Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I play Ele for team DXI and Qz, and recently I’ve been intrigued by the Scepter Dagger bunker build. I’ve been getting pretty good at it, but I’m curious as to some of the S/D bunker eles on pro teams (specifically EU, as its pretty popular there) and how you play/how u position yourself and tips to defeating back point mesmers.

I’ve been practicing against one of my guildies and I can get the point neuted if i’m smart and use my knockdowns/knockbacks properly, but I’m curious as to what you guys do, and on top of that if there are any good S/D Streamers so I can pick up on some tips.

For reference, my build:

0/0/10/30/30
Earth: 3
Water: 3, 5, 11/9
Arcana: 5, 7/4, 11

Energy + Bloodlust sigils

4 Runes of the Monk
2 Runes of Water
Clerics Ammie + Soldiers Jewel

Any info would be awesome!

TL;DR: Tips to being a bunker. How to beat mesmers. Any streamers? List above

Hint: Stop it with the Cleric Amulets. They changed equipment swapping outside of combat to really make you think about how to pack the most punch into what you are using. Try using a Shaman Amulet with ___+Energy sigils.

Why shamans amulet? I have barely any conditions other than burning and occasional bleeding that deals condition damage. That seems like a waste doesn’t it?

Also, I’m looking into replacing 2 monk runes with divinity to test it out

For my build I would switch out the Water and Monk runes and use Forge Runes. The 20% protection duration and the protection that you get at 50% health helps. Also for water I would use 3 /9/11. I use 3 cantrips so that works out for me.

I could see trying those. I just enjoyed the percent chance to gain health when hit, or the entire augmentation of my stats.

Ill def try those tonight tho.

Anyone else?

You only have to stay in earth long enough to stack 6+ bleeds (two auto attacks) for it to be completely worth it damage-wise. Remember that S/D stacks might just through basic combo rotation, which will increase your condition damage as well as regular damage. Your burns will do more than 600 per tick and bleeds will easily get past 110. This translates into about 2k damage for every successful full auto attack in earth and 7k aoe damage for churning earth. You don’t even have to put effort into the burning since you should be executing a combo on the person closest to the center of your point each time you cycle through fire. Your fire dodge will do about 3k+ damage on top of that if it goes full duration.

There’s a lot to be said for condition eles; not in the variety of conditions they apply, but in the frequency of application of two strong conditions.

My advice would be go shamans amulet if you are focusing on a pure survival build. Shamans amulet will do less damage, however your survivability with it is much higher than clerics. Your jewel however you can use something different like knights jewel or valkyrie jewel.
Clerics amulet has an absurd amount of healing, and we dont really need all of the healing with a lower health pool. Clerics is better if you want to do damage as a bunker.
Utilities i recommend mist form and cleansing fire for sure. Mist is a guarenteed get out of jail free and cleansing fire is great for removing immobilized accompanied with other garbage conditions. I personally would choose blink over armor of earth if i am by myself because you can cast two blinks over 1 armor of earth. Also, blink can save you from immobilizes and mesmer/theif/warrior instagibs…..armor of earth will only delay the inevitable.

Some random tips for bunkering
1. Keeping enemy close point nuetrelized at game start is a common tactic for ele bunkers.
2. Dont forget, phoenix can remove conditions as well if your caught in a fix!
3. Signet of restoration is a MUST as a bunker. Other healing skills require you to channel which leaves a chance of interrupt or you interrupt yourself because you have to dodge.
4. Always keep Rock Barrier up.
5. Save updraft when fighting mesmers, if they immobilize you and shatter you and you can move, use updraft to evade some of the shatters. The mesmer will break the stun anyway so might as well use it to evade.
6. NEVER CHURN EARTH WHEN BEING FOCUSED! (nough said)
7. If you go against a mesmer/theif + any other damage class, you need to run off point the second you are out of cooldowns unless you KNOW the players are bad. You cannot survive against such heavy burst classes with no cd’s so just ride the lightning away. YOU WILL LOSE THE POINT IF THEY ARE SEMI-DECENT. Best to lose point and not give 5 free points.
8. Never stay in Earth or Water stance more than you have to. Switch in, blow your cool downs, and switch out. You want to be able to switch to earth as much as possible for the protection (burst theives watch for when your protection drops to backstab) and you want the water available for the two condition removals, regen, cleansing wave dodge, and small heal. The longer you stay in these attunements the more you risk them not being available when you need them
9. Runes of Forge are actually making a comeback since prot duration was nerfed on earth runes. at 50% you get 15 seconds of protection (30% boon increase and 20% prot increase) and another 10 from the earthshield trait giving you 25 seconds of protection at 50% health, thats ALOT! The goal is to try and keep as close to having protection up 100% of the time (theoretically it will only be up about 85% of the time).
10. With this build you have access to perma-vigor via your phoenix and your cantrips so remember to dodge
11. Dont be afraid to let them neutrilize the point. Feel free to LoS if there are multiple targets and run back and forth on the point keeping it neutral as much as possible especially if you are fighting multiple targets. If you lose the point however, ride the lightning away because at that point you are wasting your time.

-Pintresting <3