How can i help my teammates in fractal?
You can help (read “carry”) your teammates (only if they are not an experienced Group), switching from the top DPS staff build to
A
X/X/X/6/6 classic build with defensive equip and absolutely a FOCUS offhand.
You can:
Clean condition and heal with evasive arcana/water attunement.
Ress people with focus earth 4,5, with arcane shield, mistform.
Absorb projectiles in a big area with air4.
Chill your opponent with water4
Remove defiant stacks with water5.
Stack might with fire 4. scepter fire 2-3, evasive arcana earth, earth4
Also hitting with icebow 5 when boss have no defiant for a long stun.
But this is only needed if your Group is struggling.
What people expect from an ele is usually only DPS, and might.
A PvE player is supposed to avoid a 1-2 second 1 shotting aoe.
A WWW player is considered uncapable of avoiding a 5,75 second aoe for half his health.
Sandstorm from glyph of storms is good against groups of trash. You get blind and decent damage. Persisting flames with s/d is easy perma party fury. Lightning hammer is more aoe blind, good damage and blast finishers. It’s situational, but you can use magnetic aura and stand between an ally and the projectile aimed at them. Yes, deep freeze on certain bosses is nice, and ice storm deals nice damage against a few of them. It’s been awhile since I tried it, but the earth elemental might absorb projectiles from Old Tom.
There are plenty of things eles can do to make life easier while still being glass. People probably won’t be looking for them or expecting them from you until you make a habit of doing them though. If we’re talking about pugs, they probably won’t care so long as you deal damage and don’t die.
I run 6/6/0/0/2 and usually I swap my utilities depending on the fractal I am on.
Glyph of Storms is very useful on earth attunement if your team needs an AoE blind for trash. Glyph of Elemental Power on air attunement is useful for boss fractals. The weakness combined with protection on Hammer Guardian gives your team a lot of damage mitigation. Dropping an ice bow for corner for #4 with LoS or even ice bow #5 a boss.
For Elite you have FGS which helps you and another teammate. You can also use Glyph of Elementals which gives a boost in DPS or you can roll an earth elemental to tank hits for your team.
For pugging Fractals, I use:
0/30/0/10/30
S/F, Runes of Strength, Sigil of Battle/Air
Ether Renewal
Lightning Flash, Mist Form, Conjure Frost Bow
Conjure Fiery Greatsword/Glyph of Elementals
0/10/0/30/30 Staff if it’s a rough group
Basically DPS, might stacking, utility and some self survival when you can — Condition removal/healing and CC when it’s needed.
The best build for fractals is probably DeKeyz’s dagger/focus build, described in the sticky above (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-DPS-Elementalist-for-PvE/first ). I highly recommend watching her video guides on each fractal— she spells out exactly what you need to do for pretty much every fight.