Guild Wars 2

I used to play a D/D ele back in the day only to delete her for my mesmer. Back then, it felt like I had to go through a ton of work just to put out average damage on my target and so I pretty much just gave up. Recently I had several duels with D/D celestial ele’s and I lost every one of them no matter what character I was playing. In the close duels, they either had so much regen that my sustain eventually failed or they would just use FGS, ran away, and reset the fight.

I looked on the metabattle site and notice that they are recommended for both PvP and WvW roaming. Did they get a few buffs in the last several month or do I just completely suck now? Are they really that effective to be on the top of the list?

Thanks!

-Lexi

If you disliked Ele enough back then, not much has changed to make you like it now. The class is for sure far stronger. D/D Cele is probably the strongest build in sPvP.

The main thing was the introduction of stronger Runes and double-proccing Sigils. They also un-nerfed Signet of Restoration in sPvP, which helped a ton. And of course, Cele gear really pushes the class over the edge in PvP formats.

But I’d suggest against rolling flavor of the month if you don’t actually like the class. Stick to Mes and War if those are what you like.

Neko.9021:

But I’d suggest against rolling flavor of the month if you don’t actually like the class. Stick to Mes and War if those are what you like.

Thanks for the info! My old ele was actually the most fun of any class to play but it just felt underwhelming compared to what others could do. It does sound more viable now which makes me wish I never deleted mine.

DD Ele is very strong right now. Arguably the strongest class, but it’s not OP because all the classes are so balanced atm.

The build itself was not upgraded. It was actually nerfed. The upgrades are in the gear, sigils and runes.

Depending on how long ago you played, the build now is much worse now. Evasive Arcana is no longer a blast finisher on every attunement, RTL has a much longer CD, you can no longer heal yourself on Mist Form… And the boom duration combo runes are mostly gone. FGS dmg was nerfed and the flame trail doesnt work on a wall anymore (used to be funny to kill thievess that way)
So you wont be kiting 5+ people forever and killing them one by one like we could one or more year ago.
Some skills had minor tweaks (new blast finisher on ice blast, Lightning whip is faster) and some cantrips have lower CDs… Firegrab still misses most of the time…

What saves the build now are the new stats in celestial gear and new runes (strenght, hoelbrak, traveler, pack) and sigils (sigils from same category work together)…

So, DD is still a great fun build to play, but its not as OP or misunderstood as it used to be.

D/D Cele is the most sustainable build to counter all builds in 1v1. Unless you can CC them frequently. Their biggest counters are necro and engi.

Thanks for all the responses folks! I was playing around with a level 1 ele last night in PvP and it does feel much more effective than back when I was playing one. Strange that in the games I played I was always the only ele in the match.

Just wondering, below is the gear I currently have available should I chose to level one to 80. The armor rating is pretty low from what I’m used to in a “sustain” build but I guess the skills make up for that.

Would this armor combo work well enough? Current Set

Is it for roaming?

If you want more sustain, I’d suggest take FGS for bailing, Trait V in earth for Protection with Aura and V in water for regen against critical hit. I dislike Mist Form as it seems universally useless from a PVP standpoint. I’d rather have Arcane Shield or Cleansing Fire. Food wise, take Seaweed salad if you want to be aggressive or the endurance regen food with might on dodge if you want more sustain. For sigils, Doom is universally good to cover your other damage condi and counter passive regen. Intelligence is good if you can set it up for Fire Grab – it is suitable for a very aggressive play style. Leeching is good for both sustain and damage, it can deal about 900 per hit. During a long fight against other sustain classes, expect to see around 10 hits. Geomancy is good to push condi damage against builds with little to no condi cleanse. Battle is nice to play safe. You don’t need Hydromancy as you have access to Chill with Frozen Burst and Frost Aura.

Thanks for the help Iris! The rest of the gear looks “ok” though with the combinations I’m using? I don’t have full celestial on everything but I have about 11 different ascended trinkets now from about everything you can think of.

I think it’s okay. I’m not familiar with WvW roaming setting as food/oil/armor rating/NPC buff are many factors not present in sPvP. If you have a lot of ascended trinkets to swap around, I think it’s good to experiment with them and see which one works best for you.

Best of luck, and have fun!

Stats looks pretty decent, though you should think about adding some more toughness. I run half Cav half Knights trinkets to get around 2500 armor. Thieves will burst you pretty fast with only 2200.

Last question, I swear! (well… for now).

I ran across this “tanky” build below and was wondering if you all have played something like this or seen it used before. The armor and resistance to conditions looks to be pretty nice for WvW.

Tank Roaming

The Power rating seems mediocre though. 2k Power is usually my own baseline for WvW.

That build is pretty bad trait synergy wise, the water grand-master is only procced by the water adept since you lack soothing disruption, elemental attunement, or any other sources of regen. Not to mention that combining cleansing water with diamond skin isn’t that great in general since if one of them is useful, the other is generally being wasted completely. Then there is just very little damage as has already been said.

FinalPatriot.8034:

Last question, I swear! (well… for now).

I ran across this “tanky” build below and was wondering if you all have played something like this or seen it used before. The armor and resistance to conditions looks to be pretty nice for WvW.

Tank Roaming

Like the others said, it seems mediocre. Plus there’s not a lot of synergy going. If you wanna run around like a tank, with 6 in both lines then I’d suggest switching Grandmaster Stone to XIII, and Adept Water to III, and Master Water to IX to have a reliable regen proc. That way you switch to earth when you expect burst, and water to cleanse condis after. Remember that you have to switch out of both attunements quickly, expecially water since you want to have water available again as quickly as possible for using skill 2.

Still I wouldn’t recommend running that build. I tried similar 20660 in sPvP, but it was crap.

Yeah, I wasn’t certain about that tankish build so I really appreciate the comments. I have always thought that to be successful in WvW that you need around 2.8K armor as to not get too squishy. I’ve even seen a few “celestial” ele’s go for knights armor in both chest and legs and then supplement this with a celestial ring or another trinket.

Is that 2.8k threshold a requirement for the ele as well?

2.8k armor is pretty tough to get without going into earth. You will have to sacrifice a lot of other stats. I feel pretty comfortable with 2500, 2600 when I get full ascended. Active defenses make up the difference. You just want enough toughness to stop a thief from one shoting you.

Just an update -

I was playing out the meta celestial D/D Ele last night in PvP and 1v1 or 1v2 duels resulted in the Ele being impressively survivable. I did run into problems with power Necro’s and LB Rangers. In the case of the Necro, I was just dumb enough not to move out of his range and wait for the demon form to wear off. As for the Ranger, they would often get into positions where I couldn’t easily teleport to.

Just wondering though, have ya’ll found the S/D Thieves to be trouble? I’ve ran into several D/D or P/D Thieves in PvP but not seen the S/D build that much.

D/x thieves have zero chance to kill a D/D cele. S/D thief needs to be really patient to wear you down. For P/D thief, it’s the matter of kiting and playing defensively around your points. It’s not a good idea trying to catch a P/D in a 1v1.

For necro and ranger, you need to stay on their melee range almost at all time and play aggressively. For Lich Form, immobilize and stay at their back, or blind them, or CC, or use focus if you really want to do a 1v1.

Iris Ng.9845:

D/x thieves have zero chance to kill a D/D cele. S/D thief needs to be really patient to wear you down. For P/D thief, it’s the matter of kiting and playing defensively around your points. It’s not a good idea trying to catch a P/D in a 1v1.

For necro and ranger, you need to stay on their melee range almost at all time and play aggressively. For Lich Form, immobilize and stay at their back, or blind them, or CC, or use focus if you really want to do a 1v1.

Thanks for the very well explained answer to my question! I remember running into D/D thieves back in the day and always thought they were pretty easy to kill. With the massive amount of LB rangers in WvW, I hate it when they are in a position where I can’t readily gap close on them.

Technically ele have no direct 1v1 counter.. We are just get jumped often before finishing our 1v1 by a Celestial Rifle Engi, Double Condi Engi, or terror mancer. They can rip us pretty fast if we are less than half health, in cool down and preoccupied.

Then your team will blame you and say your an ele last match you held center 1v3, but how the hell you get wrecked so easily since you just lost to a 1v2.

Then you respond and say, "Hey******** ****** * it’s 400-200 can you four guys just fight on points… this is just hot join relax! :P

Usually if you unrank or rank with common players or guildies they understand better.

PS ele’s that die in wvw vs PD thieves general only use based meta builds neglecting the joys of healing power. Any happy D/D ele should have healing power of 500 and above is great. Eat a Saffron Bun and sport Hoelbrak set. Ands ps use the Conquest meta and not the WvW meta for D/D . That meta is older… prior nerfs… elemental shielding is your friend. And since you use 0 0 266 you can switch out armor of earth and use sigil of air. For roaming that should be enough. But if an experience Havoc team in wvw comes at you with 7 players vs you alone.. .well hahahha! Run or Die.

Waisenpai.6028:

Technically ele have no direct 1v1 counter.. .

I’ve noticed that. I had a duel against a D/D ele friend of mine and he took down my mesmer, thief, warrior, guard, etc. The only class I did somewhat decent with was the guard but that was because he didn’t use an elite and I think he was making a sandwich at the time. I’ve heard that a P/D confusion thief should do better against he D/D/ ele though.

Waisenpai.6028:

Ands ps use the Conquest meta and not the WvW meta for D/D . That meta is older… prior nerfs… .

Stupid question but what do you mean, “Conquest meta?”

Metabattle uses an outdated build. It works but is meh.

DnD feels the same as it did last year. But not as powerful as 2012 ele.

Duel with SoR, Roam with glyph or ER and Zerg on dnd with ER.

why do builds ‘tank’ up when ele has the tools to survive and deal the damages?

sorrychief.2563:

why do builds ‘tank’ up when ele has the tools to survive and deal the damages?

Because 2 in earth gives you perma prot. What you are peaking of is the SoR regen ele that is the first meta for eles since 2012.