Guild Wars 2

So I absolutely love the fast-paced and highly mobile playstyle of D/D elem. However, I ran Ascalon Catacombs story mode for the first time last night and I found myself being relegated to heal duty (threw on a staff and stood in Water Attunement most of the night). This was mostly due to the fact that I couldn’t seem to survive in melee for any amount of time.

Are there any high level elementalists who can speak to the viability of D/D in dungeons? I don’t want to stick with this class if I cannot run dungeons the way I want to with it.

Thanks for your responses!

I use D/D all the time.
My party support usually comes in the form of proc’ing my own combo fields to give them boons, or just attunement switching to give them boons.

as for the fightings, it’s doable. There are a few monsters that are real nasty in melee range, but tbh a lot of the bosses ive had trouble with over my dungeon running use attacks that would hit you at range anyway. There’s probably very few things I would say never to D/D on. Something like icebrood wolves, or well, anything with a leap attack tbh (most wolf monsters) and then some melee bosses like the butcher. Or the forge guy in CoF story.

Tldr; yes you can use D/D and support the party, as well as do fine in dungeons. But pack a staff anyway, because some groups pretty much need you to range them.

You do realise that you did more harm than good by staying mostly in water? You have so much more support than just the heals with staff, and you´re not limited to that, you can aswell do damage while at it.

I hear going with defensive aura/boon juggle builds you can survive quite a bit more than with pure damage appeoach. Also it might mean that you need to adapt another kind of playstyle compared to soloing with D/D, something like get in, burst get out and lose aggro.

Admittedly I did not know that the other attunements (with staff) were of much use. Still, I am not interested in a ranged support / heal role anyway. I am very good (humility aside) with D/D while soloing and I know how to burst n run. However last night even on trash if I RTL in I get one-shotted or nearly one-shotted even on the easy stuff.

Thank you for the input. It does lead me to believe that this may not be the class for me (for dungeon running anyways).

Tenebron.5724:

Admittedly I did not know that the other attunements (with staff) were of much use. Still, I am not interested in a ranged support / heal role anyway. I am very good (humility aside) with D/D while soloing and I know how to burst n run. However last night even on trash if I RTL in I get one-shotted or nearly one-shotted even on the easy stuff.

Thank you for the input. It does lead me to believe that this may not be the class for me (for dungeon running anyways).

That leads me to believe that you went there around level 30 and with heavy damage spec?
But yeah, you will not be a front line fighter with ele. You can hold aggro and in that essence “tank” but that´s done through cc.
One way to succeed with D/D dps role is propably to stand on the sidelines and make sure you only attack mobs that have aggroed somebody else already.
That or be reallykittenquick with knockdowns and shields.

I think too many people tend to blow off scepter dagger too quickly, much like I did my first go round with it. If you force yourself to wear each weapon set for at least a weeks worth of playtime and really look at the abilities and how they interact with each other between the elements you will start to understand why so many like what we like.

D/D is a lot of fun and I do spend some time with it while soloing, but seriously stay away from it in a group.

Your best chances in a group are with defensive and supportive abilities and set up, at least until you know the dungeons better. Each dungeon will work best with a different weapon type as well, so knowing them will do you worlds of good.

I have even found myself with a scepter/focus when my group build called for it.
You need to know what your group is running with, what support and cc, fields and finisher they offer and work from there. Keep in mind as an Elementalist you bring the absolute MOST (out of all the classes) fields and finishers for comboing for your group, playing those and getting good at them will be a HUGE asset to a group.

All in all I think any Elementalist would do best to have every weapon available to them while running dungeons.

I do most of AC playing dual dagger Elementalist, which works pretty well. The thing to remember is to element swap a lot, which gives you a boon each time you swap (I think it might require a trait in Arcane line, though), so when swapping to Earth you gain Protection, to Water you gain Regen etc. These boons are also given to nearby allies, so you can offer good support just by element swapping if you have some other melee in your team as well and you play dual daggers.
I also use the trait that casts a spell upon dodge. So if I dodge while in Water attunement, I heal myself and nearby allies, gotta love that one.xD
But generally I’d recommend going staff in dungeons, unless you know the mobs well enough to know how to survive them at close range. But even using staff remember to element swap a lot, it helps you and your team lots.=P

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elemental_Attunement
Poster above me! ;P

Thanks for all the great input, folks. Most of the D/D input above (traits n such) I am already doing. You all are pretty much confirming what I thought. I think I will just play my Guardian from here on as it probably complements my playstyle better alongside my guildmates. Thanks again!

Definitely up to you, but don’t give it up. My playstyle works very well with the staff…and I am near worthless with D/D. However, my friend is the opposite. He does exceptionally well with D/D with an armour focus on condition damage, he is very valuable in slows, blinds, heals, etc. If it was intended to be a playstyle, we wouldn’t have gotten dual daggers.

Guardians are fantastic at team support, but you can both as d/d ele. You have a group heal that will effect you and any other melee people with you…you have traits to give you extra damage boosts within melee range, and several trait options, and armour types to support this playstyle. Again, my buddy runs this and does a exceptional job dishing out damage, and supporting. (And for non dungeon, he gets 3 different speeds skills for map traversing for the win).