Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone, I just created an ele and was wondering what is a good build for high level fractals. One that provides party-support as well as dishes out good DPS, but mainly good DPS. I’ve been experimenting with s/d and d/d but not really sure what is the best way to optimize a dps/support build. When commenting please go over weapons/skills/traits/armor/trinkets/runes in some detail and why you chose it. Also any tips would be helpful like good synergy between skill cycling and combos.

Thanks,

Ghost Face Trilla

dunno.
I got to lvl 49 fotm with the classic 0/10/0/30/30
zerker set with rune of the pack
Its not that you have any choice actually, defence is useless and dps is a necessity.
Mobs hits anyway for 11-19.000-

I have a knight set i never use also…

D/D usually changing to S/F when you can t melee.
Sometimes even staff.

Dps is still subpar compared to other pofessions.
After a lot i switched profession and never looked back.

Despite what people will say, ele in pve is currently a waste of time….
You can t either use that awful conjured weapons build……for a lot of reasons fractal runners should know.

With D/D using a correct positioning is the key and also arcane armour is vital to gain those few seconds to complete a combo.

Unfortunately fire 3 will get you killed a lot if you don t use it really carefully (lowering dps).

What the above poster said is basically true.

Check out my guide to the D/D Ele in PvE Dungeons and Fractals: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Neko-s-Guide-to-the-D-D-Ele-in-Dungeons-1

Basically, Eles who would like to play high-level PvE have two choices: play the gimmicky Conjure Lightning Hammer build, or play 0/10/0/30/30 and still try to keep the spirit of what it means to play an Elementalist.

Elementalist is, unfortunately, a subpar choice compared to Warrior, Guardian, and Mesmer. The 0/10/0/30/30 Ele and its variations ultimately do far less damage and have far less utility than a DPS Guardian, which does basically everything you want to do, only better with more damage to boot.

But do what is enjoyable to you. I still play my Ele as my main in high-level PvE because it is what I enjoy. And with a 0/10/0/30/30 D/D setup (switching to Scepter as needed), you can still be fairly effective, just not as effective as many others are.

Maybe standard build isn’t something optimal and we have yet to see decent build?

maybe..
But nobody yet found and proved a useful build exists btw.

Try out 0/30/0/20/20 or 10/30/0/20/10 dagger/focus.Pick up offensive traits like vital striking,air training etc.

For runes and gear go all berserker with scholar runes.If you’re worried about dying use valkrie armor and weapons(but keep berserker trinkets) with divinity or some other defensive rune set up.Like Byron said if you get hit your dead anyway so you might as well maximize the damage you do.

I use sigil of energy for extra endurance regen, but if you feel like you can stay alive without it use something else.

I honestly think 0/10/0/30/30 d/d is overrated in pve.Dagger offhand does not offer much on boss fights except extra healing.Churning earth and fire grab are on too long of a cool-down to make a difference and bosses are immune to knock downs.

I don’t think aura sharing is worth it, because auras are pretty worthless in pve except magnetic Aura.Evasive arcane is pretty much overkill for self healing.If you need that much healing you’re making too many mistakes.

This is a bit off topic, butI don’t think ele dps is as bad as you make it out to be.I was messing around soloing Lupicus as glass cannon ele, and my kill time was not that far off from my warrior’s (which is 7ish min).It’s a nightmare to stay alive in phase 3 so I’m still working on a kill, but I’m on pace for like 10-11 min kill.It’s only slower than a warrior because I’m forced to sit in water and earth attunment for extended periods of time in phase 3 so I don’t put sigil of energy on cool-down.

Smooth Marc.8743:

Try out 0/30/0/20/20 or 10/30/0/20/10 dagger/focus.Pick up offensive traits like vital striking,air training etc.

For runes and gear go all berserker with scholar runes.If you’re worried about dying use valkrie armor and weapons(but keep berserker trinkets) with divinity or some other defensive rune set up.Like Byron said if you get hit your dead anyway so you might as well maximize the damage you do.

I use sigil of energy for extra endurance regen, but if you feel like you can stay alive without it use something else.

I honestly think 0/10/0/30/30 d/d is overrated in pve.Dagger offhand does not offer much on boss fights except extra healing.Churning earth and fire grab are on too long of a cool-down to make a difference and bosses are immune to knock downs.

I don’t think aura sharing is worth it, because auras are pretty worthless in pve except magnetic Aura.Evasive arcane is pretty much overkill for self healing.If you need that much healing you’re making too many mistakes.

This is a bit off topic, butI don’t think ele dps is as bad as you make it out to be.I was messing around soloing Lupicus as glass cannon ele, and my kill time was not that far off from my warrior’s (which is 7ish min).It’s a nightmare to stay alive in phase 3 so I’m still working on a kill, but I’m on pace for like 10-11 min kill.It’s only slower than a warrior because I’m forced to sit in water and earth attunment for extended periods of time in phase 3 so I don’t put sigil of energy on cool-down.

I want to see this in action. I think a lot of Eles are looking to push the class further in PvE.

the issue with that is that:

if a zerker ele D/D lacks damage

replacing the second dagger that is the main part of your burst with a weapn that have almost 0 dps potential may not be a good idea.

I use all weapons anyway and all combinations….but if in situation like arm seals at cliffside, you can give up your dps with no issue, there are many other situations were you simply can t.

Also on bosses like lava shaman/ascalon/underground you could have some professions in party that don t want you to trigger bosses melee Attacks.
That is why you can t stay on a single weaponset.
Just use all

This is why 25 water is good btw:

Bountiful Power
Deal 2% more damage for each boon on you.

I tried 10/10/0/30/20
Doesn t work because you get to 25 might anyway with sigil of battle

also other stuff with some earth etc…..for cantrips….didn t get better results.

@smooth:

Lupicus reflects and conjured weapon (as well as cof/coe) use as said has no relevance in fractal…..

Smooth Marc.8743:

Try out 0/30/0/20/20 or 10/30/0/20/10 dagger/focus.Pick up offensive traits like vital striking,air training etc.

For runes and gear go all berserker with scholar runes.If you’re worried about dying use valkrie armor and weapons(but keep berserker trinkets) with divinity or some other defensive rune set up.Like Byron said if you get hit your dead anyway so you might as well maximize the damage you do.

I use sigil of energy for extra endurance regen, but if you feel like you can stay alive without it use something else.

I honestly think 0/10/0/30/30 d/d is overrated in pve.Dagger offhand does not offer much on boss fights except extra healing.Churning earth and fire grab are on too long of a cool-down to make a difference and bosses are immune to knock downs.

I don’t think aura sharing is worth it, because auras are pretty worthless in pve except magnetic Aura.Evasive arcane is pretty much overkill for self healing.If you need that much healing you’re making too many mistakes.

This is a bit off topic, butI don’t think ele dps is as bad as you make it out to be.I was messing around soloing Lupicus as glass cannon ele, and my kill time was not that far off from my warrior’s (which is 7ish min).It’s a nightmare to stay alive in phase 3 so I’m still working on a kill, but I’m on pace for like 10-11 min kill.It’s only slower than a warrior because I’m forced to sit in water and earth attunment for extended periods of time in phase 3 so I don’t put sigil of energy on cool-down.

First person that actually agrees with me, nice. My only and best solo time was ~15 minutes with 0-30-0-20-20 but that was before “don’t-move” tactic became widely used so I had to take 2 traited cantrips. Which build are you using?

Smooth Marc.8743:

Try out 0/30/0/20/20 or 10/30/0/20/10 dagger/focus.Pick up offensive traits like vital striking,air training etc.

For runes and gear go all berserker with scholar runes.If you’re worried about dying use valkrie armor and weapons(but keep berserker trinkets) with divinity or some other defensive rune set up.Like Byron said if you get hit your dead anyway so you might as well maximize the damage you do.

I use sigil of energy for extra endurance regen, but if you feel like you can stay alive without it use something else.

I honestly think 0/10/0/30/30 d/d is overrated in pve.Dagger offhand does not offer much on boss fights except extra healing.Churning earth and fire grab are on too long of a cool-down to make a difference and bosses are immune to knock downs.

I don’t think aura sharing is worth it, because auras are pretty worthless in pve except magnetic Aura.Evasive arcane is pretty much overkill for self healing.If you need that much healing you’re making too many mistakes.

This is a bit off topic, butI don’t think ele dps is as bad as you make it out to be.I was messing around soloing Lupicus as glass cannon ele, and my kill time was not that far off from my warrior’s (which is 7ish min).It’s a nightmare to stay alive in phase 3 so I’m still working on a kill, but I’m on pace for like 10-11 min kill.It’s only slower than a warrior because I’m forced to sit in water and earth attunment for extended periods of time in phase 3 so I don’t put sigil of energy on cool-down.

That sir, is an interesting build. I’ve been trying to solo Lupi with the standard 0/10/0/30/30 build with D/D and it’s a nightmare on how long it takes with my balanced build as I seem to be on track for around 20-25 minutes. I think I’ll give this a shot.

I’ve even thought about trying the LH spec for a Lupi solo.

@byron
I though using staff when meleeing is not safe would be obvious to the op.

Focus offers the group utility the op was looking for. You can fill gaps in projectile deflection rotations, and you’re able to safely revive people by using obsidian flesh. I think the daze always works on bosses, but I’m not 100% sure on that so I’d need someone to confirm that for me.

Replacing the dagger offhand does not hurt your single target dps. Fire grab is on too long of a cool-down to make a difference dps wise, 10k damage every 45 seconds is not that much. Earth #5 is not that great either, you spend 2 seconds channeling a spell that does 10kish crit damage. In addition to churning earth taking forever to cast, not being in fire or air is a dps loss. If you stay in air/fire and auto attack you end up doing more damage. The only thing you’re really losing by dropping dagger offhand is the heal from water #5.like I said before bosses are immune to cc for the most part so using the knockdown skills are pointless. Trash is another story because the knockdowns are actually useful.

About the 25 water thing I was under the assumption the OP is going to not be in organized groups. Unless you have two warriors feeding you fury and might plus access to 5-6 boons going 30 air and 10 fire seems like a better choise.30 air lets you get bolt to the heart,zephers boon and air training and 10 fire lets you get inferno fire. Since most of your DPS comes from fire and air you always have the 10% increase in damage. By going with the build I posted you don’t have to rely on your team .If you go 25 in water you’re pretty much counting on your team to give you fury and a large amount boons for a majority of the fight. Take this with a grain of salt I’m in class at the moment so I’d have to run the numbers through a spreadsheet when I get home.

If I was going for pure damage in an organized group I’d do something like 25 fire 20 air 25 water. I’d drop zephers boon and have the two warriors give me fury. Then just swap between fire and air while keeping burning speed on cooldown and using airs attunement auto attack as my primary source of damage.

The lupicus thing is offtopic. I’m well aware that reflect damage and abusing fiery greatsword #4 is not a valid tactic vs most bosses in fractals. However lighting hammer is fair game if no one is picking up your hammer, your team provides the buffs you need and you can stay alive I see no reason not to use it over daggers.

@haviz
I was using 30 fire/ 30 air/10 water with signet of fire, arcane blast and arcane wave. The build works for phase 1 and 2 but falls apart in p3.

@raif

WhenI killed lupi for the first time I used a defensive build and a lot of ptv gear so it took me like 29 min lol.I tried lighting hammer but it did not really work out. Fiery great sword is pretty good if you wanna speed up p1 and p2. In phase 3 it’s not that great, because you want to move as little as possible.

Smooth Marc.8743:

@haviz
I was using 30 fire/ 30 air/10 water with signet of fire, arcane blast and arcane wave. The build works for phase 1 and 2 but falls apart in p3.

To be honest, probably any build works for p1 and p2.

Raif.9507:

That sir, is an interesting build. I’ve been trying to solo Lupi with the standard 0/10/0/30/30 build with D/D and it’s a nightmare on how long it takes with my balanced build as I seem to be on track for around 20-25 minutes. I think I’ll give this a shot.

I’ve even thought about trying the LH spec for a Lupi solo.

D/D is not the great idea, it doesn’t bring anything useful for that fight

Smooth Marc.8743:

@byron
I though using staff when meleeing is not safe would be obvious to the op.

Focus offers the group utility the op was looking for. You can fill gaps in projectile deflection rotations, and you’re able to safely revive people by using obsidian flesh. I think the daze always works on bosses, but I’m not 100% sure on that so I’d need someone to confirm that for me.

with dagger mainhand you are forced in melee
for focus you give up fire 4 and earth5
earth 5 is usable with proper positioning
Also you give up a lot of aoe might potential.

if for daze you mean air5, its not.

Its subject to defiant.
This is for fractal….

Scepter/focus is still a better idea if you need a focus.

LordByron.8369:

with dagger mainhand you are forced in melee
for focus you give up fire 4 and earth5
earth 5 is usable with proper positioning
Also you give up a lot of aoe might potential.

if for daze you mean air5, its not.

Its subject to defiant.
This is for fractal….

Scepter/focus is still a better idea if you need a focus.

Focus has same amount of blast finishers as offhand dagger and both of them have 25s cooldown, while offhand dagger finishers have 30s and kitten cooldown. I’d say that with proper positioning focus offers much frequent blasts.

And by daze he meant comet.

i don t get it <.<

the only focus blast finisher i know is comet that is also an unreliable skill
opposed to earth 4-5

Comet seems not to daze bosses

Earth 4 Focus is a Blast Finisher, and also insanely good overall (reflect projectiles, cure three conditions, deal AoE damage and cripple foes around you).

i see, yet you don t get the burst+cc that D/D has that is actually the reason to use D/D.

when possible.
But the major issue is the “melee trigger” that some bosses have….that means you need to be able to range.

That is why i bring every weapon anche change constantly….

atm using 0/20/0/20/30 zerker armor, valkirie weap, zerker earing, calvalier back and celestial ring and neck, the most dps weap set is S\D for me.

I never said the Henry Pablo could not use ranged weapons with the build I posted.I just suggested that he should use dagger/focus as his primary weapon set on bosses, if he can get away with being in melee range.

I said the knockdowns dagger offhand offers is useful on trash.Honestly if you want to burst down a trash pack just los pull them and use fiery greatsword #4,or use glyph of storms in earth + lightning hammer to spike them down while they are perma blinded.

Like I said before the spike damage on dagger off hand really isn’t that amazing.Fire grab is 10kish damage on 45 second cool-down.That is like a two lightning whips,so best case its saving you 1-2 seconds on a trash pack.Churning earth takes 3 seconds to cast.You can get off 3 lighting whips in the same amount of time that would do equivalent damage.If the mobs are pushed against the wall you can burning speed then swap to air and get off 2 lighting whips.

In short if you need the knockdowns and water #5 heal the daggers are the better choice.If you don’t need any of that stuff focus is a better offhand choice.

a burst with daggers is something like 25-30K + 14 might stacks aoe….+ 6-10% from water 25 (i suggest to get at least 25 water)*

using focus means giving away about 20.000 of those.

Once you finished the burst you have possibly used at least 1 utility but you have some might, so its the perfect time to pull out your fiery GS.

but your tactic (glyphs and conjured) doesn t require “focus”.

the “against the wall” thing is highly situational expecially since you don t even have way to achieve that (but even if you had….).

• the best part of that is having access to every of your skill that helps to survive… athing that when you have a conjured in hand you struggle to do.

Using conjure weapons/glyphs does not require focus, but it’s an alternative to using a dagger off hand for killing trash.You can get mobs against the wall by losing them.

You don’t just lose 80% of your damage by not using two skills.To be missing out on 20,000 damage you’d have not be doing anything.Casting Fire-grab into churning earth takes time to do.If you spend that same amount of time dpsing as dagger/focus you’d be doing similar damage

Since I’m not sure how else explain it in words, I’ll make a video demonstrating this when I get home in a few hours.

You can might stack with focus if you really wanted to it has the same amount of blast finishers as dagger offhand, and you have access to a fire field.

Smooth Marc.8743:

Since I’m not sure how else explain it in words, I’ll make a video demonstrating this when I get home in a few hours.

Don’t bother, d/d is the best set and ele needs help because its best weapon set is bad.

a burst is a burst

dps is another thing…

they have different purposes.

Ele may have (mediocre) PvE burst
Ele don t have sustained dps.

Ele burst stacks might so deals lot of damage AND add might.

They are completely different things…

But i have to say i am extremely biased AGAINST conjured weapon.

There is a reason if i play(ed) an ele and not a warrior and if i am forced into a light armor reduced version of a warrior i might as well roll a warrior itself.

Yet not liking warrior i won t use a light armored weak and more boring version of it.
Its not even the “gandalf” idea of mages…

But for sure the 20 skills VS 5 is something you tend to notice a lot.

Here is proof of how little difference there is between bursting with dagger off hand and just dpsing with dagger/focus.I hit the mob with both weapon sets for 13 seconds, and I made sure all of the dagger offhand skills crit.

There’s basicly no differnece in damage between the weapons sets like I said in my previous posts.

Youtube is taking it’s sweat time but the video should be avalible soon.

try:
fire 3-5-4
roll back swap in earth to trigger >EA (or use 10 fire for cantrips build)
earth 4-5 during 5 use arcane wave (and armor of earth if you want)
Swap on water 4 or air 3….

This will give you a lot of boons and with them 2% X number of boons dps (water 25).
Paired with lot of might.

….u gave up about 12% damage with D/D in that vid.

Also the 9 stacks of bleeds in earth are to be considered.

Dagger mainhand is the same…
What can made up for earth 4-5 and fire 4-5 damage with focus?
Combo potential is the same?

those were the questions i had when i did my tests

Imho you will have at least 30% difference in burst.

Additional stacks of might won’t trigger bountiful power.

so I hear that Elementalists don’t do enough damage and they you guys start talking about the focus…

Focus earth:
4 reflects projectiles (not from bosses)
5 gives invulnerability (but no damage)

Fire:
4 wall of fire (only burns hard to blast off of and no damage)
5 aura that gives might when you get hit. But if you get hit in fractals you die…

Water
4 chill for a couple seconds….. no damage
5 comet… blast finisher, stun (not on bosses) some damage.

Air
4 swirling winds destroys projectiles (but not from bosses).
5 Knock down (does not work on bosses)…

Focus gives no heals, bad damage, and no cc or defence against bosses besides earth 5.
Dagger gives heals, damage (even if its on a long cooldown), cc against mobs but no defence (unless you count air no. 5 as an extra dodge).

Smooth Marc.8743:

Using conjure weapons/glyphs does not require focus, but it’s an alternative to using a dagger off hand for killing trash.You can get mobs against the wall by losing them.

You don’t just lose 80% of your damage by not using two skills.To be missing out on 20,000 damage you’d have not be doing anything.Casting Fire-grab into churning earth takes time to do.If you spend that same amount of time dpsing as dagger/focus you’d be doing similar damage

Since I’m not sure how else explain it in words, I’ll make a video demonstrating this when I get home in a few hours.

You can might stack with focus if you really wanted to it has the same amount of blast finishers as dagger offhand, and you have access to a fire field.

Did you also factor in the bleed damage and the might stacks you get from using churning earth in a fire field? Did you also factor in that Churning earth is AoE and most of our auto-attacks are not aoe?
7k direct damage and close to 10k bleeding damage from one aoe spell with a 2-second casting time that if you hit 5 people you’d do a total damage of close to 85k. plus it gives you 3 stacks of might and combined with lightning flakitten almost never misses.

You can use auto-attacks but I disagree with you saying that auto-attack is more effective. Maybe in single target fights but not when y’r facing an angry mob.

haviz.1340:

Additional stacks of might won’t trigger bountiful power.

stacks of might gives more damage…
Other boons you get with that combo triggers bountiful power from 3 to 6 times.
-might
-protection
-fury
-swiftness
-vigor
-stability
-regeneration

Depending on the build you can get 7 boons with that combo.
10-10-0-20-30 or 0-10-0-30-30

btw
Swimsasa made up for my lack of english skills with a better post seems.

@byron

Swapping to water attunment and rolling around in earth is not going to up my damage by 30%.Every time you dodge you lose damage from auto attack.
All the stuff you’re suggesting won’t help my damage,because I’m spending time doing other stuff around not attacking.

The combo potential is the same both weapons have a fire field, and both weapons have two blast finishers.

The video shows that auto attacking makes up for the earth 4-5 and fire 4-5…

@Swimsasa Stoon

Elementalist projectile counter skills work on pretty much every boss.The only boss that reflect skills don’t work on are Old Tom or the cave troll in ac.

None of the dagger off hand cc skills are worth on bosses either, so there is no point in using that as an argument vs focus off hand.If you need cc for trash pack feel free to swap to a dagger off hand.

The dps you get from focus is similar to the damage you get from dagger off hand the video proves that.If you guys believe dagger off hand is that much better than you need to provide more evidence to back up your claim.Either make a video or use actually damage number to prove your argument(don’t just give rough examples like 7k damage 20k bleed damage, or 30% more damage by swaping to water attunement and dodge rolling).

Focus provides similar cc, and damage that dagger off hand does on bosses.The only thing you lose is the water heal #5 which you don’t really need.Using the reflects and damage immune skills are better than the 1.5k heal you get from dagger off hand.

He doesn’t run 0-10-0-30-30 or 10-10-0-20-30 so why do you want to include that? You’ll be doing much less damage than him anyway.

Plus, focus has 2 blasts as well. They have shorter recharge but are harder to land since flamewall has smaller area of effect.

u said than D/F deals more than D/D

I said its not so….
D/D need a proper build as written (choose between standard and offensive cantrip build depending also on sigils u like).

Then considering we will be using zephir boons using water 4 or air 3 in D/D will give our churning earth 4-6% more dps due to water 25 as said (plus the bonus might boost you get doing the BURST combo…..i.e. might while you hit)

Elementalist projectile counter skills work on pretty much every boss.The only boss that reflect skills don’t work on are Old Tom or the cave troll in ac.

at first i opened a post about swirling wind not affecting almost any boss skill post WWW nerf.
infact elementalist was ONLY one to be affected by this.

few weeks ago they said they did it on purpose and nerfed SOME guardians skills also.

So now swirling won t affect champin dredge, old tom, elementals aoe in lava shaman. cm robot missiles, same attack from uncategorized last boss, bloomhunger etc etc etc

Was a HUGE pve nerf….mostly because between guardian ele and mesmer, ele was the one most affected while guardian and mesmer still have skill to get away with it.

But can be said that MOST bosses projectiles Attacks nowaday are not affected by swirling winds.
Same reason why i said that lupicus will probbaly follow the same treatment soon.

D/D needs a proper build? Only thing you probably need is 10 in air magic. No wonder you complain about dps while playing bunker trait spec. Plus, last 3 stacks from churning earth you gain after you finish casting it.

0/30/0/20/20 or 10/30/0/20/10 dagger/focus.

VS

10-10-0-30-20 or 0-10-0-30-30

yeah a bunker build……
haviz posts useful and deep as always

Do you even understand that he takes different water traits than you would normally take with 3 cantrips? Complain more how ele is bad because you basically run bunker spec with 3 stunbreakers and zerker gear.

I never said dagger/focus does more damage than dagger/dagger.I just said both weapons have SIMILAR damage( as in dagger/focus dps = dagger/dagger dps)

I’ve been trying to show you and everyone else that the dagger off hand fire/earth skills do not give dagger/dagger a dps advantage over dagger/focus.

The real value in focus is the ability to only go into water attunment when you need to heal, and not for putting up an aura for zephyrs boon. Focus is good because you can use earth attunment to safely rez team members, and prevent yourself from being spiked down.The only thing dagger off hand really offers on boss fights is a 1.5k heal and cleanse on a 40 second cool down.But even the cleanse in focus is better it removes 3 debuffs on a 25 second cool down.Finally that you get access to swirling winds which works on a majority of projectile attacks.

If you need cc on trash then take dagger offhand or knockdowns.

I’m pretty sure swirling winds works on all the stuff you listed except the robot fist attack.But that’s only on one person and you can just dodge it anyway.I know for sure it works on the rapid fire attacks golems do because.I’ll solo cm at some point this weekend to be sure.