The thing about this game is some builds hard counter others. For example, what would be a hard time fighting a necro for us would be easy for a warrior. I have been playing with other classes lately and have started to see how team play really shines to cover your weaknesses.
I have been thinking alot about the roll of an elementalist in a group fight. If I were to play s/d what would my roll be? If I played staff how would my roll change? As a d/d elementalist you have access to good crowd control, decent mobility, and alot of support from switching attunements. Just from my experiences, a d/d elementalists particular roll is group support. Keep in mind, you can spec for some crazy damage with might stacking but you sacrifice alot of survivabilty. If my roll is to support my allies what traits will go about doing that the best? However, you also have to look at 1v1 capabilty. Will these traits help me live?
It is funny you actually are running the exact build my friend discovered in spvp and its incredible. In wvw it isnt as viable and I would opt to go for celestial stats with boon duration runes to increase survivabilty/potential damage output. The stability trait you have is decent, but the survivablity of that build is very low. It will only do well against other glass players and some bunkers. You also have a disadvantage of being stuck in close range with that and ultimately losing out against longbow rangers or necros that chill/fear you. That set up is only recommended if your team mates are built to counter your weaknesses (having a guardian or necro in the party for condi removal or a ranger for better range). Personally, I prefer going condition bunker in wvw as I can stay in the fight longer which allows me to add better support to my allies and provide pretty substantial damage over time (reducing the range on evasive arcana will make this more difficult and I hope it doesn’t make it in the patch.) That being said, with your build I will try and give you advice on how to beat classes that hard counter you.
Mesmers are kittenely overpowered in how easy it is to win a fight by simply spamming phantasms and dodging. The confusion mesmers are even more annoying. The trick, imo, is learning what type of build they are running and when they will burst you with condis/shatter. Once you manage to avoid/kite you want to pressure the mesmer hard. They will spam all their skills to avoid you. Just keep this up until you manage to down them. For condition mesmers, recognize which phantasm is applying the bleeds and kill it. Also, kite out the confusion. For phantasm mesmers, kill all the clones and then go for the real one. For shatter mesmers, avoid the shatter and then pressure him.
Thief is easy to kill in this build, but it is also easy for them to get you. Don’t get caught offguard.
Necromancers are probably going to be your biggest challenge. You have nothing in water so low vitality and no healing power. Please do not go into their marks without stabilty (don’t at all if you can avoid it). Necros like to pop fears when you get to close. Switch to earth as you are closing the gap. Then switch to fire and go ham on them.
A popular set up I have seen for guardians is staff and then a greatsword. It is surprisingly strong too. My best advice is to bait them into using all of their stabilty utilities and whatnot. Just focus on stacking might at this point. I always prefer a guardian in staff then in greatsword. Close the gap and hit him hard then run away when he goes back into his great sword. Rinse and repeat.
Longbow Rangers. Quite honestly your toughest time because they will pick you out in the middle of a fight and pretty much kill you. In a 1v1 scenerio its important to just dodge the knockback give them as little distance as possible and you should be okay.
