Guild Wars 2

I am currently leveling a charr elementalist, and one little quirk of mine that I like to do is establish my character’s role-play lore and then find a suitably strong build based on their theme. Unfortunately, this character is Flame-legion themed, which means that as an elementalist, I’m challenged to find a build that utilises a focus on the fire tree and fire skills so that I can have thematic unity.

It’s pretty well known that the fire tree just doesn’t work for a lot of eles. I’m currently running D/D and Fire/Earth/Air, and have done ok in PVE relying on condition and upfront damage, but now I’ve hit a snag at lv 50 where things hit too hard and too fast for my middling damage to keep up. Ideally I would want Fire/Earth, but it just doesn’t seem like it’s holding up too well.

Are there any viable fire 30 builds out there? And how do they work? I don’t really mind if the build isn’t optimal compared to the glass cannon builds of other classes, but so long as it’s ‘ok’ I think I can manage. Thoughts?

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcsc9VMRmhMMRmhMxaa0GokbocVR
This is pretty close to what I used for leveling. I suggest switching to staff before Orr because there’s risen with condition removal there. Lots of them.
And for lvl 80 PvE I use http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcsMz9mMMmbMMRmhMx0G0GokbcmVz . Lots of fire combo fields and finishers to keep up the might stacks. I was thinking of changing Salt Stone to Bolt to the Heart since it should increase my dps by 3-4% according to my calculator(didn’t really do any calculations on how the passive stat gain/loss would affect my DPS since there were wayyyy too many things to check).
Edit: Oh, and about the gear – a mix of power/toughness/vitality and carrion or berserker(I’m using carrion).

You could try out a 30/0/0/30/10 build. Maybe something like this, http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEIQJAoYhMmmbxR1gjDAkHn4CLhHKQQClCzA;ToAA1CmosxYjwGrNObk2MgYKC

You start out with a Churning Earth + Flash combo while switching to Fire before you teleport. You should be sitting at something like 7 stacks of might and, with Internal Fire, be able to do a decent amount of damage.

Ever since my elementalist reached Orr, I’ve been 30/20/0/0/20 staff. I changed from a more defensive build (30 in water) just to try it out, but I ended up liking it a lot. full offense gear also.
But if by 30 fire build you mean never swap elements, then that’s not going to work too well. I spend more time in fire than any other element, but it’s probably about half my time. then 25% earth, 25% air+water.
fire traits: +5% damage to burning opponents, +10% damage in fire, and longer fire fields (haven’t played ele since the might on fire cast trait got buffed)
air traits: bolt to the heart, and then either the aura trait, or one of the two glyph traits.
arcane: elemental attunement, blasting staff

I’ve been playing around in HoTM and I think I’ve found a build that’s kind of interesting. It’s 30, 0, 25, 5, 10, but with knights gear and carrion jewellery. My runes are full Runes of the Undead. This gives me just enough survivability, raw damage and condition damage and while my healing power is nonexistant, I have a lot of toughness and fairly decent HP, while I still hit quite hard all around.

The big kicker is that I realised Pyromancer’s Purisscence will proc even if you’re using a conjured weapon while attuned to fire. I tend to summon the flame axe and use it to quickly build stacks of might with the autoattack as well as inflict long-duration burns with the other skills. When I need to use my other skills I’ll quickly drop the bundle and do a proper rotation through fire to earth for even more stacks of might. Combined with superior sigils of battle, it’s extremily easy to keep 13+ stacks of might up with no problem.

As for my utilities, I use glyph of storms, summon flame axe, and cleansing flame. Glyph of storms seems like an odd choice, but you can actually combo it off of an updraft or earthquake, and then keep people inside it for most of the duration by following with other CC skills.

As for traits, I take mostly damage traits from the fire tree, as well as elemental shielding and stone splinters in earth. I decided to go with 5 in water just for the regen on attunement. I can’t see anything in earth 30 that I specifically want except for 2 seconds of stability on earth attune, which seems useful but I wasn’t able to put to very practical use while testing, due to how often I switch to and from earth, it never seems to be up when I need it.

And no, I definately swap attunements often. Flame axe inflicts a whopping 19 seconds of burn off of Flame Leap. If I land that, I usually drop the bundle immediately and try to stack on as many misc conditions as I can to cover for the inevitable condition removal, or go for hard CC through wind/earth if I know that they’ve got lots of condition removal. The point of the build isn’t to just stay in fire as often as possible, but to have a fiery focus. I think my current build feels just right.

It’s sad that a tree is so bad that just the act of putting points into it is a handicap requiring a thread like this.

Minion of Vey.4398:

It’s sad that a tree is so bad that just the act of putting points into it is a handicap requiring a thread like this.

No offense, but I really don’t think that’s the right way to look at it. The elementalist trait trees are obviously crafted with a lot of love (a lot more than other classes, anyways), and I’ve seen a huge variety of builds pop up exploiting all sorts of weird synergies. Have you see that bizarre tri-elemental scepter burst combo that relies on being in melee range? I’m still laughing at that. Have you see what they’re doing in the conjure thread here?

And we’ve seen some really awesome staff builds despite how much spleen venting there is here about the staff (even post EA nerf). I suspect someone will popularize a 25 or 30 fire build soon.

Because seriously, you have no idea what “bad” traits are like until you look at Necromancer Death Magic or Engineer Inventions. Did you know until just recently Engineers were dropping 30 in Alchemy for a GM trait that granted ONE extra might when using alchemy utilities and toolbelt skills. Meanwhile Elementalists are asking, “Is one might per spellcast really worth it?”

I wonder though, if I would be better off just going full 30 into earth as opposed to 25 earth 5 water. The healing regeneration from water attune is negigible without any healing power.

KirinDave.6451:

Because seriously, you have no idea what “bad” traits are like until you look at Necromancer Death Magic or Engineer Inventions. Did you know until just recently Engineers were dropping 30 in Alchemy for a GM trait that granted ONE extra might when using alchemy utilities and toolbelt skills. Meanwhile Elementalists are asking, “Is one might per spellcast really worth it?”

So much this. As an engineer who recently re-rolled to an elementalist I can honestly say you folks do not know how awesome you have it. Skills that work! Multiple synergies! The cannonical 0/10/0/30/30 build is awesome, but there is a LOT of room for other viable (if not quite as efficient) builds. I just rolled my elementalist 5 days ago and I am already up to level 55 with a S/D build that I am probably going to take into 80 for PvE and WvW. I can already self combo myself for 12 might stacks (this is without sigils, etc….) pretty much constantly. As an engineer I got used to kit switching, so I am constantly changing attunements without difficulty. It is just such a joy to play a non-broken class.

amiable.4823:

KirinDave.6451:

Because seriously, you have no idea what “bad” traits are like until you look at Necromancer Death Magic or Engineer Inventions. Did you know until just recently Engineers were dropping 30 in Alchemy for a GM trait that granted ONE extra might when using alchemy utilities and toolbelt skills. Meanwhile Elementalists are asking, “Is one might per spellcast really worth it?”

So much this. As an engineer who recently re-rolled to an elementalist I can honestly say you folks do not know how awesome you have it. Skills that work! Multiple synergies! The cannonical 0/10/0/30/30 build is awesome, but there is a LOT of room for other viable (if not quite as efficient) builds. I just rolled my elementalist 5 days ago and I am already up to level 55 with a S/D build that I am probably going to take into 80 for PvE and WvW. I can already self combo myself for 12 might stacks (this is without sigils, etc….) pretty much constantly. As an engineer I got used to kit switching, so I am constantly changing attunements without difficulty. It is just such a joy to play a non-broken class.

LOL you’re still in the honeymoon stage, but I hear you. I rolled elementalist because everyone was saying they were the most underpowered class and that was only a month or so ago. This forum was filled with crying, its changed a LOT. I dont know why, its not like we got that uber buffed. I think a positive mindset is key, and wanting to unravel all the synergies, because there are many many many.

Kilger.5490:

LOL you’re still in the honeymoon stage, but I hear you.

Oh no, I realize the class is actually very difficult to play. I watched my friend level one to 80 and his primary way of killing things was to use that Fire trait that makes a magma font when downed, I swear.

Kilger.5490:

I rolled elementalist because everyone was saying they were the most underpowered class and that was only a month or so ago. This forum was filled with crying, its changed a LOT. I dont know why, its not like we got that uber buffed. I think a positive mindset is key, and wanting to unravel all the synergies, because there are many many many.

I think everyone is realizing how bad the disadvantaged classes are compared to the advantaged ones, and how much Anet obviously has a plan for Elementalists, Warriors & Thieves.

Seriously though, I have an 80 engineer and I go further than not partying with engineers, I will not join parties for fractals with my engineer because I feel guilty about slowing people down. I dont’ think anyone would ever feel that way about elementalists.

Ele was whined on constantly for being either “underpowered” or “squishy” until we all learned what our secret is… boons… For PvE and especially dungeons I run a 10/10/10/10/30 build and it’s all about boons. As ele’s we can maintain perma swiftness and fury (which means after sigil’s I’m holding like 75% crit chance at all times), we can easily get 25 stacks of might on ourselves and get at least 15-20 on the rest of our team. And once all that adds up we hit pretty kitten hard too.

Since they’ve somewhat nerfed the Evasive Arcana blast finishers in the 11/15 update, I’m thinking of changing to a 10/20/10/10/20 build and up crit chance to 85% with perma fury. We are the most party-centered and versatile class if played correctly, and we make everyone else look good without sacrificing our own damage done… Sadly, some of the other classes are too “just smash A” to realize they’re hitting so hard thanks to us, not to their “amazing” skill. We’re like the offensive line of the football team, a lot of people just won’t recognize how good we make it for everyone else. I couldn’t care less, gives me some satisfaction to look up and see all that might on my whole party and know that it was me. I also love it when other classes ask me how I have like 10 boons on me all the time

…just don’t no one tell anet, we don’t need no stinking nerf. The last thing we need is ele somehow becoming the next ranger.

Yeah, keep pointing at our “broken” downed state. Maybe they’ll nerf that, and leave the real stuff alone.