Guild Wars 2

@Kostbais:
The aura and protection stack for a 43% dmg reduction. With GoEP its 50% of the oppentents dmg is glances.
So in reality you only have 43% dmg reduction added on top of a 50% chance that dmg is reduced by 50%
Edit:
Which over all becomes a 68% dmg reduction.
10% aura
33% protection
50%*50%=25% weakness

Hey guys,

Here’s my favorite builds so far post patch. They both revolve around “Fresh Air” since it is extremely powerful (broken too, but still probably powerful after hotfix).

I use for the most part the same armor / gear setup:
Gear : http://tinyurl.com/daphoenixBuild6

0/30/10/0/30
Traits:
For S/D
Air – > 10% more damage in air, 20% more damage if target <33% HP, Fresh Air (Recharge air attunement upon critical)
Earth → 10% more damage if <600 units away
Arcana → Standard traits → 5,6,11

For Staff
Earth→ At 50% Hp, gain armor of earth
Arcana → Blasting staff trait over the vigor trait

Skillset → Ether Renewal. Mistform, LF, Armor of Earth. Fiery GreatSword

Logic behind traits chosen: It is essential to either have 15 water (passive heal), or 30 arcana (EA) as these are your 2 main healing methods. Since you need 30 points in air, you can’t have 15 in water while having 30 in arcana, thereby reducing the recharge rate of water15’s passive heal. So 30 in arcana is logical, plus it offers low CD attunements.

Fresh Air is so effective because it procs air15’s passive, a lightning strike that deals single target damage if enemy is in range combined with the instant S/D’s air 2 lightning strike. You can essentially cast get free 4 single target air15 spells within a ~10second duration, totaling to 4~8k damage. You need to have other attunements ready to swap in and out of air constantly, hence the 30 in arcana. Constantly swapping in and out of air offers another feature → permanent fury through swapping attunements, and permanent swiftness through arcana 5.

Stone splitters is chosen due to its reliable 10% DPS; you are going to be fighting enemies <600 units most of the time to land fire spells.

Alternate build
0/30/0/20/20
Air → Same as above
Water → 3,8 (Cantrips grant regen and vigor, and 50% reduced fall dmg)
Arcana → 5,6

This build is similar to the one above, but offers a different set of utility / defense

Doesn’t it force you to bounce through attunments more that you would otherwise have to, in order to land that 15nth trait?

Thats what the alternate build is for :]

The 0/30/10/0/30 does require A LOT of intensive button pushing. Sometimes I do find myself swapping attunements out of air just to swap back into air asap, to get the free air15 spell.

You don’t really need to cast half the spells in the other attunements anyways. Water doesn’t offer much except its’ 3rd, 4th, and 5th ability for healing. Earth mainly for its 2nd and 4th ability, and maybe its 3rd (I barely use churning as S/D). Fire is used primarily for 3rd, 4th, and 5th ability (Dragon’s tooth always misses against a decent player). Use EA’s dodge roll to proc burning into 5th ability. I only auto attack in the other attunements if I’m shut off from air, and need a critical to proc fresh air (water 1 earth 1 both hit 3xs a cast, 3 chances for a crit).
The way I currently use S/D, I don’t stay on attunements very long. I use on average 3 abilities every attunement swap as I get the most bang for my cast times, and swap frequently to quickly air burst someone down. Quickly spamming attunements also allows me permanent fury.

So do you think D/D isn’t viable anymore? Or are you just having a better or more fun time playing S/D and Staff?

I love when I use armor of earth and it neither breaks stun, nor gives stability. lmao
This game simply does not work properly anymore.
I’ve been getting huge skill lag, and broken commands.

@Ancient Ranger.3276

It is, just not in the way it was before. I moved to a 0/15/10/15/30 orientation, and in the process I lost:

- cantrip regeneration-vigor buff
- roughly 5% damage from Bountiful Power
- 150 healing and vitality (cause I was 30 on water)
- one condition removal (water XI)

But! I gained:

- 50 precision and 5% crit damage
- 180 toughness and 100 condition damage (80 comes from minor trait)
- A much more steady 5% extra damage and 1/5 more procs at bleeds (earth)
- damage on air attunment.

As you see, it’s but a trade-off between defense and damage, and it is small enough to cover-up, if you wish to, through a small change in gear (maybe a piece or two) or in the food used.

The problem lies in pvp-ing, with having to deal with (at least) one less stun breaker. Maybe, there is a remedy to that in what I m going to describe next but I haven’t tested it.

Go with 0/5/10/25/30, with a variation allowed between Earth and Water. Pick up the Signet of Air, to make up for the lost speed on Aura and remain in the mix of bers, knights and celestial gear as suggested by the current build. The build-in precision will make up for the loss in fury
In the end you ll have traded a bit of movement speed (out of air) and one boon, for a blind and second stun breaker on 20 sec cooldown.
If critical is still not enough, or if you feel you need a bit more healing to make up for the loss in on-cantrip-use-regeneration, then change the sigil of bloodlust to perception or life, too.

Any thoughts to including Windborne Dagger since the patch?

@Mpiftekis:
-I am actually running the 0/0/20/20/30 build
-In earth I am running Stone Spliters for the 10% dmg and Rock Solid for AoE stability(works very nicely in small group roaming)
-In water I am running Cleansing Wave and Vital Striking (10% dmg above 90% health), I am thinking here to switch Vital Striking for Arcane Abatement.
-In arcane I am running Element Attunement, Renewing Stamina, and Evasive Arcane.
-As for utility’s I am running Lighting Flash, Mist-Form, and Arcane Shield (now a stun breaker)
-Weapons are 2 Zerker daggers
-Armor is mix between Zerker and Knights 3/3
-Jewelry is all Celestial with a Caviler’s back piece
-Leaves me with a 33% crit chance

And FYI they increased the Signet of Air recharge to 30 seconds.

MrAnderson.5908:

Any thoughts to including Windborne Dagger since the patch?

Useless as it’s in combat movement speed only which seems to be the only mobility Anet wants to give us.

Well, I am new to this game in general. Just got to 80 on my Ele, and was thinking having increased combat run speed could potentially keep me just out of close proximity range to melee, allow for better kiting, and also allow me to close the game between anyone at range without necessarily having to use RTL or FL at that instant. Is the 25% just that small in comparison?

@ Ancient Ranger.3276

Then that’s another thing I missed. Arcane shield should do the job too. I m not taking back what I said though. I do consider the suggested build a valid option, until (and if) tests prove otherwise, and there is a perk to it. Even with the increase on cd it’s more than twice as available than the Shield, so it breaks down to what you need in these terms.

Is it better to go with a 3-hits immunity and big cd on stun breaking, or is it better to have constant extra speed (since we know this build to have a difficulty in upkeeping Speed) and the stun breaker on low cd?! That’s more like it, for you, pvp-ers to find out. I ve been using the shield for months now, and I can do without stun breaking in pretty much any pve situation.

Edit: For the record, I chose not to comment on 0/0/20/20/30, cause as a PvE-er I m almost exclusively working with the 0/10/0/30/30, in my mind. The “current” one (which is what you use) had already rejected cantrip and boon “mastery”, so things haven’t changed all that much for it.

Unless you are looking for cookie cutters, the fact that you still find 20/20/30 working, is enough to invalidate your concerns about d/d ele.

Stone Splinters (Earth VI) isn’t a 10% increase. It was 5% before the patch, and the tooltip might say 10% now, but it is still 5%. I suspect a hotfix will set it back to say 5% rather than increase it to actually be 10%.
It would be nice if it is to be made 10% though – better than the attunement-specific 10% increase traits we have.

@ MrAnderson.5908

“Potentially” is a bit too different from “actually”. How quick do you think it will take you to cover up, or open up a distance, one creates in a second through RTL or LF?

Taking as example a d/d thief (a common spec), you ll probably have to deal with 3 small range gap closers (heart-something), potentially a gap closer in utility, and a 5th one, on shortbow. There is just about no way that you ’ll remain far enough to not get hit, using Speed only.

If you now consider another elementalist, who has gone opposite of you, and for one reason or the other tries to open a gap, what are the chances you are going to reach him, when the cumulative range covered by Burning Speed, RTL and LF is at 2700?!

@ Impact

Let’s hope you are wrong. I ’d like it much better this way, than what the notes say.

Mpiftekis.1529:

@ Ancient Ranger.3276

Then that’s another thing I missed. Arcane shield should do the job too. I m not taking back what I said though. I do consider the suggested build a valid option, until and if tests prove otherwise and there is a perk to it. Even with the increase on cd it’s more than twice as available than the Shield, so it breaks down to what you need in these terms.

Is it better to go with a 3-hits immunity and big cd on stun breaking, or is it better to have constant extra speed (since we know this build to have a difficulty in upkeeping Speed) and the stun breaker on low cd?! That’s more like it, for you, pvp-ers to find out. I ve been using the shield for months now, and I can do without stun breaking in pretty much any pve situation.

A low cd stun break might be better, but personally i see the Arcane Shield as an overall better skill than Signet of Air.
But like you said before potentially(personally) to actually is the major difference.

I guess I am more used to playing games with long cd’s on abilities like this. Thank you for the input/insight.

daphoenix.4283:

Hey guys,

Here’s my favorite builds so far post patch. They both revolve around “Fresh Air” since it is extremely powerful (broken too, but still probably powerful after hotfix).

I use for the most part the same armor / gear setup:
Gear : http://tinyurl.com/daphoenixBuild6

0/30/10/0/30
Traits:
For S/D
Air – > 10% more damage in air, 20% more damage if target <33% HP, Fresh Air (Recharge air attunement upon critical)
Earth -> 10% more damage if <600 units away
Arcana -> Standard traits -> 5,6,11

For Staff
Earth-> At 50% Hp, gain armor of earth
Arcana -> Blasting staff trait over the vigor trait

Skillset -> Ether Renewal. Mistform, LF, Armor of Earth. Fiery GreatSword

Logic behind traits chosen: It is essential to either have 15 water (passive heal), or 30 arcana (EA) as these are your 2 main healing methods. Since you need 30 points in air, you can’t have 15 in water while having 30 in arcana, thereby reducing the recharge rate of water15’s passive heal. So 30 in arcana is logical, plus it offers low CD attunements.

Fresh Air is so effective because it procs air15’s passive, a lightning strike that deals single target damage if enemy is in range combined with the instant S/D’s air 2 lightning strike. You can essentially cast get free 4 single target air15 spells within a ~10second duration, totaling to 4~8k damage. You need to have other attunements ready to swap in and out of air constantly, hence the 30 in arcana. Constantly swapping in and out of air offers another feature -> permanent fury through swapping attunements, and permanent swiftness through arcana 5.

Stone splitters is chosen due to its reliable 10% DPS; you are going to be fighting enemies <600 units most of the time to land fire spells.

Alternate build
0/30/0/20/20
Air -> Same as above
Water -> 3,8 (Cantrips grant regen and vigor, and 50% reduced fall dmg)
Arcana -> 5,6

This build is similar to the one above, but offers a different set of utility / defense

I figured out a similiar build around Fresh Air as well for S/D, been using it since the patch. It’s a lot of fun, but you do end up in Air a lot, or just switching into it a lot for the passive 15.

I’m using 0/30/0/30/10 with the following traits:
Air – Zephyrs Boon/Bolt to the Heart/Fresh Air
Water – Vital Striking/Cleansing Wave/Soothing Disruption
Arcana – Elemental Attunement

In PVE I change Bolt to the Heart for Zephyrs Focus for the endurance regeneration though, seems to be more useful. And I know that Scepter/Dagger only has 1 aura, but it helps to keep that perma fury/swiftness up. Though I might change it out for the 10% Air damage since you are in it so much (more so than Water where you would use to switch for Piercing Shards).

I use Arcane Blast, Lightning Flash and Mistform. The lack of stability is killer though, so I’m trying to find a way to get it by switching in Armor of Earth for Mistform if I’m alone (I have a Guardian with me normally who gives out stability like crazy so if I’m with her I don’t need it). Dropping Lightning flash means you cant do a few combos that are nice like Lightning Flash + Earthquake/Churning Earth, and Mistform is hard to give up cause of the invulnerability. Though that lack of stability versus hammer guardians and warriors is just painful, but you can get around it with using Lightning Flash around the place and good dodging.

I find Arcane Blast to be super useful with the whole burst sequence plus since it’s a guaranteed crit, it will refresh your Air attunement if you lack something at that time to use. Plus it does a decent amount of damage (mine does anywhere between 2.5k-3.8k) and I’d rather not drop it since it helps put out the pressure. The build definitely packs a big punch, can take even tanky guardians to 50-60% and keep them there and pressure them to blow cooldowns and dodges while you wail at them from a distance and kill them with repeated burst sequences of Hurl + Electric Discharge + Lightning Strike + Arcane Blast. I also throw in Blinding Flash a lot for a good blind to help with the lack of stability.

Big Problem is Phoenix though. It moves faster (which is AWESOME) but it seems to miss when it returns unless you are standing still. You see the animation of it returning and your character “inhaling” or absorbing it, but you don’t get the vigor or the cleansing that you should be.

What is everyone doing in dungeons now? Having a hard time convincing myself to try something other than 0-10-0-30-30

0/10/10/20/30 works well enough for dungeons if you wanna go D/D. I haven’t had any problems using my 0/30/10/20/10 S/D build in dungeons either. Managed to clear all paths of AC pretty easily with it even with just a bunch of randoms I joined.

@The Great Al

You can go with what Nikkinella said and do 0/10/10/20/30 or 0/10/10/30/20 or 0/10/10/25/25 or 0/0/10/30/30. The 10 pts in earth is for the “10 % damage while in 600 range of you target” trait.

All in all, there really isn’t much change as far as the “d/d staple” build is concerned.

@daphoenix
You don’t seem to talk about D/D at all in your post patch comments (or I missread it); only S/D and Staff.
Did you quit on D/D? If not, what are your current thoughts on D/D?
And are you using the traits linked here for D/D? https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2FdaphoenixBuild6

Thanks in advance!

I’ve been playing around with a couple of different D/D builds post-patch (as well as enjoying staff in WvW!).

30 in arcana is still a must imo, heal on dodge/blast finisher on dodge are just too amazing to pass up. On top of that, attunement CD reduction is still mandatory on D/D’s.

As has been pointed out on the previous page, the new earth 10 trait (10% damage within 600 range) is as good/better than bountiful power. There’s no need to “charge it up” and most of the time you might not even hit 10 traits. In an organized group for fractals or something, this might be different. For example, if the group can stack might FAST, you’ll quickly hit more than 10 boons. So that gives us 10 in earth.

Water is still amazing, and the first V trait (remove condition on swap to water) is still great. So that gives us 10 in water.

10 in air gives us swiftness and fury upon using an aura. I’ve heard some people who dropped this completely, claiming they still get enough fury just from swapping attunements, but I haven’t tried this myself. For a more tanky build this could work very well, but I like the precision and crit damage I get from air as well. I’ll be trying builds without air next though!

0/10/10/10/30 is the base I’m starting from.

I LOVE air 15, it’s quite a huge burst and just combo’s in so well with all your other spells. Air 20 has a few amazing traits as well: 1) extra damage to foes low on health; 2) extra crit damage after using an arcana skill (if you take arcana power this allows for some nice combo’s), 3) 20% CD on air traits for more updrafts and ride the lightning.

Earth 15 isn’t that amazing, but if you go 20 into earth you can pick up armor of earth at 50% health, which is an amazing trait.

And then there’s water. I’ve been tempted to drop points out of this in favor of the former two trait lines. As I said earlier, bountiful power can be replaced by the new earth trait. The water 20 traits I’m not sure about. Regen and vigor on cantrips is amazing, but only in conjunction with water 30 (remove condition upon regen). If I drop the latter, maybe I don’t need the former anymore. I’ll have to play around and see how I do with less condition removals. Perhaps it just takes some adjusting, saving ether renewal for the right time, as well as my stun-breaks. I’m not sure how hard the loss of vitality and healing power will hit me though.

So to sum it up: toying around with 0/20/10/10/30 and variations (0/10/10/20/30; 0/10/20/10/30; 0/10/0/30/30; 0/0/10/30/30). I think going 0 in air and 10/20 in earth (30/20 in water respectively) should still be an amazing bunker build, but I’d like to try out some more offensive approaches.

Your build ideas sound very intriguing! Eagerly awaiting your reports after some more testing

I hope to find the time to test some of the ideas postet here myself this weekend and to post a little feedback myself.

I agree, interesting ideas. I recently returned to the game, and dagger elementalist is one of the things I’m trying to see if it suits me. Any advice on what might work best for a inexperienced player who keeps getting clobbered and is mainly looking for a solid solo PvE build? 10 Earth, 10 Water and 30 Arcane is what I know I want,. The extra healing from the Water traits has saved my hide more than once pre-patch, so I’m not prepared to drop it to go all-out Air. That leaves 20 points, or 10 if I stick with 10 Air for the Fury/Swiftness. Earth 20? Water 20? 15 in both?

I’m confused, does fall damage trait proc on knockdown or something?

Also, I use tempest defense in staff. I was in garrison yesterday and the lightning hit me and dropped me to half health, and that proc’d a shocking aura on me. It was amusing.
It’s a free aura + increased damage on knocked down or stunned foes. Essential imo. With 10% reduction on air recharge and 30 arcana, you don’t need to worry about air attunement being down, unless you’re trying to run away while spamming cc fields behind you.

katniss.6735:

I’m confused, does fall damage trait proc on knockdown or something?

Jump off of a cliff, wall etc that`d normally kill you, fall trait reduces damage you take, can save you being a corpse

Set the trait, jump off of any WvWs keep wall, you`ll see the effects.

Sooo I just tested in the mist with steady weapons using the stone splinters trait. Competely naked base stats.

Lightning whip should hit for 68+10%= 74.8

Instead I get 71 damage which is +5% damage

So as of right now it is still +5% damage

oZii.2864:

Sooo I just tested in the mist with steady weapons using the stone splinters trait. Competely naked base stats.

Lightning whip should hit for 68+10%= 74.8

Instead I get 71 damage which is +5% damage

So as of right now it is still +5% damage

Sadly you’re are correct.
I was hoping you were wrong so I did some testing of my own. What I found was I hit 243-257 with a single dagger base stats(no amulet no traits no runes) in sPvP on a Heavy Golem and then added 10 points in earth for Stone Splitters, and I hit 255-270 which is only a 5% increase.

So any changes or updates to your d/d build based on the update or are you still using the same build?

I think he is a bit excited with his s/d build right now, so it may take some time before we see an update on these things

If you feel in “need” of a build to move on right now, the following may come in handy.

If you are into PvE:
0/15/10/15/30 and pretty much any variation, between air and water, work fairly well. The 10 in Earth is for the damage. It’s much more reliable that Bountiful power but with no potential for some extra. If you run in groups and are confident 6 or more boons will be in your bar at all times (on average), then you may as well reurtn to 0/15/0/25/30.

As for utilities pick
a) Arcane shield
b) Mist form and
c) Hammer (for damage) / Cleansing (if you have problem with conditions) / Teleport (for running or roaming and what-not)… Generally that’s very interchangeable. Pick whatever fits your needs at each case.

If you are mostly running WvWvW:

Someone above said the previous (0//0/20/20/30) still works for the most part, and I would agree. Nerfs on it were rather minor (maybe even negligible).

If sPvP is your thing:

I can say nothing here. I rolled another class months ago… You can try looking in the past 2 pages. I think some made refference to it and how the build could possibly adapt.

Note: Don’t be afraid dropping that 20 trait in water, in the build I gave you for PvE. It’s perk is that it gives regeneration and vigor on cantrip use but with Mist being your only cantrip in a dungeon it doesn’t offer much to justify losing the second minor in air or the major in Earth.

Edit: Just thought of it. In PvE, if you are still too fresh on Ele and chose to go a bit more defensive, you can go 0/0/10/30/30, at the cost of Speed and Fury. The trait increase in damage ought to be around 8 or 9%, unless you have someone else around to provide the rest of the boon-pallet (which brings the potential up to 14% even if momentarily). But then again you are better off using a staff with this orientation.

Wait! This is a d/d topic but he just talks about s/d and staff post patch. And the build he posted is 0/0/20/20/30 but he talks about 0/30/10/0/30. And are those s/d and staff builds for PvE solo or dungeons? Did I miss something?

kartana.3769:

Wait! This is a d/d topic but he just talks about s/d and staff post patch. And the build he posted is 0/0/20/20/30 but he talks about 0/30/10/0/30. And are those s/d and staff builds for PvE solo or dungeons? Did I miss something?

I think we are all a bit confused on his post as well.. I’m thinking if dapheonix gave up on D/D then it’s all over :[

Wolfaen.9461:

kartana.3769:

Wait! This is a d/d topic but he just talks about s/d and staff post patch. And the build he posted is 0/0/20/20/30 but he talks about 0/30/10/0/30. And are those s/d and staff builds for PvE solo or dungeons? Did I miss something?

I think we are all a bit confused on his post as well.. I’m thinking if dapheonix gave up on D/D then it’s all over :[

He didn’t give up (I don’t think) but the new traits favor S/D and the builds that you can make with it are a lot of fun and pack a punch. I think it’s more experimentation. The old build is still working and is awesome, the slight damage nerf hurts but it accomplishes what is needed and is still fun.

@daphoenix.4283 and all my Friends.
H!
i Like D/D Elementalist and i’m new Elementalist, i want new build for this patch and i want it for WvW pls say all armor and trinket and Weapons and Sigil and rune.

Salar.7285:

@daphoenix.4283 and all my Friends.
H!
i Like D/D Elementalist and i’m new Elementalist, i want new build for this patch and i want it for WvW pls say all armor and trinket and Weapons and Sigil and rune.

I am not trying to be rude; however, please read the thread from page 1 answers to your questions are there.. you just need to read them.

Edit: nothing changed for d/d it was only nerfed but not much so no change.

daphoenix.4283:

Hey guys,

Here’s my favorite builds so far post patch. They both revolve around “Fresh Air” since it is extremely powerful (broken too, but still probably powerful after hotfix).

I use for the most part the same armor / gear setup:
Gear : http://tinyurl.com/daphoenixBuild6

0/30/10/0/30
Traits:
For S/D
Air – > 10% more damage in air, 20% more damage if target <33% HP, Fresh Air (Recharge air attunement upon critical)
Earth -> 10% more damage if <600 units away
Arcana -> Standard traits -> 5,6,11

For Staff
Earth-> At 50% Hp, gain armor of earth
Arcana -> Blasting staff trait over the vigor trait

Skillset -> Ether Renewal. Mistform, LF, Armor of Earth. Fiery GreatSword

Logic behind traits chosen: It is essential to either have 15 water (passive heal), or 30 arcana (EA) as these are your 2 main healing methods. Since you need 30 points in air, you can’t have 15 in water while having 30 in arcana, thereby reducing the recharge rate of water15’s passive heal. So 30 in arcana is logical, plus it offers low CD attunements.

Fresh Air is so effective because it procs air15’s passive, a lightning strike that deals single target damage if enemy is in range combined with the instant S/D’s air 2 lightning strike. You can essentially cast get free 4 single target air15 spells within a ~10second duration, totaling to 4~8k damage. You need to have other attunements ready to swap in and out of air constantly, hence the 30 in arcana. Constantly swapping in and out of air offers another feature -> permanent fury through swapping attunements, and permanent swiftness through arcana 5.

Stone splitters is chosen due to its reliable 10% DPS; you are going to be fighting enemies <600 units most of the time to land fire spells.

Alternate build
0/30/0/20/20
Air -> Same as above
Water -> 3,8 (Cantrips grant regen and vigor, and 50% reduced fall dmg)
Arcana -> 5,6

This build is similar to the one above, but offers a different set of utility / defense

I want to try this build, but I feel like a moron because I can’t find the trait called “Fresh Air”. I’m using the site linked above in this post for the traits, and there isn’t one called “Fresh Air”.

I love my D/D build, but I also love using S/D so I’m really eager to try this build. Any help would be appreciated. (And sorry for sounding like a moron.)

it’s the grand master trait in Air, I think it’s the very las trait.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fresh_Air

XII according to this.

The Goat.1940:

it’s the grand master trait in Air, I think it’s the very las trait.

Ah found it, thanks!

i want use this build for WvW pls say me your thought.
daphoenix’s Build
———————————————————————————————————
Weapons:
Dagger/Berseker/Battle
Dagger/Berseker/Bloodlust
—————————————————-
Armor:
Helm/Knight/Monk
Shoulder/Berseker/Monk
Cout/Berseker/Water
Glove/Berseker/Water
Leg/Knight/Melandru
Boots/Berseker/Melandru
—————————————————-
Accessories:
Amulet/Celestial
Ring1/Cavalier
Ring2/Celestial/Vitality
Acc1/Celestial/Might
Acc2/Celestial/Vitality
Back/Cavalier/Vitality
——————————————————
Trait:
0/0/20/20/30
Earth: III – IX
Water: III – VIII
Arcane: V – VI – XI

I find celestial to be highly ineffective. You try to be everything yet suck at everything. What do you want to do with your character? If you want damage/survivability? mix soldier/berserker/cavalier. You want tank? Mix Soldier/Clerics.

Celestial IMO doesn’t help you do anything save get all stats which isn’t always entirely useful. You would end up with a rather low healthpool (somewhere round the 14-15k it seems) and rather low toughness which for a melee class in WvW is a no no.

Specialize in what you want to do.

Edit – After entering the stats in this is what you would end up with:
Power 1655
Precision 1441
Toughness 1640
Vitality 1289
Critical Damage + 57%
Condition Damage + 373
Healing Power 373
Boon Duration 30%
Critical Chance 29%
Armor 2560
Health 14535

Average health and average toughness. If I were playing a melee class in WvW, I wouldn’t run with this little health/toughness. Not with the buffs that necros got and certainly not with engineers running around who will eat your health alive with condis. You don’t have enough health to survive the conditions, and don’t have enough toughness to mitigate a big burst from a thief either and with a low healthpool you would be in danger of HS spam.

Your crit damage/crit chance is good, but the power is very low to the point that you don’t really have that oomph to back up that crit.

You also chose things that are bad as far as gear optimization. The head/chest/leggings are NOT good for berserker stats. Soldier or knights would be best as far as stat tradeoffs. Trinkets are the best source for crit damage, so you would be better off switching those to cavalier or berserker and swapping your main gear to knights/soldiers.

This is what I would do in your place with that build:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/elementalist/?1.0|8.1c.0.8.1c.0|0.0.0.0.0.0|1g.7r.1g.7r.1c.71g.1g.71g.1c.71h.1g.71h|2s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2v.0.3v.0.2v.0|0.0.k00.k00.u000|3t.7|0.0.0.0.0|e

There is also food buffs there.

Hi all,
I tried Daphoenix’s new build the other day with S/D and granted it is very effective (air grandmaster trait is lovely) however I’m not a huge fan of the scepter. What are the main reasons why this build wouldn’t work for D/D?? ( I’m guessing its to do with the miniscule 300 range on lighting skills……. which frequently miss -_- )

Flux Qemist.6712:

Hi all,
I tried Daphoenix’s new build the other day with S/D and granted it is very effective (air grandmaster trait is lovely) however I’m not a huge fan of the scepter. What are the main reasons why this build wouldn’t work for D/D?? ( I’m guessing its to do with the miniscule 300 range on lighting skills……. which frequently miss -_- )

It does work with D/D, but it works “better” with S/D due to the cooldown on Fresh Air being the same as the cooldown on Lightning Strike. This allows Electric Discharge and Lightning Strike to go off at the same time giving huge pressure on your target. Also the low cooldown on Earth 2 for hurl allows you to constantly set up Hurl + Electric Discharge + Lightning Strike for serious pressure on people.

Another reason is that for D/D you need a little more survivability than S/D and speccing into this leaves you without the 30 in water which leaves you without 3k health and a lot of cleanses. You would need to put more Soldiers/Knights gear to survive.

I prefer a 0/30/0/30/10 build which leaves the cleanses, but you lose the dodges and EA.

Just for information, spamming the scepter’s arc lightning and lightning strike on cooldown deals about half the damage of the dagger’s lightning whip. So you do not apply more pressure with scepter and fresh air, it’s just that the cooldowns somewhat match so it looks nice, but it is still bad, very bad.

It doesn’t require to be in melee, the damage is insanely quickly and it actually hits quite hard all together. While I don’t think it’ll replace D/D, what I do think is that we now have 2 viable builds.

Zelyhn.8069:

Just for information, spamming the scepter’s arc lightning and lightning strike on cooldown deals about half the damage of the dagger’s lightning whip. So you do not apply more pressure with scepter and fresh air, it’s just that the cooldowns somewhat match so it looks nice, but it is still bad, very bad.

This. Fresh Air is highly overrated.

mjharrison.3209:

Zelyhn.8069:

Just for information, spamming the scepter’s arc lightning and lightning strike on cooldown deals about half the damage of the dagger’s lightning whip. So you do not apply more pressure with scepter and fresh air, it’s just that the cooldowns somewhat match so it looks nice, but it is still bad, very bad.

This. Fresh Air is highly overrated.

You understood me wrong. I am saying that the damage output of the scepter air rotation is weak. Fresh air is faaaaaaar from overrated, actually it is one of the best traits we’ve had in a long time and it synergizes with so much.

Zelyhn.8069:

Just for information, spamming the scepter’s arc lightning and lightning strike on cooldown deals about half the damage of the dagger’s lightning whip. So you do not apply more pressure with scepter and fresh air, it’s just that the cooldowns somewhat match so it looks nice, but it is still bad, very bad.

Hmm, I’ll have to test that, but My lightning strike hits for 4-5k by itself. I would have to look at it. And the pressure comes from the combination of both the Lightning Strike and the Electric Discharge.

It isn’t overrated. It’s a viable new playstyle for a ranged DPS burst. There are multiple combos that are available to the S/D burst that altogether out do the D/D burster.

The whole combo of Hurl + Electric Discharge + lightning Flash + Phoenix + Lightning flash in front of the target HURTS.

Please read my posts correctly.
I am saying that the air rotation in scepter is weak in term of damage.
Yes the burst is nice, I completely agree.

To put it with numbers:
Arc Lightning: 0.48 power/s
Lightning strike: 0.24 power/s (instant with 5s cd)
Combined they give you a 0.72 p/s, a 40% damage loss compared to lightning whip (1.22 p/s)
Fresh air affects both spells in the exact same way.
The advantages from the scepter air rotation are that it is at range and it is non-projectile. Whether this is worth a 40% damage loss is up to your judgement!