FGS. It’s situational, but I think it is a nice option if you need some distance and are not running Staff.

Btw, I love your FGS/spider clip!

Zel, it’s looking really good for D/F eles when those changes hit. One more blast finisher every 25 seconds (assuming the rotation doesn’t change) makes it even stronger all around. But the game will be around whenever you’re ready to come back.

Star, I would first try Dagger/Focus or Scepter/Dagger + Hammer for open world. If you’re still learning game mechanics you may need to tweak your build or gear to have more condition removal or survivability. A popular tanky Dagger/Focus build is 0/30/10/20/10, which, while it has no place in dungeon speedruns because it has low EP, hits hard enough against open world mobs and vets to get the job done and lets you take Cleansing Wave in condition-heavy situations. Same goes for 30/10/10/20/0 for a scepter-hammer, instead of taking Piercing Shards (since you won’t provide vuln), take Cleansing Wave when you need it. Instead of Signet of Fire, go with Signet of Air if you’re just running around or a defensive utility if you need it.

For those hard-to-get skill points, get a few Ash Legion Spy Kits to channel in dangerous places. Run in, killing what you can, Swirling Winds, Obsidian Flesh, wait for things to hit you so you don’t flinch and interrupt your skill point channel, use a spy kit, and then channel.

Thanks Abraxax. I’ll have to do some experimentation with Flame Axe, as the organized groups that I tend to run with have enough blasts to pre-stack to 25 might without really trying. I also still need to double check the coefficients on it.

I sent Josh a message to see if this can get stickied.

Yay sticky!

/15char

Thanks for the sticky!

You can get around the 15 character limit by padding with spaces – or at least you used to be able to.

The news about the upcoming balance patch certainly makes gear selection harder. It is likely that berserker will not be hit as hard by the crit damage nerf as assassin, so if you’re wondering what set you should make and don’t want to wait another month or two, work on zerk pieces. As soon as we know what the ferocity:crit damage ratio will be, redoing EP calculations to find good gear mixes will be easy.

Great guide!

Post patch it looks like scholar will remain top DPS for runes, but with ruby orbs potentially seeing a huge nerf I wonder if that will open the door for strength runes?

In pugs where I can’t stay above 90% (and fights take a bit longer) I’m not sure there’s a better option, especially with the buffs to using an entire runeset?

Strength runes look like a strong contender, especially since producing might is trivial for ele’s. Fury runes might be another set to consider depending on what changes are made, and I hope one or two more sets are brought up to be more attractive to direct DPS builds.

Hey, I started using your D/F build.
Previously I was using D/D with a bit of survivability (Knight/Berserker gear and 30 points in Water) and I’m having trouble with the transition to full glasscannon.
I die really often in dungeons now, since most champions can now one-shot me. Do you have any tips to help me with that, besides learning to dodge better? (I’m working on that)

Hi Axel,

From what I understand, you have hard time against champs in dungeons. Can you be more specific in which dungeons?

Speaking from my experience,

• In AC, Kholer has a safe spot where you group can stack might and you can drop a FGS to quickly kill him.
• Howler and Collossus requires a bit of sidestepping from their frontal attack. Either attack from their sides or behind. I use [Burning Speed] to move forward through the champ. If the fight is long, I’ll summon [Earth Elemental] to draw aggro from me.
• In CM, there are bosses using deadly projectiles. Use Rocky to draw aggro and use [Swirling Wind] wisely.
• In TA, the only way not to get any trouble with champ wurm is to burst it down with a decent group DPS. I’ll slot [Armor of Earth], [Cleansing Flame] and either [Lightning Hammer] or [Frost Bow]. In this boss, try not to move away from your party so much as your guards or mesmer may cleanse the condi for you. Any other bosses can be LoS and dealed with FGS. For Nightmare Tree, [Swirling Wind] against the Turrets and Stability if needed.
• In SE, if you don’t want to waste your FGS, you can use [Burning Speed] against the cornered foes to deal a big chunk of damage
• In CoF, eh… easy mode.
• In CoE, golems and lesser bosses can be blinded with either [Sand Storm] or the [Lightning Hammer] autoattack chain. [Armor of Earth] for protection and stability against the golem boss or use CC to interupt his spinning attack.
• In HotW, the last boss requires you to kite him and stay at least in max melee range so as not to get oneshot by his whirling defense attack. I’d rather use staff for a bit of CC.

To DEKeyz,

With the upcoming changes of crit damage, what is your speculation about stats optimization? Is it still good to have a mixture of Assassin and Berserker as you have suggested?

Iris Ng.9845:

• In HotW, the last boss requires you to kite him and stay at least in max melee range so as not to get oneshot by his whirling defense attack. I’d rather use staff for a bit of CC.

4x FGS = instant half health for that boss. …. just remember to destroy Retal totem first. lol

Thanks for the reply, your advice will definitely help.
I think I just need to practise with a patient group and lots of repair money!
Your videos are also helpful (and quite impressive)

Axelwarrior.9084:

Hey, I started using your D/F build.
Previously I was using D/D with a bit of survivability (Knight/Berserker gear and 30 points in Water) and I’m having trouble with the transition to full glasscannon.
I die really often in dungeons now, since most champions can now one-shot me. Do you have any tips to help me with that, besides learning to dodge better? (I’m working on that)

As you’ve seen in Iris’ and Anierna’s responses, a large part of the reason why people would take Eles for speedy dungeon runs is FGS – FGS 3 is an evade just like a warrior’s GS3, so you can use it between rushes if stacked against a wall, or after a rush if using Lightning Flash.

Specifically for D/F, make sure to use Obsidian Flesh when it’s available and don’t use dodges when it’s active. I’ll also swap to earth for it while conjuring FGS to ensure that I won’t interrupt the channel. While soloing I’ll even jump straight from fire→ earth for the defense if I think I can burst down a mob in 5-10 seconds, or I’ll use air 5 and water 5 for the CC (though these solutions are DPS losses compared to a good rotation). Iris also makes a good point about using blinds on trash through Glyph of Storms (earth) or Lightning Hammer.

Also, if you have that knight’s gear, still use a couple of pieces for now. While some classes can jump to full glass builds and still be easy to play (most notably warrior), the difference in survivability is especially noticeable on Ele and I recommend taking small steps to transition from defensive gear to offensive.

Updated the guide to revise the D/F and Conjure and Elite sections. Started a Fractals section (though it’s still under construction), and split the Scepter section into S/D and S/F in preparation of the next revision.

What is the traits when using S/F ?

Yshinar.8469:

What is the traits when using S/F ?

Use the same traits as S/D.

Ephemeral.5409:

Yshinar.8469:

What is the traits when using S/F ?

Use the same traits as S/D.

Thanks. I thought DEKeyzToChaos.7381 was wrong xD

Yeah, I have the same traits for both sections right now. Working on better clarifications for the next iteration of the guide!

My group is always lacking both Fury & Vuln, so I kinda need to pick up both. What build would you recommend with S/F & LH – 30/30/0/10/0 (Water Attunement for damage with a “useless” 3rd air trait) or 30/30/10/0/0 (Air Attunement for damage)?

Air attune for dmg.

spoj.9672:

Air attune for dmg.

Can I ask why Mr Spoj? Is the reliability on Air Attunement worth the 10% damage loss?

Well theres not really any other choices in air magic and seeing as you are going 30 points then you should take that trait. So if you then go earth you get an extra perma 10% + the 10% while attuned to air. And seeing as dmg multipliers are multiplicative having two 10% is better than one 20%. Plus earth gives condi dmg which is a bit more dmg than vitality and healing power.

30/30/10 also gives you the flexibility to swap to d/f fresh air build. Which incredibly useful in less than optimal conditions.

Putting it simply 30/30/10 does more dmg than 30/30/0/10.

spoj.9672:

Well theres not really any other choices in air magic and seeing as you are going 30 points then you should take that trait. So if you then go earth you get an extra perma 10% + the 10% while attuned to air. And seeing as dmg multipliers are multiplicative having two 10% is better than one 20%. Plus earth gives condi dmg which is a bit more dmg than vitality and healing power.

30/30/10 also gives you the flexibility to swap to d/f fresh air build. Which incredibly useful in less than optimal conditions.

Putting it simply 30/30/10 does more dmg than 30/30/0/10.

Honestly, I put the extra 5 in Air for the 50 Precision/5% Crit :P It just felt like 30/30/0/10 would be more to me, since the extra 10% crit damage from Arcane Lightning and the 20% from Water would outweight the earth build.

But I’ll trust your judgement, and noticing Keyz has a 30/30/10 D/F build.

EDIT: You know, for some reason I forgot to consider the 10% from the earth trait

30/30/0/10/0 (water camp) is easier to play and works out to be slightly higher EP, but 30/30/10/0/0 (jump in and out of air while hammering) is much better single target DPS when you get a good rhythm for attunement swapping while hammering – plus those extra lightning strikes have a chance at stacking more vuln.

This guide is excellent, because of its in-depth explanations and attention to detail.

DEKeyz, if you play WvW and SPvP, I would love to see your suggestions for builds and gear in those areas of gameplay.

What build do you recommend for a “just got 80 ele”?
Ty very much

Staff. It’s the build with the most glorious damage. Run with it in LA.

If you prefer more mobility and less zergs content. Scepter/dagger and lightning hammer!

Want to be a bit tanky to rescue civilians and run rubble? Dagger/ Focus.

In fact, try ’em all. Start wearing zerk!

Sorry Emperor, I don’t really do much PvP or WvW – but there are plenty of eles who do and post videos of them in action (which can somewhat be dissected for their builds) and are happy to offer their feedback on builds you put together yourself. At most I grab my staff and frostbow and just burst stuff down from safe spots in WvW and PvP I mess around on whatever class/build I feel like playing much to the frustration of my guildmates.

Ryn, Iris’s suggestions are great for zerging LA right now or doing world boss events. If you’re finishing up open world exploration, D/F or D/D with 30/30/10/0/0 or 0/30/10/20/10 are decent options because you’ll be able to burst stuff down quickly and have a bit of sustain with your chosen weapon set. Start working on getting zerk ascended trinkets as it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever go out of style in PvE. S/D + LH can also work in open world but I find that I want to move too fast for my hammer to be off cooldown, and staff is just annoying because you’ll have to somewhat facetank mobs to get them to stay in your lava fonts.

For dungeons, scepter+hammer is probably the easiest to get into if you’re not scared of melee. D/F’s rotations take some learning and can get you killed if you try to use Burning Speed at the wrong time. Staff is also decent, but doesn’t bring as much offensive support and there’s always the temptation to stand away from your fields so that you don’t benefit from your blasts.

Edit: Actually I just had some ideas for staff but it will take me some time to finish up other projects and then test those ideas.

Updated. Finished the S/D and S/F revisions, added in more Fractal stuff and videos. Next up, tweaks for open world and new ele’s, and some time in the future an update when the ferocity update actually hits!

Also, I’ve had to get a little creative to fit in all the stuff I want in a post and still beat the 5001 character limit. Please leave a comment if my excessive acronyms start impacting your ability to understand what I’m saying.