Guild Wars 2

@daphoenix

Clearly it wouldnt work in many build because it is a class specific elite, but what do you think about humans using reaper of grenth as an elite? I currently have glyph of elementals as my elite but realize that I am rarely using it. Maybe I just have to learn to play and start using it more, but reaper of grenth seems like a pretty good skill to have in WvW when i am rtl-ing into a zerg to break the line

Hi!

Just wanted to say great guide, my main is an Elementalist and this helped a lot. I currently have a full Zerkers set for when I just want to go nuke everything in WvW but would like to begin working on my D/D armor set.

I know you mentioned your new armor set-up in the last post but do you have any advice on what armor you would recommend for someone who would only do WvW and Fractals? You said P/T/V stats are a must in Fractals but you have been switching your armor set up for WvW. Is there a happy median that I can meet? I am currently on lvl 20 of FOTM and the the Zerkers staff set-up is not working very well any more.

Thanks!

I too want to add my appreciation. I would never made it to 35 Elemental without this guide.

You are brilliant.

Dandelyn.1362:

Revelstoke.8924:

@daphoenix

Thank you for making this guide, it’s helped immensely. One thing I thought is worth mentioning. Between page 1 (the original spec) and page 9, you’ve kept the build but changed your focus on gear substantially from PVT/Clerics to Knights/Berserkers. Someone viewing the guide for the first time isnt getting the full picture so my suggestion would be to update your guide to reflect the gear choices you’ve made over time. That’s valuable information there that might get overlooked. I know I did

Thanks again-

I agree. I just finished getting all the armor you described in page 1.. and now just seeing that your gear has changed, but I’m not complaining at all. I love the AC armor. The stats are really good and I’m loving the survivability.

I would get both PVT and knights, and try them out. It might seem expensive, but you mostly get the gold for it from AC, and you get the tokens as well. Then you can try both and have a spare set for situations that need more tanking

From my lv 65 up toward 80 I used knights armor with knights accessories (with Valkyrie brilliant gems) and Valkyrie weapons. That worked OK. I also had my 2x Monk and 2x Water runes + some generic 2x"10% boon duration" major runes form lv 65 onwards. I had already transmuted my “end look” gear down, so runes was easy to add early.

Once I hit 80 I had full exotic waiting for me, both a knights set, and PVT set. My trinkets are mostly generic for both my builds; “All stats” ascend as far as possible (I am not rich enough for triforge, but in 9 days I get to buy one for laurels). The rest of my trinkets are knights w/ Valkyrie gems or Sapphire, depending on build. I have my Karka shell with Valkyrie gems also.

The only thing I have not really decided upon yet, is what kind of daggers I like best. My staff is berserker since I can do with the offense at long range, but the daggers are more tricky.

Hi daphoenix like always thx for your helps and tips

i have few more questions

in your image wre u show your stats i see that u use an “Emerald Orichalcum..Knight” that is P/P/T while later u say

Accessories:
Valkyrie jewels in all spots. (Power, Vitality, 3% crit damage).

which one is better and in which condition?and with which type armor(knight or P/V/T)?

actually i’m using P/V/T with full divinity runes,whith knight or berseker which runes are good?still divinity is the best choice?

Back armor:which is a best back armor?or are there more then one good based on situation?

last question is about weapons

D/D ,S/F , D/F stats and sigils suggestion for fractal +10 and WWW?

actually i’m using only D/D P/V/T with Battle+Corruption sigils and staff(P/V/T) with battle sigil but from what i read if i want progress in fractal i will need change my weapons and add get a more big inventory

I feel as if little of this will matter after they nerf us into the ground in the upcoming “balance” fixes.

They can nerf us. I’ll still play my elementalist. However I don’t (at least I hope ) it wont be as bad as people make it out to be. For all we know the changes they do can be sPvP only so hold off on the doomsday and enjoy the great guide.

@daphoenix

What are your thoughts about the alleged upcoming nerfs by an interviewed developer in this thread?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Devs-Ele-s-too-good-nerfs-incoming

It talks almost exclusively about s/tPvP which I have absolutely no interest in but I’m worried it might cross over into the realms of PvE and/or WvWvW.

I’m trying to put together an extremely balanced gear-set that maximizes both survivability and damage output. After a couple hours of messing around with various spreadsheets, i found this to be the best:

Armor:

• Knight’s in the Helm, Chest, and Legs slots
• Valkyrie’s in the Shoulder, Glove, and Boot slots (these slots are slightly over-budget because of how crit-damage is rounded up to the nearest whole number).

Weapons:

• Mainhand Knight’s and Offhand Knight’s with Sigil of Battle and Sigil of Force, and a third/forth Knight’s weapon with Sigil of Bloodlust that you use to stack up the buff and then swap it out for the other weapon(s).

Trinkets:

• All knight’s with Valkyrie Jewels

Runes (either):

• All Valkyrie Orbs (cheapest option)
• All Divinity Runes (very marginally better than using Valkyrie Orbs)
• Alternatively, switch one of the weapons to Valkyrie’s and use 2x Altruism, 2x Water, and 2x Monk if you care about maximizing group buffs. For a melee-heavy group this is probably the best as you will be in range to give out aura-share buffs, the Altruism might and attunement swap buffs.

Is there a better balanced setup than this? I’m assuming the fight is 60 seconds, that you can use your heal twice per fight, that you will have about ~300 EHPS of health recovery during the fight (not including your main-heal, this is from regeneration, soothing mist, etc.), taking about 300 DPS worth of condition damage (so the EHPS is basically canceled-out so a value of 0 is used for health recovery on the spreadsheet), 65% fury uptime, an average of 15 stacks of might and a 0/10/0/30/30 build on this spreadhseet. With the Rune of Divinty setup this comes out to 87.77% of classes’ max EHP and 78.03% of classes’ max ED (86.56 EHP and 78.58 ED with the Valkyrie Orbs, so you can see how close to divnity runes it is) .

SeanPoez.8407:

I’m trying to put together an extremely balanced gear-set that maximizes both survivability and damage output. After a couple hours of messing around with various spreadsheets, i found this to be the best:

What about an alternate setup for those who eventually plan on replacing their trinkets with ascended versions? Bear in mind the limited choices there, what would be your ideal choices? The ‘celestial’ ones?

So I’ve been running with daphoenix’s build for a month and decided to give it some tweaks to my own liking. I’m planning to move 10 points from Arcana to Air for “bolt to the heart trait”. I will keep my runes as they are as well as my PVT gear and daggers, except that I’m planing to replace my cleric trinkets for something that gives more damage (berserker, valkyrie or power/toughness/crit dmg from fractals, or a mix of those).

This will reduce the healing of cleansing wave by approximately 500 units, clone of cold by 150 units, regeneration from 230 to 180.

As I’ve understood some has already done this and swapped for knight trinkets. I’d like to know from those who’ve done similar changes, how they feel that the reduced healing affected the build overall? I wanted to get some more damage out of the build, and since I don’t do much of solo WvW roaming (and anyway I will keep my 2nd set of cleric trinkets with me), I feel that the build won’t be losing too much of its survivability.

After playing daphoenix original build for quite a while (nearly the entire way to 80) I’ve tweaked it to my own liking and wanted to offer this up. While daphoenix original build is rock solid and you can out-last most people, even groups, the damage output is sadly lacking.

I now run two possible builds/specs.

1- All PVT gear from AC, Valk daggers, clerics accessories, PVT backslot, PVT aquatic helm, 2x s. water, 2x m. water, 2x monk runes with battle/bloodlust sigils. Build is the standard 0/10/0/30/30 build.

2- All knights gear, crafted. Valk daggers, valk amulet, knights rings/earrings, power/crit backpack, PVT aquatic helm. 2x s. water, 2x m. water, 2x divinity with battle/bloodlust sigils. Build has been modified to 0/30/0/30/10 (http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoIGAIPOxFWEPewCMKFmB)

By focusing on knights and precision based gear you get a (small, but noticable) bonus to healing by way of air5. My base crit percent is 43%, 63% 90% of the time when fury is up. My power is around 1850/3k attack, toughness sits at about 1650, and I have 18k HP from the valk gear. Between the runes, the 2 valk daggers, the valk amulet, and bolt to the heart your crits hit hard while still carrying the boon duration bonuses from arcane5 – they just dont last as long.

I was never a fan of evasive arcana, and i tried fire for the might but as most cantrips are on a 30s or longer CD (even reduced) the benefit was few and far between.

While I certainly dont have the sustain ability of the original build, I have comparable toughness and slightly less vital with substantially increased damage and crit rat/crit damage. You could even drop 10pts in air and place them back into arcane if you wanted to focus on boons more (at a loss to healing).

Overall I think this build is much more suited to my style, you just have to know your limits.

Neoranger.6215

I think it did, but it scales very poorly iirc. Doylaks HP reg is like 30 hp/sec, and doesn’t get much higher (I think the most I got out of it was 32 HP/ sec)

IceBlink.4317
I have my own pair of berserker daggers, they work great. If you are not on the floor dying asking for help all the time, then feel free to go for more damage :P
Its actually efficient to get DPS from daggers based on this reddit article

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/12dmi5/tip_stat_optimization_with_crit_damage/

Atamaz.4195
Triforge > all other amulets in my opinion. The difference between solaria / lunaria vs stats such as

Power, critical damage, toughness,
Power, toughness, vitality
Power, precision, critical damage

is not really all that different. Personally I use one ring of power,crit dmg, toughness, and one solaria/lunaria. Power, toughness, critical damage is awesome though, because toughness has a higher stat bonus than the power on the rings.

zarel.1832
I bought it off auction house: P. It can be crafted too, or you can buy a “set” of armor also. Just filter exotic, level 80 armor with “berserker” as the search

ArmageddonAsh.6430
o.O thats an interesting setup there :p. I like my cookie cutter setup though lol

IceBlink.4317
Pure preference I guess :P

Atamaz.4195
Didnt know that :S

Gibson.4036
Thanks for the tip, I may have worded it wrong.

As to your question, I’m the type of person thats impatient when it comes to combat and like to kill things fast. Personally I like power for that reason (one of the reasons its the more expensive option too). Vitality is another very useful stat imo for lower levels, so as toughness. I think you should focus on PVT stats and healing power

mizaru.1385
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_the_Forge

I could see those runes being potentially useful, but you get way more boon duration stat bonuses with the setup I use (2x rune water sup, 2x rune major water, 2x sup monk).

Robyz.6380
+1 to response

Revelstoke.8924/Dandelyn.1362
I updated the armor part of the guide =P
Personally I like PVT armor still for high level fractals
(Plus you need to do AC to get superior monk runes too!)

Dedalus.3065
Minor corruption (+10 condition damage per kill) is still a viable choice imo. I personally like more power :]

For infusions (the ones with stats and +agony resist), I recommend either Vitality, power, or toughness. Vitality because vitality is hard to come by if you dont use PVT (which I don’t atm). Power because its one of the best offensive stats, and toughness for defensive. Honestly +5 stats for a lot of $$$ is not really worth it, just go for the simply infusion you get at fractals (5 agony resist). I also believe I read something that there are going to be new infusions in the future anyways, so wasting your money on +5 stats is not good

Sepreh.5924
I like my avatar of melandru elite, but some other notable elites are from the Norn’s snow leopard (Invisible + 1600 distance super sprints), Sylvari for its immobilization / seed turret summons, charr for its giant bazooka for long range as d/d / summons, and asura because its harder for enemies to see your churning earth.

boondocksaint.6529
I recommend going knights for an overall setup, and when you get to 30+ fractals PVT armor will shine because its easy to die if you don’t have enough vitality from those agony attacks

Avrilliest.2836
:D

Ozymandias.5704
Currently right I use “The legend” staff (Power, precision, critical damage) because I don’t need as much toughness at long range. I use knights for my daggers at the moment

Raffoo
Currently I use this armor, because of its critical damage bonuses
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Symon%27s_History_of_Ascalon

PVT is perfectly fine for higher level fractals, I think vitality is alot more useful in fractals if anything else :P

Sil.4560/Raif.9507/Mahanaxar.1386
The game is balanced around tPvP and sPvP, because that is just how all MMO’s with PvP systems work. They need to work their way toward a balanced class system, in order to make the game an E-sports eventually. That being said, elementalists atm in tPvP are too strong. You might see paid teams running 2-3 D/D elementalists because of their mobility, utility, and AoE DPS. Just having an elementalist on your team in PvP gives you a large advantage as this is the current meta game in tPvP.

WvWvW is never suppose to be balanced anyways, albeit it does need some form of it but not as much from a tPvP perspective.

I would imagine they would nerf mobility (ride the lightning comes to mind) and healing in some aspect with the incoming nerf.

SeanPoez.8407
I do recall that critical damage did have different stat returns on various pieces of the gear. It isn’t a bad idea to go some pieces of valkyrie gear.

I definitely agree with you on valkyrie orbs/ berzerker orbs over divinities runes since they are marginally the same, yet the orbs cost way less.

Ill check out your theorycrafting when I got more time

IceBlink.4317
I prefer the ascended version of ‘celestial’ stats (aka triforge stats)

paleeshi.1924
Thats definitely a viable option, but the only downside is no evasive arcana:(. f you wanted more DPS, 0/15/0/25/30 is another great option as well :P

Revelstoke.8924
Air is definitely a good tree to go with due to efficiency in stats when it comes to critical damage. I think going to 30 air is a bit overkill though, as none of the grandmaster traits are really appealling (if I had to go air, I’d stop at 20 or 25).

I find that a bare mininum of 20 arcana is needed due to optimizing attunement rotation as well, plus arcana has some of the best traits too

Man everytime I read one of these fourm threads I feel as if people have know idea how game development works. I fell really terrible for devs man the stuff they have to deal makes their jobs so thankless is heart breaking. I wish everyone here had the chance to experience other MMO’s first 6 months so that they could understand how amazing Anet is as a company.

daphoenix.4283:

Sil.4560/Raif.9507/Mahanaxar.1386
The game is balanced around tPvP and sPvP, because that is just how all MMO’s with PvP systems work. They need to work their way toward a balanced class system, in order to make the game an E-sports eventually. That being said, elementalists atm in tPvP are too strong. You might see paid teams running 2-3 D/D elementalists because of their mobility, utility, and AoE DPS. Just having an elementalist on your team in PvP gives you a large advantage as this is the current meta game in tPvP.

WvWvW is never suppose to be balanced anyways, albeit it does need some form of it but not as much from a tPvP perspective.

I would imagine they would nerf mobility (ride the lightning comes to mind) and healing in some aspect with the incoming nerf.

lulz, e-sport. Let them mess with the class in s/tPvP then.

It’s one thing to balance it, but another to just demolish the build. If Anet’s record tells us anything it’s that anyone who uses something remotely similar to the popular 0/10/0/30/30 setup may as well prepare to redesign themselves now, PvE or otherwise. Thankfully my other favorite character is a Warrior.

There are a few very targeted ways to tone this build’s survival down without gutting it (my obvious favorite is removing regen from water III), but after watching the utter demolition of symbol greastword support in a huge swing-and-miss on retaliation for guardians, and mesmer shattered strength and phantasm triple-penalty changes a couple patches ago, I am voting “no confidence” in the ANet team.

If they gut this build rather than properly target what makes it “over the top”, I’m done with the game.

Would it be dumb for me to get Full Berserker armor, PVT D/D , Triforge neck + rings and Berserker back, and accessorys? (With boon duration Runes.)

Both for PVE and WvW.

Have a spare PVT armor for higher fractals or should i use it for WvW to with some berserker and triforge jewelry + back?

Hope you can help me, not yet 80 with my Ele to. :P Should i get clerics or PVT jewelry instead?

I read all ur guide, but with my english i didnt understand all… still reading and sharing with friends.

Im look for the best fotm build.

I wanna u ask for this photo . http://i.imgur.com/yDEDhdX.jpg , you posted it. and i cant arrive to thats stats, how u earn 70%boon duratio? 15%15% runes +30% traits, and the other 10%???

im running knight gear and i cant arrive 2600 thouhgness, and from where u get 114 condition dmg??

I know u swicht gear depends fractal, but could u send me a photo with ur normal gear (item per item)??

i know too that ur normal gear is full knight , berserker daggers, and cleric/knight/berseker jewelery. but could you send me a photo with ur daggers/scepter/focus stats?

Thx for answer.

70% boon duration comes from 2x superior monk, 2x superior water, and 2x major water. Thats +40% along with the +30% from traits. He also rocks a lot of high end accessories which buff up the the other stats you’re talking about.

Sil.4560:

I feel as if little of this will matter after they nerf us into the ground in the upcoming “balance” fixes.

I dunno, lets wait and see what they actually do before we speak all doom and gloom.

Until then, enjoy this fun build! I know I am

I’m very slightly confused on your gearing. Are you using that Knight’s setup now in PvP and WvW? I see where it says you updated on 2/9, but right below it you list another set for PvE/WvW, and I’m just curious as to whether or not you use the knight’s for both of those now, or if I should be going soldier’s somewhere.

Thanks for any clarification.

daphoenix.4283:

Heres my gear set I usually use and its respective stats, since everyone always asks :P.
Also will put more analysis since everyone likes to theorycraft

http://imgur.com/yDEDhdX

I use full knights armor usually. Sometimes I’ll run PVT armor in fractals with Clerics accessories w/ 3% crit dmg jewels if I need to survive more often. I use full berserkers with rubies (2% critical damage, 14 precision, 20 power) if I know I won’t take any hits from the enemies.

Your image shows you have +70% boon duration.

Normally that requires mean water + monk runes. How are you getting such high boon duration while slotting jewels in your armor (or am I misreading your specs and the pic is for your runes set and the jewels are for alternate sets)?

wombat.6123:

daphoenix.4283:

Heres my gear set I usually use and its respective stats, since everyone always asks :P.
Also will put more analysis since everyone likes to theorycraft

http://imgur.com/yDEDhdX

I use full knights armor usually. Sometimes I’ll run PVT armor in fractals with Clerics accessories w/ 3% crit dmg jewels if I need to survive more often. I use full berserkers with rubies (2% critical damage, 14 precision, 20 power) if I know I won’t take any hits from the enemies.

Your image shows you have +70% boon duration.

Normally that requires mean water + monk runes. How are you getting such high boon duration while slotting jewels in your armor (or am I misreading your specs and the pic is for your runes set and the jewels are for alternate sets)?

Seems like he has a backup set with full berserker, and those are the ones with the jewels (not the ones in th picture).

What are you current traits right now?

Why you switched from power/toughness/vitality to power/precision/toughtness?

Suizen.5614

I agree with the fact that the forums are depressing to read sometimes, and ANET doesn’t really get appreciated for anything it does. The only problem I find with them is there lack of community responses for key issues (consumables in wv3 comes to mind, especially spikefruit / similar cons), and priority on what is important. Some of the key issues right now are actually resolved by some simple solutions, as posted from the forum, but again the decision making / implementation is a little too slow (there needs to be better project management imo). If you don’t resolve those key issues, or at least declare that any work is being done regarding key issues, it affects the game negatively with bad PR on your own forum platform, which looks really bad. The forum is plagued with bad PR. It needs to be fixed by community responses on key issues that matter in a timely manner, and quicker hotfixes and patches.

@Sil.4560/plasmacutter.2709
A class should not really be based on one build, but it is for the elementalist. They spend alot of time balancing classes which is good in my opinion. I believe the nerf to D/D elementalists will be reasonable, and in compensation they will buff skills from the focus weapon set.

The mesmer nerf that you are talking about was actually needed, and I do agree on the hotfix they had made. Mesmers were considered the strongest PvP class before the nerf, due to a permanent 25 stacks of might on top of extremely powerful burst range damage w/ consistent pressure, and evasion tactics. It was basically the damage burst output of a thief, but with the utility of a mesmer’s teleports / clones and sustained ranged DPS with high survivability.

Idk anything about this retalation with guardians you speak of. Retaliation itself needs to be re-worked to be a % of the damage taken by a skill, because it is extremely unbalanced against classes that perform multiple hits. For instance, unload from p/p thiefs and flamethrowers from engineers get a larger penalty bonus for doing multiple hits

Ojike.3179
I recommend getting knights jewelery or clerics jewelery at level 80. PVT jewelery is just hard to come by and not really worth it.
I prefer knights over berzerkers, I only use berzerkers as an alternate set. My knights provides me with good DPS and tankiness. Berzerkers leaves me vulnerable to getting killed.

Sly.7205
I updated all the items I use in the equipment section in guide. 70% boon duration is from 30% (arcana) 15% (2 sup monk) 15% (2 sup water) 10% (2 maj water) for a total of 70%
Condition damage comes from triforge, karka shell, and my lunaria ring (+all stat items)

I use knights daggers (toughness, power, precision) and knights armor too

Zen.1965
+1 :P

Ozymandias.5704
:D

Xialoh.7261
I can’t remember what I use in PvP, lol. Well here is what most people run to my knowledge.

6x Divinity’s runes, or
6x superior rune of ogre, or
2x monk, 2x water, 2x divinity

Valkyrie’s amulet with Soldiers Jewel
(Power, toughness, crit damage, healing power) and (vitality, toughness, power)

(Clerics amulet and Soldiers Amulet are viable as well)

Dagger Sigil 1 (Sigil of battle , 3 might stacks)
Dagger Sigil 2 (+10 power per kill)
Dagger Sigil 3 (5% more damage)

wombat.6123/Ozymandias.5704
+1 ozy

Ozy is right, I have a alternative berzerker set: P

Suicide Yammer.2540
Still the same 0/10/0/30/30

JeKo.9540
I don’t need that much vitality in the first place anyways, since I can sustain myself with all the ways of healing as a d/d ele. I like killing things faster anyways :P

Knights dominant stat is toughness(which means more defense!)
PVT’s dominant stat is power

daphoenix.4283:

I believe the nerf to D/D elementalists will be reasonable, and in compensation they will buff skills from the focus weapon set.

After watching what they did to guardian greatsword, I have about as much faith in this as I do in the dysfunctional US congress doing anything for its people, but I hope you are correct, sir.

daphoenix.4283:

The mesmer nerf that you are talking about was actually needed,

Wow, this comment really betrays a complete lack of understanding of what was actually going on, so I’ll try to educate you on this.

The shatter burst was due to 200% mind wrack damage from a bug that had absolutely nothing to do with the presence of might, was there since the game began, and was distorting the metagame for mesmers by massively magnifying their mind wrack damage at melee range, meaning the entire class received nerf after nerf which broke the PVE experience for the vast majority who did NOT exploit this bug.

The capacity to stack might to 25 was a very needed buff to the otherwise boring mesmer playstyle, lacking power in every other aspect of the game outside of a sword-3 immob lock, and lacking support build options for mesmer.

I repeat, they could have balanced mesmer by instituting the gcd to shatters only and “waited to see”, but they didn’t, and it betrays a lack of consideration for the playerbase.

Great Guide and Videos daphoenix.

I just to know what set armor is there and where can i found it.

I really like it.

Thanks =)

daphoenix.4283:

Suizen.5614

Ojike.3179
I recommend getting knights jewelery or clerics jewelery at level 80. PVT jewelery is just hard to come by and not really worth it.
I prefer knights over berzerkers, I only use berzerkers as an alternate set. My knights provides me with good DPS and tankiness. Berzerkers leaves me vulnerable to getting killed.

Sly.7205
I updated all the items I use in the equipment section in guide. 70% boon duration is from 30% (arcana) 15% (2 sup monk) 15% (2 sup water) 10% (2 maj water) for a total of 70%
Condition damage comes from triforge, karka shell, and my lunaria ring (+all stat items)

I use knights daggers (toughness, power, precision) and knights armor too

JeKo.9540
I don’t need that much vitality in the first place anyways, since I can sustain myself with all the ways of healing as a d/d ele. I like killing things faster anyways :P

Knights dominant stat is toughness(which means more defense!)
PVT’s dominant stat is power

Ah, so you don’t use PVT / AC armor any more?
*eh just to be clear, is the set up below what you run right now for dungeons/fractrals?

Armor and Weapons:
Update: 2/9/13
I currently run
Full knights (Power, precision, toughness) armor
Knights accessories with valkyrie jewels (Power, precision, toughness + critical damage, vitality, power)
Knights daggers (Power, toughness, precision)
Karka Shell (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ancient_Karka_Shell)
Ascended Triforge (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Triforge_Pendant_
Ascended Solaria/Lunaria (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Solaria,_Circle_of_the_Sun)
Ascended power,toughness, crit dmg (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rurik%27s_Royal_Signet_Ring)
Ascended Back
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Symon%27s_History_of_Ascalon
1x Superior rune of battle, 1x superior rune bloodlust
2x Superior rune of water, 2x Superior rune of monk, 2x Major rune of water

@daphoenix and @Revelstoke:
I like the idea of having a set of gear with greater damage capabilities with some sacrificing of the healing/sustain. However I noticed that daphoenix’s build utilizes a lot of ascended trinkets which I don’t think I’ll be able to get for a lonnnnng while if not ever. I was hoping if there was an alternate set of gear (e.g. full set of knights/valk trinkets?) that would be a suitable substitute. Thanks!

@daphoenix
Thanks again for all the work you put into this guide and for sharing your knowledge with us! I have some questions in general and some concerning your new setup. Sorry if you already answered some of these questions. This thread is so big and i might have overlooked it.

• What do you think about swapping out Sigil of Corruption with Bloodlust in your original build to get even more power? You don’t have mentionworthy condition damage in that build anyway
• I see you know switched from P/V/T to knights gear. What was your reason for that and is it working out? Is it better or just different (a bit more damage but a bit less survivability)? How is it working out in higher fractals and WvW compared to P/V/T?
• What do you think about (D/D) bunker eles in higher fractals in general? Of course I switch to staff where appropriate. I’m around lv20. I’m very content with my survivability and think I can also contribute nicely to the group with my combofields, might boosts and healings (and normaly being the one least likely to lie on the floor ). Sometimes though, I’m worried I lack a bit DPS wise. Then again, I have no other characters I play fractals with plus the monsters do have a lot of def and hp anyway. But I also read a complaint every know and then that people think bunkere eles are too weak and they wouldn’t want them in a high level fractal group. Maybe it’s just silly talk but it made me a bit insecure.
• Would you wait with rings, amulett and backpack (especially the later two) until they have clerics or knights gear available (hope that’s anytime soon…) or would you just go for p/t/v for the backpack and what you suggested for the rings/amulett if anyone wants to get them now? I’m about to get all materials together for an infused backpack in a few days and it’s just way too costly to make one now and then a second one when they finally release clerics/knights. Same goes for the laurel costs for amuletts

And once more: Thank you very much for all your hard work!

Yuki Chuki.2457:

• What do you think about swapping out Sigil of Corruption with Bloodlust in your original build to get even more power? You don’t have mentionworthy condition damage in that build anyway

Corruption sigils are a complete waste on an ele. Everyone who has ever thought of using corruption sigils should look at this page and do some math.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition_Damage

250 condition damage gives you a mere 12.5 more damage from each bleed and 62.5 from burning. Eles can’t stack bleeding as well as other professions, and every dagger attack that applies a condition can deal decent to very good direct damage. Conditions can be cleansed to further reduce your already unimpressive condition damage, and power will boost all your damage skills. Life, bloodlust and accuracy should be the only stacking sigils you see on an ele.

Plus, he only has 2500 attack, so he needs more power to make that 43 crit damage and 33% crit chance worth the stat investment.

plasmacutter.2709
I haven’t played mesmer anywhere near to the degree of my ele, so I’ll take your word on your knowledge about mesmers

PBruce.4507
:P

Vesper.8359
I still use AC /PVT armor for high level fractals

DoodleMoose.6894
A suitable replacement to ascended is full knights gear and clerics acc/knights acc. Use valkyrie jewels with the accessories

Yuki Chuki.2457
1. 1 to Tei.1704 answer. That is exactly the reason :P
2. I feel as if I don’t need that much vitality to begin with, but this is just personally preference. I wanted more DPS, and knights offered the solution while maintaining defense. I use knights most of the time, and PVT when it is really needed in high level fractals
3. At the moment, there is a group that does level 70 fractals with 4 elementalists/ 1 guardian. There is just a lot of versatility when it comes to elementalists, and people who say think that elementalists are weak clearly don’t understand the class. This is due to the misconceptions most likely from watching inexperienced elementalist play. There are always going be PUGs that only want certain classes, it is in your best interest not to join them anyways, since they are so narrow minded and will probably fail as a result. Thats why you play with friends and guildies :P

4. Knights / cleric ascended gear stats will not be better than the current existing ascended items out there. You need more critical damage in accessories, as the crit damage is optimized there.
Power, toughness, critical damage or +all stat ascended items will still be superior regardless if knights / cleric ascended gear comes out

@Tei.1704
+1 :P

I updated the guide and made it more user friendly. I also put the most relevant updates on with armor / skill sets, and changed title tag as a result

So much great advice in this thread. Thanks a lot!

Just out of curiosity and befor I spend all my money to switch the gear: Do you have an estimate how much more damage you do with the switch to knights gear? Maybe in %

A rough guestimate would be more than enough.

daphoenix.4283
So I end up with my and your build mix, difference is that I have full berserker jewelry, and I use on focus sigil of energy for more dodge.
Good think is to slowly change set for more dmg, so you can easly know how to survive with less vitality etc.

@daphoenix.4283
Thanks a bunch for the build. So disappointed to see that it will be nerfed after I just got fell in love with it!

Ele is my first char, and I always thought that mages were more or less glass cannons (typically in mmos). Getting my head around turning it into a tank really got me questioning the system, but it works. Swapped out all my power/pre gear 1/3 power/vit 1/3 tough/vit, 1/3 crit dmg/pre (still level 46, no access to the super gems and gear yet…) and its great.

My question is, how useful is condition removal in PVE/Leveling? I dont find myself with an awful number of conditions to warrant such heavy condition removal in the field. In dungeoning, Powerful Aura would be useful, but when out in the field leveling/soloing, I suppose 30 in water is overkill (min 15, depending on the below statement). Could be spend elsewhere, possibly in air: Arcane Lightning, Bolt to the Heart, or earth: Elemental Shielding, or Fire: Burning Precision or the like for added umph.

Also, does Healing Ripple heal yourself along with allies?

Cant wait for 60 for Evasive Arcana. Dodging constantly and being rewarded for that is awesome.

Thanks again for taking the time to post such a comprehensive build breakdown. Such a disappointment it could be torn to pieces.

@Dexter
This build doesn’t require but is helpfull to have at least 25 in water. This gives the 25 minor that is 2% extra damage for boon on you (does not count stacks, only indiviual boons). That is regen, swiftness, fury, might and protection, giving 8-10% extra damage almost all of the time. This will become clearer as you reach further toward lvl 80. 10% extra damage is better the 20% under 25% hp to me (unless you save you big hitters till then end).

With the 25 in water you could go for the 10% extra damage while health is above 90% giving you 20% extra damage (approx) most of the time (till you get hurt).

Soothing Winds is also a good trait (5% precision added to your healing power) if you are crit heavy, else it doesn’t make sense.

I will choose other trait then trait 1 when I am using S/D. For D/D, trait 1 in Air is a must in my opinion. Fury and Swiftness for every 15 sec is too much to be passed on top of 4% extra damage given by water 25.

@TGSlasher

Thanks for the comments.
I need to practice keeping up my buffs. Maintaining ~10-14 stacks of might is pretty standard, but keeping up the others is a bit tricky without the boon duration buffs. Will keep at it.

Does anyone know if Healing Ripple (Passive Water at 15) heals self?

@ChaosDoom

I agree. I was using S/D until moved to D/D at level 45. Pre 45 D/D feels lacking. Died too much for it to seem worth trying. But with S/D, going for air at all seems like a waste, except for the passives.

@Dexter
Yes, healing ripple does heal yourself. It used to be much more healing (bout the same as water 5) but they reduced it. It heals allies near you as well as yourself. This is one of the best lvling traits if you find yourself getting hurt in battle.

@Dexter

I am still 10 in Air. My precision mainly from equipments and accessories. though I am still thinking about Air 20 and Water 20, need to put in real world tests instead of theory craft for this setup.

didnt find it in the guide, but what food is prefered for dungeons\free-pve?

@daphoenix
After the Gathering Storm patch, what should we do with ascended trinkets?
Is it a solid choice going full Celestial (+ all stats) rings, earrings and amulet, considering the buff they received to all stats?

honestly, 0/10/0/30/30 is overestimated, knight equip too. the reason? got almost the same stats, but i have a different impact on the battlefield (wvw). more lethal, keeping same survivability. believe me, i can feel the difference, even if it looks like there’s no difference at all. there’s no reason to survive to everything if u hit like a kitten, imho, especially in wvw against zergs, or better, while roaming in solo.

Yuki Chuki.2457
probably 33~50% maybe, just an estimate

Frykas.8703
Yes thats definitely an option :]

Dexter.8650
Condition damage is okay for PvE, it doesn’t scale as well as power, crit dmg, precision. Also it gets hampered by bosses too

TGSlasher.1458
+1

ChaosDoom.8459
I definitely agree with that

Dexter.8650
Yeah it heals you and every ally around you up to 5 i believe, with a radius of 200ish.

dmitrycx.7465
Mango pies are definitely the PvE food item to go. Its cheap @ 25ish copper a piece, lasts 30 minutes, and gives you 70hp/second.

Zartheon.5874
They recieved buff to all+ stats items? Didn’t check yet:P

idorian.2859
Not sure where those values are coming from o.O. 0/10/0/30/30 is chosen primarily for the traits it has to offer, not so much as the stats.

Anyone knows what is the cooldown for Arcane Retribution? Kind of nice to focus primarily on Critical Damage % :p

Hey dapheonix, did you see the additional “nerfs” they added for elementalists? A lot of them seem to hit the d/d 0/10/0/30/30 build directly. See:
——————————————————————————
Profession Skills
Elementalist

Renewing Stamina: This trait now has a 5-second cooldown between activations and has a 100% chance to activate, increased from 33%.

Soothing Disruption: Vigor and regeneration boons granted by activating cantrips have been reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.

Zephyr’s Boon: Fixed a bug that caused Shocking Aura to apply double the boons of other auras.

They JUST added these notes less than an hour ago, at the bottom of:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-February-26-2013
————————————————————————
What do you think?

thx for your reply. have one more question, but its a little bit offtopic, so sorry.
i saw your video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmj8EosnKYk
how is it possible to go 1-1 pvp? why noone came in? did you know before going to map that you will be against that ele? if yes, how did you get on the same map?
thx.