Guild Wars 2

Right now, I’m very bored with the usual fire/air elementalist and would like to try something new. I know that Earth is mainly used for protection and the toughness buffs it provides, and is more of a choice for WvW, rather than PvE.

However, my question is, if the proper build was made, can bleeds compare to burning damage as far as condi goes? If not, how much damage is lost?

As a side note, I’m currently using staff, although I’ve heard scepter is better for stacking bleeds.

psst it´s my success secret ^^.

S/F condi ele. You stay earth while waiting on CD´s and stack bleeds.
But damage does not compare to burn. You need both to do enough damage.

Basicaly you trait earth + fire or arcane + tempest.
Shouts support it better then previous arcane skills.
You damage mitigation is good but your regeneration is lower then water ele.
Also condi cleanse without water is lower. You can go earth + water + tempest but for me the boon + damage loss is not acceptable.
I mixed viper/rabid/cele gear with durability rune and changed to earth/arcane/tempest.

Answer is no
not only does it not stack up to as much damage as burning, but also it takes forever and ever to ramp up, so anywhere outside of a raid or high level fractal boss, by the time you’ve stacked up your bleeds, the target was dead a long time ago

Also even in a full bleeding build, with 100% bleed duration and 20% burn duration, signet of fire is better damage than signet of earth.

Anyway the main issue is the ramp up time. In a burning build you can burst stuff down like a zerker, but you can’t do that in a bleed build. Dust storm, for instance, does amazing damage if positioned to hit the target all 6 times (usually only hits 3 times though). But. It takes 26 seconds to do all its damage

For PvE yes pure bleed is way to slow. So reikken is right there is no bleed build for ele.
But as i wrote it adds nicly to a hybrid build with scepter. You can stay in earth for a while using rock barrier and the auto attack but you are eiter a cele ele or use condie equipement or you won´t´recognize earth auto attack damage….
And never expect to condi bomb like a necro.