[Guide] Mastering the D/D ele 7/15/13

[Guide] Mastering the D/D ele 7/15/13

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Posted by: Raif.9507

Raif.9507

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!

How did you calculate that? I’m just curious.

Asharìa March – 80 Elementalist
Co-Guild Leader of Prime Defense on Sanctum of Rall – www.Primedefense.net

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Posted by: Zelyhn.8069

Zelyhn.8069

A lot of data about the skills has been gathered since release. We have made a post on this forum so everybody can access it:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/08-07-13-Skill-Data-Work-in-progress

Zelyhn.8069 [rT]
Retired elementalist theorycrafter

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Posted by: flyingfox.6150

flyingfox.6150

Fresh Air spec is completely based on your +crit damage, crit rate and how fast you press buttons and switch…currently the trait itself does not have the internal 5 sec cooldown…meaning every crit will give you the free lightning strike as long as you crit…

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Posted by: Zelyhn.8069

Zelyhn.8069

Fresh Air spec is completely based on your +crit damage, crit rate and how fast you press buttons and switch…currently the trait itself does not have the internal 5 sec cooldown…meaning every crit will give you the free lightning strike as long as you crit…

Fresh air is strong not so much because of the proc, but because it allows you to stay an AA in the element that does the highest amount of sustained direct damage (lightning whip). It does have the 5 second ICD: it can only occur every 5 seconds..

Zelyhn.8069 [rT]
Retired elementalist theorycrafter

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Posted by: flyingfox.6150

flyingfox.6150

No it doesn’t. I switched back to Air Attunement immediately after I hit a crit (right after switching out of Air to Fire). Did you even test it?

I’m using S/D and the proc is the key to this build not the sustained AA…

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Posted by: flyingfox.6150

flyingfox.6150

Zelyhn, you should try playing the game some time. I hate to say this but the trait is glitched for now.

“Blaine Tog.8304:
Aether McLoud.1975:
I’m not sure if it is exactly 5 seconds but there is a cooldown on fresh air. Try this (starting in air attunement):
Switch to fire, attack until crit procs fresh air, switch to air, immediately switch to another attunement, use arcane blast or wave for the auto-crit, and fresh air won’t proc.
I just tested this on a dolyak in Dredgehaunt Cliffs and had 0 cooldown. I switched attunements as rapidly as it would let me, got a crit immediately, and Fresh Air activated every time. No internal cooldown at all.
Confirmed.”

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Posted by: Zelyhn.8069

Zelyhn.8069

You are right, it does not have the ICD, my apologies.

Zelyhn.8069 [rT]
Retired elementalist theorycrafter

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Posted by: flyingfox.6150

flyingfox.6150

no problem but enjoy it while it lasts…it’s a little on the overpowered side right now (for that aspect not Elementalist in general). I can almost feel it will be fixed tomorrow.

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Posted by: Zelyhn.8069

Zelyhn.8069

Yeah they will probably put a 6s ICD, maybe 7 if they are mean

Zelyhn.8069 [rT]
Retired elementalist theorycrafter

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Posted by: flyingfox.6150

flyingfox.6150

yeah I would hate to move back to the Bunker D/D I used to run :P. Finally something so ruthlessly offensive that wrecks havoc in PvP/WvW…

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Posted by: BlackBeard.2873

BlackBeard.2873

The advantage of using S/D with fresh air is because the burst IS much higher, even if the sustained dps isn’t as high. The reason it is higher with S/D is:
Air 1 starts damaging right at 900 range all the way during approach, building up damage long before lightning whip could. switching to fire right when close enough to land phoenix+ring of fire gets a larger burst, more reliably than burning speed+ring. This then goes back to air and you can start to kite back a little bit and keep doing damage before switching to earth for some blasting that fire field and doing more damage.

Also, the proc rate on skills is much faster with scepter (at least it seems) with the autoattack proccing every few ms, giving more chances for crits. This means you can switch out of air mid auto-attack and you will likely have your air back before even moving to skills on other attunements.

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Posted by: Aether McLoud.1975

Aether McLoud.1975

Yeah they will probably put a 6s ICD, maybe 7 if they are mean

And the ICD will start when you move out of air, not when it procs.

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Posted by: Aether McLoud.1975

Aether McLoud.1975

yeah I would hate to move back to the Bunker D/D I used to run :P. Finally something so ruthlessly offensive that wrecks havoc in PvP/WvW…

Are you running a D/D fresh air build in pvp? Can you post a link to your build with runes and amulet? Or did you just switch the scepter for dagger in zoose’s build?

I’d love to have a viable D/D damage build in pvp.

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Posted by: Avead.5760

Avead.5760

no problem but enjoy it while it lasts…it’s a little on the overpowered side right now (for that aspect not Elementalist in general). I can almost feel it will be fixed tomorrow.

Even if it gets fixed unless you plan to put attunements in cooldown by switching 2 times inbetween to air in less than 2 x the base global attunement cd or some combo like that it wont be that much of a difference.
Keep in mind that cooldown is supposed to start at the first proc by crit not when you leave air attunement.So going air-other att-air almost instantly is legit and will still be possible.

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Posted by: flyingfox.6150

flyingfox.6150

Hi Aether (did you make this profile name after the Sky Pirates patch? Haha), I am running S/D now. Sold my other dagger actually (it wasn’t super awesome to begin with). I feel the way how Lightning Strike is, it’s best to stay at that optimal range and just abuse the proc. Sigils I’m using are Force and battle. I can’t afford the runes I want now (Scholar) so I’m using a mix of Ruby and Beryl orbs. In fact, I might keep it that way as I don’t see a huge benefit using the runes for the price I have to pay.

To answer your question, I think D/D Fresh Air build is viable. It’s practically the same with a little less bursty (no Phoenix (fire #3) and Lightning Strike (Air #2).

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Posted by: Aether McLoud.1975

Aether McLoud.1975

To answer your question, I think D/D Fresh Air build is viable. It’s practically the same with a little less bursty (no Phoenix (fire #3) and Lightning Strike (Air #2).

With the added drawback that you need to be in melee range to do damage meaning you’re gonna get a LOT of incoming damage which only really makes bunker D/D viable (and even than 1500 range longbow rangers are frakking annoying after the RTL nerfs).

P.S. I use this pseudonym for more than 10 years now I think

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Posted by: dreztina.4820

dreztina.4820

Are you running a D/D fresh air build in pvp? Can you post a link to your build with runes and amulet? Or did you just switch the scepter for dagger in zoose’s build?

I’d love to have a viable D/D damage build in pvp.

This is what I run:

30 air – zephyr’s, alacrity, tempest defense
10 earth – elemental shielding
30 arcane – elemental attunement, renewing stamina, evasive arcana

Arcane shield/mist form, arcane blast, lightning flash, ether renewal.

Knights/zerker in wvw, berserker amulet with soldier jewel in spvp. Mix of beryl/ruby jewels on the armor in wvw, scholar’s runes in spvp.

This is not an easy build to play, and probably not as strong overall as semi dps builds that still run high water, but if you want to be a real glass cannon d/d, this is the best build I’ve found for it.

Out of Attunement – D/D Ele
Maguuma

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Posted by: Chadramar.8156

Chadramar.8156

My elementalist hit 80 and I’m looking into crafting her some rare armor. She’s currently 0/10/10/20/30 but that’s not set in stone except for the 30 in Arcana. I do like both the movement speed from Air 5 and the 20 in Water, though. So what armor would folks recommend for an inexperienced player who mainly does solo PvE with occasional WvWvW and maybe an eye on joining a guild to try some group content? Berserker for all out damage since according to many people, killing stuff fast is the best way to stay alive and I have the Water traits for survival? Knight for some more durability at the cost of crit damage? A mix of both?

And cheers for the guide. I might have said this before, but going D/D got me interested in the class again.

(edited by Chadramar.8156)

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Posted by: daphoenix.4283

daphoenix.4283

Sorry the late reply, I’ll try to answer as best as I can on current updates / responses, since I missed one cycle of updates.

Ancient Ranger.3276/Yuki Chuki.2457/Wolfaen.9461/kartana.3769
“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’m spending a lot of time writing a celestial stat analysis / post udpate analysis and atm organizing a website since updating my guide is rather tedious with this forum’s features.
I was too overexcited about ranged changes using fresh air. D/D is definitely still viable, as others have mentioned. Like from what Mpiftekis.1529 and others stated, the two main builds for D/D that does not utilize fresh air are :

0/15/10/15/30 (a variation of 0/15/0/25/30)
0/10/10/20/30 (variation of the traditional 0/10/0/30/30)
Traits you would pick for D/D are

Swiftness + Fury on aura cast
10% more damage if target <600 units away
Cantrips grant reg. and vigor (and 50% fall down damage trait for 20water points)
Standard 5,6,11 arcana traits.

Mpiftekis.1529/Salar.7285
To your question regarding 0/0/20/20/30 setup as still viable, it is still viable. Note that this build was meant entirely for WvWvW, and I ran it in all my recent videos.The build itself hasn’t actually changed at all. The only downside is the nerf of Pots of Hylek Poison all together, which has been removed from WvWvW. This means you’ll have a harder time maintaining swiftness, or in this case you’ll get outrunned and flanked.
So in a sense, its not as great as it was before. You could, however, use the new signet of air trait since it is a stun breaker now, over cleansing flame. Then it would be viable. But if you use signet of air as a stun breaker, be warned you would need to counteract the swiftness loss somehow using air attunement.
The new setup would be :

0/0/20/20/30
Earth traits: 33% reduction on CCs, at 50% HP grant armor of earth
Water traits: 50% fall down dmg reduction, Cantrips grant reg and vigor
Arcana: Standard 5,6,11 traits

Utilities: Ether renewal, LF, signet of air, and Mistform
Same weapons and gear

Excala, Expert Elementalist
Fort Aspenwood [EXC]
http://www.youtube.com/user/daphoenix555?feature=mhee

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Posted by: daphoenix.4283

daphoenix.4283

Raif.9507
To your question on whether celestial stats will be viable, I’ve written a 10 page analysis on it, will post it fairly soon (on my new website once I finish sticking in menus)

Flux Qemist.6712
To re-phrase your question “S/D fresh air builds are great, but what about D/D?”
From what Zelyhn.8069 (I’ve read some of your analysis, there awesome :P), the air15’s lightning strike is half the damage of lightning whip. I’m going assume this statement is correct.
D/D elementalist do not benefit as much from fresh air as staff and S/D as mentioned previously. 0/15/10/15/30 or 0/10/10/20/30 are imo, is generally a much tankier build setup. This build setup is imo superior to fresh air setups in sPvP and mostly everything else. For PvE, a fresh air D/D build does much more single target damage imo. For WvWvW, there really isn’t a clear winner.
As vinceftw states, it gives us two completely viable builds for PvE (well 3 actually, if you consider 0/0/20/20/30, 0/15/10/15/30 + variants, and 0/30/0/10/30 + variants).

I still think S/D and Staff are extremely great setups using 30 points in air, with tempest defense and fresh air. S/D is a bit lackluster when it comes to applying consistent pressure to an enemy, and fresh air helps close that gap.

I think people are also forgetting the fact that when you use air2, air1, and air15’s proc all at the same time, the damage shown on the enemy is the combination of all of the skills.


I’ll have more details later on celestial stats, invest in them for now :P.
(It takes 70days to get a whole set anyways)

Excala, Expert Elementalist
Fort Aspenwood [EXC]
http://www.youtube.com/user/daphoenix555?feature=mhee

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Posted by: Paxus.6543

Paxus.6543

I was looking at your S/D setup you posted and wonder how you deal with a lack of swiftness?

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Posted by: Cirkus.4670

Cirkus.4670

@daphoenix.4283 what are your thoughts on a d/d 0/25/0/15/30 build? I feel that air 25 (weak spot) is highly underrated. 66% chance to cause vulnerability on critical and can stack up to 25. With a high critical hit chance and good fury uptime you can essentially do a lot more damage. keeping 15 in water is a must and im not ready to give up 30 arcana. Just wondering is this build is worth it for the weak spot trait.

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Posted by: XcmGT.3847

XcmGT.3847

Just curious on other runes you all rune rather than the boon duration?

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Posted by: protomic.4627

protomic.4627

Can’t wait to see the celestial gear analysis. Will hold out on crafting anything till I give it a read.

Question: In 0/10/10/20/30 why take reduced fall damage over condition removal on water attunement?

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Posted by: Mpiftekis.1529

Mpiftekis.1529

Usually morning is either sleeping or chocolate pancakes time for me, but I ll spare some time here for you morning readers.

@ Cirkus
I believe I can answer your question (and there really is a discussion around that 4-5 pages back which is still more or less valid post-patch) but I ve done that quite a few times already so unless you give me the ok, I leave it completely on the celebrity’s shoulders.

@ XcmGT

Ultimately the choice depends heavily on the environment the build is used (WvW, pvp, pve) and where does it focus if it is a variation, so the answers ain’t gonna be all that clear if you know what I mean.

I m still on full boon duration cause the old 0/10/0/30/30 (which is now 0/15/10/15/30) didn’t rely on cantrips for boon generetion to begin with, so that aspect of it remained unchanged.

@ Promotic

I wanna see it too! XD
I m sure the result will be able to drive certain factors of the game’s economy so it ll be fun watching it “grow” from two angles!

As for the trait, he has mentioned in previous posts (as well as in one of his guides I think but definitely in at least one of his latter gameplay videos) that it gives him more versatility in terms of terrain control during the fight. An example I remember from a video, is him using a fallen column to get higher during a duel-chase and then dropping, effectively forcing the opponment either to drop and lose life or take his time to go down normally and leave daphoenix the chance to heal or deal damage from range.

At some point, when my kitten decides to start writing again I ll complete a guide I ’ve been working on about making your own build, from a standpoint that revolves around the aspects of a fight, both those we recognize and those that pass down from our noses.

But for now, banana-chocolate pancakes!

(edited by Mpiftekis.1529)

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Posted by: Zumy.6318

Zumy.6318

Why doesnt anybody talk about d/d 0/20/0/20/30?

I am loving it atm. Pretty squishy but more critchance and critdamge. Needing quite good movement and fight overview though, as you will get much damage with your low toughness.

As 20 traits I use 20% less cd on air and on cantrips. This grants even higher movement and more cantrips to use in a fight. Shocking aura, updraft and RTL can always use a lower CD but with the buff of weakness, lighning touch is awesome.

Thief | Zumy [Buka]
Legendary counter: Twilight, Bolt, Incinerator, Incinerator Nr. 2, Meteorlogicus, The Dreamer

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Posted by: daphoenix.4283

daphoenix.4283

I made a wordpress website, with the celestial stat analysis + revised guide
I had to teach myself how to use wordpress, so it might look slightly shabby :P
Any input is welcomed

http://daphoenix555.wordpress.com/

Excala, Expert Elementalist
Fort Aspenwood [EXC]
http://www.youtube.com/user/daphoenix555?feature=mhee

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Posted by: Bismuth.3165

Bismuth.3165

What do you think of a 30/30/0/10/0 ele, mostly dungeons and fractals, I use mostly S/D but I use all the weapons depending on the situation, armor is full zerk with ruby orb, trinkets are full zerk except celestial/pvt amulet and pvt back item? I know I die a lot… maybe too much and I have 13k hp but I can live with it, I’m also planning on getting knight gear for bosses who I can’t evade all of their attacks, what’s your opinion?

Jeeha (ele) and Jeeha The Warrior
Is currently emotionally unstable because Breaking Bad is over

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Posted by: daphoenix.4283

daphoenix.4283

@Bismuth

I’ve read about the 30/30/0/10/0 (or any 30/30/x/x/x) based build for PvE S/D.
In my opinion, I don’t see why you’d want those traitlines. I can see the logic as to why 30 points in fire might be worth it, since you can grant allies permanent fury with the new trait:
Persisting Flame: Updated this trait to also allow blast finishers to give fury (10 seconds) as well as might.

But really, the permanent fury that you can gain from this setup is really, really trivial in the long run. Its because your sacrificing so much just for fury. You lose out on maintaining buffs to allies, overall defense, overall offense due to inefficient trait setups, and more.

If you really wanted to maximize your DPS, you would go invest points in arcana regardless, even though it doesn’t directly increase your DPS. Indirectly, it does so much toward increasing your DPS and survivability. Longer boon durations, more choices in combats, ability to stack might using sigil of battle, ability to stack might more often using fire/earth attunement, more inherent healing/defense leading to reduced downtime (and less staying on the floor dead). Those all add up to more overall DPS, or what you actually do in combat.

As to maintaining 25 stacks of might on S/D, you could already do that with D/D. It doesn’t matter how long good your damage is if your dead on the floor half the time.

Fractals is also one of the more harder PvE areas. You want to build tanky to survive most agony encounters, as well as heal off any hard hitting attacks from bosses ASAP.

Tldr; Don’t invest in fire. The other traitlines are way better.

Excala, Expert Elementalist
Fort Aspenwood [EXC]
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Posted by: oZii.2864

oZii.2864

The wordpress blog is a good read.

I’ve been debating if I want to drop 10 from water for 10 earth and take stone splinter instead but I decided to stay 30 water simply because for me cleansing water had more value than basically what amounts to a +5% damage increase over 25 in water since we usually have 5 boons on us at all time. It basically is upfront damage vs damage that must be built up with your actions so it comes down to personal playstyle.

I kept my runes of the monk because I don’t want to run AC again but I recently switched to full divinity runes and haven’t honestly noticed significant downtime in my boons vs 2 water 2 monk. The major hits are the longer base duration boons like stab and prot from armor of earth being the longer ones and fire swap with arcane V trait. So far though I am pretty happy with a full divinity rune setup.

[Good Fights]Sinndicate{Ele}Sinactic{Engineer}
Sinnastor{Warrior}Sinnacle{Mesmer}Sintacs
{Thief}

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Posted by: Paxus.6543

Paxus.6543

I made a wordpress website, with the celestial stat analysis + revised guide
I had to teach myself how to use wordpress, so it might look slightly shabby :P
Any input is welcomed

http://daphoenix555.wordpress.com/

New guide is great. Thanks again for putting all that together!
Just wanted to ask again about how not having speed for getting around with your 30 air spec. In fight I get that going in and out of air builds it up but I cant stand running around with no speed buffs. Do you just deal with no speed buff or have some sort of workaround for getting speed?

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Posted by: Bismuth.3165

Bismuth.3165

@dapheonix
so, what about 20/20/10/10/10? full zerk or knight with a mix of celestial/zerk/pvt trinkets

Jeeha (ele) and Jeeha The Warrior
Is currently emotionally unstable because Breaking Bad is over

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Posted by: Hayner Jetik.2186

Hayner Jetik.2186

@Paxus
When running around you could swap your air traits to III + VIII and pick the Glyph of Elemental Harmony to achieve the perma swiftness.
Eventually set your autoattack skill to GoEH too, in order to get automatic perma swiftness.
I really enjoy this.

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Posted by: Zumy.6318

Zumy.6318

Any builders with celestial items already?
Idk, with my 0/20/0/20/30 build i dont feel so much like losing power and precison.

Thief | Zumy [Buka]
Legendary counter: Twilight, Bolt, Incinerator, Incinerator Nr. 2, Meteorlogicus, The Dreamer

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Posted by: protomic.4627

protomic.4627

Hey daphoenix:
Took a look through the Celestial Gear analysis and it looks like it could be good. As you said, the analysis focused mainly on Fresh Air 0/30/0/10/30 builds, but I still prefer 0/10/10/20/30 bunker for D/D mainly for PvE. Is Celestial still viable over Knight’s gear in that build, or does it lose too much damage (power/prec/crit%) from not allocating points to air? If that is the case, is it still better to take Celestial on the helm and possibly one or two other pieces?

(edited by protomic.4627)

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Posted by: Graendall.4765

Graendall.4765

I tried S/D 0/30/0/10/30 in WvW..my stats are a bit mixed//Berserker Scepter..Soldier dagger..Knight armor with Knight/Cavalier/Berserker and one Celestial trinket..all in all i had 2603 armor..3k Power..41% crit chance and 65% crit dmg..Anyway don’t pay much attention to my armor.

What i wanted to say is that,the build is very powerfull….there is literaly no time for the enemy to react as Air attunement is constantly up…the amount o fburst is insane compared to D/D..it really pales in comparison.I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets nerfed..

Also i would like to ask..has anyone noticed that when you switch to Air..the lightning bolt may fall on 5 targets around you?…am i delusional?..truth be told i do not see it always proc on 5 people

Zancrow The Red-Elementalist of [ObV]Oblivion-Hardcore WvW guild
http://oblivion-guild.shivtr.com/
Server-Piken Square

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Posted by: Avead.5760

Avead.5760

I tried S/D 0/30/0/10/30 in WvW..my stats are a bit mixed//Berserker Scepter..Soldier dagger..Knight armor with Knight/Cavalier/Berserker and one Celestial trinket..all in all i had 2603 armor..3k Power..41% crit chance and 65% crit dmg..Anyway don’t pay much attention to my armor.

What i wanted to say is that,the build is very powerfull….there is literaly no time for the enemy to react as Air attunement is constantly up…the amount o fburst is insane compared to D/D..it really pales in comparison.I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets nerfed..

Also i would like to ask..has anyone noticed that when you switch to Air..the lightning bolt may fall on 5 targets around you?…am i delusional?..truth be told i do not see it always proc on 5 people

Maybe its some kind of proc from your sigils like geomancy or fire?Its single target for me

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Posted by: Bovinity.8610

Bovinity.8610

I’ve tried Fresh Air, but my WvW matchup (BG/JQ/SoR) tends to be extremely zergy, so it’s hard to justify giving up so much sustain/support for single target burst. It sounds like it’s designed a lot more for dueling/small group engagements than zerg vs. zerg.

Still flip-flopping between 0/10/10/20/30 and 0/10/0/30/30 for my D/D build. Although Stone Splinters was bugged last time I checked and not giving +10%, so that’s a bummer.

Any sufficiently advanced skill is indistinguishable from luck.

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Posted by: oZii.2864

oZii.2864

I’ve tried Fresh Air, but my WvW matchup (BG/JQ/SoR) tends to be extremely zergy, so it’s hard to justify giving up so much sustain/support for single target burst. It sounds like it’s designed a lot more for dueling/small group engagements than zerg vs. zerg.

Still flip-flopping between 0/10/10/20/30 and 0/10/0/30/30 for my D/D build. Although Stone Splinters was bugged last time I checked and not giving +10%, so that’s a bummer.

When was last time you checked it? I know they had a patch note that they fixed the trait to give the correct value but I haven’t tested it myself since then.

[Good Fights]Sinndicate{Ele}Sinactic{Engineer}
Sinnastor{Warrior}Sinnacle{Mesmer}Sintacs
{Thief}

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Posted by: Kodiak.3281

Kodiak.3281

I’ve tried Fresh Air, but my WvW matchup (BG/JQ/SoR) tends to be extremely zergy, so it’s hard to justify giving up so much sustain/support for single target burst. It sounds like it’s designed a lot more for dueling/small group engagements than zerg vs. zerg.

Still flip-flopping between 0/10/10/20/30 and 0/10/0/30/30 for my D/D build. Although Stone Splinters was bugged last time I checked and not giving +10%, so that’s a bummer.

Most of the big zerg fights on JQ/BG/SOR are basically one zerg on a commander running as a swarm of angry bees. When you encounter another zerg it’s basically one swarm pushing through the other swarm while trying to catch the other where it’s weakest on it’s side or rear. You don’t stop, you don’t slow down and you don’t pause to cast a thing. This is what I refer to as “Zerg Diving” because you’re literally running through the enemy lines.

Scepter isn’t really better or worse than the other options for that activity. Personally I prefer the damage that’s kicked out in Scepter fire line and Air Burst is handy for mopping up the left overs that Dagger would be out of range of in these kinds of big brawls. Also if things get dicey can always pop that RTL to get out still. Staff is definitely more CC heavy and a solid choice as well but not a fan of it. Dagger works pretty darned good too but I prefer the range of Scepter.

Kodiak X – Blackgate

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Posted by: Bovinity.8610

Bovinity.8610

When was last time you checked it? I know they had a patch note that they fixed the trait to give the correct value but I haven’t tested it myself since then.

Hm, I haven’t checked it recently. (And I didn’t see that in the patch notes, so thanks for the heads up!)

Scepter isn’t really better or worse than the other options for that activity. Personally I prefer the damage that’s kicked out in Scepter fire line and Air Burst is handy for mopping up the left overs that Dagger would be out of range of in these kinds of big brawls. Also if things get dicey can always pop that RTL to get out still. Staff is definitely more CC heavy and a solid choice as well but not a fan of it. Dagger works pretty darned good too but I prefer the range of Scepter.

Good points all around. (But you’re BG so I still have to hate you <3)

It has been a while since I played with Scepter, but it’s hard for me to give up some of the perks of MH Dagger. (Having a basic attack in Air that’s a cleave attack is one of the things that I just can’t get over!)

I’m not a big fan of Staff anymore, either. I do still carry one around in case I need to bomb something on a wall, but that’s about it. I do miss Static Field a lot. Meh.

I’ll have to give Fresh Air/Scepter a try sometime.

Any sufficiently advanced skill is indistinguishable from luck.

(edited by Bovinity.8610)

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Posted by: flyingfox.6150

flyingfox.6150

I gave Scepter/Dagger a run and it was cool. I got over it soon enough but retained more or kitten % of the same build and traits but went back to D/D, like you said, dagger MH skills look hella flashy and I just love the Lighting Whip auto-attack, along with water’s auto.

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Posted by: Nikkinella.8254

Nikkinella.8254

I was having a lot of fun using a scepter build with 0/30/10/20/10, but I just miss the support that i’m able to offer with the regular d/d build. Aurashare is still fun despite being bugged and not giving auras to people around me sometimes unless they’re right up my buttcrack. It still sucks they nerfed bountiful power especially considering the fact necros can corrupt boons, thieves can rip them off of us, and warriors have a trait in their defensive line that gives 3% damage against people for how many boons they have on them. The nerf hardly seems fair at all because of that. I’m hoping they realize how stupid that change was and revert it along with the ride the lightning and mist form nerf.

(edited by Nikkinella.8254)

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Posted by: Kodiak.3281

Kodiak.3281

Good points all around. (But you’re BG so I still have to hate you <3)

It has been a while since I played with Scepter, but it’s hard for me to give up some of the perks of MH Dagger. (Having a basic attack in Air that’s a cleave attack is one of the things that I just can’t get over!)

I’m not a big fan of Staff anymore, either. I do still carry one around in case I need to bomb something on a wall, but that’s about it. I do miss Static Field a lot. Meh.

I’ll have to give Fresh Air/Scepter a try sometime.

I definitely like D/D too. Every attunement has something extremely useful for that Zerg v Zerg action. Watching Lightning Whip cleave out on capped targets is beautiful.

The thing that got me to switch to S/D was one too many times where our 2-3 servers would be near and we all get that unbelievably nasty lag to the point things stop registering and people start warping around. I mean I’ve gone back and looked at videos and what looks me doing nothing but you can see me furiously mashing the abilities and having nothing actually happen lol!

It can be tough as is to land stuff with S/D or Staff in that kinda lag let alone melee attacks where you run up on someone and they warp ahead 10 feet cause the server can’t keep up with our massive clashes. Pretty hilarious to watch my Arc Lightning be channeling into no where only to have the target catch up to where it’s channeling a few seconds later.

Kodiak X – Blackgate

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Posted by: magikfox.9658

magikfox.9658

Rather than putting those 10 points into Earth form Water I’ve put another 10 into Air.

The 10% overall boast to damage is nice from earth but I really like the extra pres and critical damage. And you can grab the VI trait as well for some extra awesome damage.

Was wondering if anybody has thought of switching to that if they take out the extra 10 in Water? Of course this is a more offensive route as unlike putting the points into Earth or Water you’re not getting both defensive and offensive, but I find that 100 toughness is easy enough to get through items, 100 condition damage isn’t the greatest thing, and you’re doing 20% more damage whilst low while keeping the extra swiftness and fury from the auras.

I’ve seen somebody use the build before and wanted to know if more of us eles are opting to it now that we are feeling safer shaving off 10 points in water?

Song The Fox
~(-_-~) RALL (~`3`)~
[FOX]

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Posted by: Zumy.6318

Zumy.6318

Rather than putting those 10 points into Earth form Water I’ve put another 10 into Air.

The 10% overall boast to damage is nice from earth but I really like the extra pres and critical damage. And you can grab the VI trait as well for some extra awesome damage.

Was wondering if anybody has thought of switching to that if they take out the extra 10 in Water? Of course this is a more offensive route as unlike putting the points into Earth or Water you’re not getting both defensive and offensive, but I find that 100 toughness is easy enough to get through items, 100 condition damage isn’t the greatest thing, and you’re doing 20% more damage whilst low while keeping the extra swiftness and fury from the auras.

I’ve seen somebody use the build before and wanted to know if more of us eles are opting to it now that we are feeling safer shaving off 10 points in water?

Why doesnt anybody talk about d/d 0/20/0/20/30?

I am loving it atm. Pretty squishy but more critchance and critdamge. Needing quite good movement and fight overview though, as you will get much damage with your low toughness.

As 20 traits I use 20% less cd on air and on cantrips. This grants even higher movement and more cantrips to use in a fight. Shocking aura, updraft and RTL can always use a lower CD but with the buff of weakness, lighning touch is awesome.

Thief | Zumy [Buka]
Legendary counter: Twilight, Bolt, Incinerator, Incinerator Nr. 2, Meteorlogicus, The Dreamer

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Posted by: Bismuth.3165

Bismuth.3165

I decided to use 0/20/10/10/30, damage is almost the same as my last build but my survivability is a lot higher, so yeah, thanks for the advice.

Jeeha (ele) and Jeeha The Warrior
Is currently emotionally unstable because Breaking Bad is over

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Posted by: magikfox.9658

magikfox.9658

Rather than putting those 10 points into Earth form Water I’ve put another 10 into Air.

The 10% overall boast to damage is nice from earth but I really like the extra pres and critical damage. And you can grab the VI trait as well for some extra awesome damage.

Was wondering if anybody has thought of switching to that if they take out the extra 10 in Water? Of course this is a more offensive route as unlike putting the points into Earth or Water you’re not getting both defensive and offensive, but I find that 100 toughness is easy enough to get through items, 100 condition damage isn’t the greatest thing, and you’re doing 20% more damage whilst low while keeping the extra swiftness and fury from the auras.

I’ve seen somebody use the build before and wanted to know if more of us eles are opting to it now that we are feeling safer shaving off 10 points in water?

Why doesnt anybody talk about d/d 0/20/0/20/30?

I am loving it atm. Pretty squishy but more critchance and critdamge. Needing quite good movement and fight overview though, as you will get much damage with your low toughness.

As 20 traits I use 20% less cd on air and on cantrips. This grants even higher movement and more cantrips to use in a fight. Shocking aura, updraft and RTL can always use a lower CD but with the buff of weakness, lighning touch is awesome.

haha, there we go!

Song The Fox
~(-_-~) RALL (~`3`)~
[FOX]

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Posted by: daphoenix.4283

daphoenix.4283

I made some errors on my wordpress blog

https://daphoenix555.wordpress.com/

You should actually invest in both superior sharpening stones, and bloodlust/battle sigil.
Stick with celestial armor + weapons
Same runes (2x melandru, 2x monk, 2x water)
Go with power,toughness, critical damage rings (2) and an optional power, toughness, critical damage accessory (1), and the already power,toughness, critical damage backpiece. The rest of the trinkets should stay full celestial
This applies to all trait setups

Excala, Expert Elementalist
Fort Aspenwood [EXC]
http://www.youtube.com/user/daphoenix555?feature=mhee

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Posted by: FirstBlood.7359

FirstBlood.7359

It’s always pointless to discuss a build without mentioning its use. The performance of a build depends on depends heavily on its surroundings. A build might be weak in sPvP with the current dominance of Necros, but strong in a PvE enviroment where conditions seldom matter.

The new Stone Splinters trait is barely worth it, at least in WvW or sPvP. You have to sacrifice too much to get the +10% damage. Earth provides little synergy in general.

Tz tz