Guild Wars 2

Ice is my favorite element and ive been wondering about builds for ice, open world, dungeons, fractals and maybe even raids. Any experience with this? Thank you.

Here is an update, thank you everyone for the replies, I never meant I was only going to use ice but I was curious if I could make it important in my build and rotations. I apologize if this wasn’t clear enough.

Ryou.2398:

Ice is my favorite element and ive been wondering about builds for ice, open world, dungeons, fractals and maybe even raids. Any experience with this? Thank you.

There’s not ice element. There’s water element aka water magic. Ice is just an extension of it. Back at GW1 we also had water magic but it wasn’t weak in terms of dealing damage. But back at GW1 you could build a dps water ele…you can’t do such beautiful thing here. Although the devs kept some cool capabilities of water magic like applying vulnerability and chill, they decided to transform the elementalist in a “jack-of-all-trades”, which ultimately failed.

Guizao.4167:

Ryou.2398:

Ice is my favorite element and ive been wondering about builds for ice, open world, dungeons, fractals and maybe even raids. Any experience with this? Thank you.

There’s not ice element. There’s water element aka water magic. Ice is just an extension of it. Back at GW1 we also had water magic but it wasn’t weak in terms of dealing damage. But back at GW1 you could build a dps water ele…you can’t do such beautiful thing here. Although the devs kept some cool capabilities of water magic like applying vulnerability and chill, they decided to transform the elementalist in a “jack-of-all-trades”, which ultimately failed.

sceptor/focus was mostly ice dps though. I wouldnt call it a simple extension to water even staff and daggers have some ice dps as well, thats like saying earth cant do good condi dps because it has defensive stuff.

Ryou.2398:

Guizao.4167:

Ryou.2398:

Ice is my favorite element and ive been wondering about builds for ice, open world, dungeons, fractals and maybe even raids. Any experience with this? Thank you.

There’s not ice element. There’s water element aka water magic. Ice is just an extension of it. Back at GW1 we also had water magic but it wasn’t weak in terms of dealing damage. But back at GW1 you could build a dps water ele…you can’t do such beautiful thing here. Although the devs kept some cool capabilities of water magic like applying vulnerability and chill, they decided to transform the elementalist in a “jack-of-all-trades”, which ultimately failed.

sceptor/focus was mostly ice dps though. I wouldnt call it a simple extension to water even staff and daggers have some ice dps as well, thats like saying earth cant do good condi dps because it has defensive stuff.

Geez no you didn’t get the point. There’s no such thing as ice damage. There are only two kinds of damage: Damage Per Second (DPS) aka raw damage and Damage Over Time (DoT) aka condition damage. Just because Ice Spike does damage it doesn’t mean it’s ice damage. In scepter you have Water Trident, it doesn’t do considerable damage but it does do damage, so is it water damage?
Right now there’s nothing like a reliable water dps build, this is not GW1.

Guizao.4167:

Ryou.2398:

Guizao.4167:

Ryou.2398:

Ice is my favorite element and ive been wondering about builds for ice, open world, dungeons, fractals and maybe even raids. Any experience with this? Thank you.

There’s not ice element. There’s water element aka water magic. Ice is just an extension of it. Back at GW1 we also had water magic but it wasn’t weak in terms of dealing damage. But back at GW1 you could build a dps water ele…you can’t do such beautiful thing here. Although the devs kept some cool capabilities of water magic like applying vulnerability and chill, they decided to transform the elementalist in a “jack-of-all-trades”, which ultimately failed.

sceptor/focus was mostly ice dps though. I wouldnt call it a simple extension to water even staff and daggers have some ice dps as well, thats like saying earth cant do good condi dps because it has defensive stuff.

Geez no you didn’t get the point. There’s no such thing as ice damage. There are only two kinds of damage: Damage Per Second (DPS) aka raw damage and Damage Over Time (DoT) aka condition damage. Just because Ice Spike does damage it doesn’t mean it’s ice damage. In scepter you have Water Trident, it doesn’t do considerable damage but it does do damage, so is it water damage?
Right now there’s nothing like a reliable water dps build, this is not GW1.

So? I asked about a build that uses the ice abilities for dps it shouldnt matter if dps comes from ice or not, thanks I guess.

There is just a good bursting dps for water attunement.

You can use staff water 2, with piercing shards and aquamancers training and you will have a chunk of ice that does pretty good damage. but with staff you cant compete with fire 2 in terms of dps.

For ice dps i really liked reaper’s deathly chill, when chill did damage before the change.

If you’re planning to do dungeons/fractals/raids while sticking to only one attunement I wish you protection from the flames of your party members.

Frostbow was pretty much this until it got nerfed into oblivion. I know a lot of ice-based abilities got buffed on the scepter in a somewhat recent patch, you could check those out.

Guizao.4167:

Ryou.2398:

Guizao.4167:

Ryou.2398:

Ice is my favorite element and ive been wondering about builds for ice, open world, dungeons, fractals and maybe even raids. Any experience with this? Thank you.

There’s not ice element. There’s water element aka water magic. Ice is just an extension of it. Back at GW1 we also had water magic but it wasn’t weak in terms of dealing damage. But back at GW1 you could build a dps water ele…you can’t do such beautiful thing here. Although the devs kept some cool capabilities of water magic like applying vulnerability and chill, they decided to transform the elementalist in a “jack-of-all-trades”, which ultimately failed.

sceptor/focus was mostly ice dps though. I wouldnt call it a simple extension to water even staff and daggers have some ice dps as well, thats like saying earth cant do good condi dps because it has defensive stuff.

Geez no you didn’t get the point. There’s no such thing as ice damage. There are only two kinds of damage: Damage Per Second (DPS) aka raw damage and Damage Over Time (DoT) aka condition damage. Just because Ice Spike does damage it doesn’t mean it’s ice damage. In scepter you have Water Trident, it doesn’t do considerable damage but it does do damage, so is it water damage?
Right now there’s nothing like a reliable water dps build, this is not GW1.

well that would very much depend on your point of view, if you think like a damage meter then yup your right, but i can understand perfectly what he is referring too, a build that focuses on slowing/freezing as its core gameplay.

for me this would be a build where ice would give heavy cc across all 5 skills, but low dps – you switched to the other elements for dps – the compromise is the low dps and less heals.

ESKan.6782:

If you’re planning to do dungeons/fractals/raids while sticking to only one attunement I wish you protection from the flames of your party members.

Well I wouldn’t focus on only one attunement I’m thinkinf maybe with air and earth or something.

Ryou.2398:

ESKan.6782:

If you’re planning to do dungeons/fractals/raids while sticking to only one attunement I wish you protection from the flames of your party members.

Well I wouldn’t focus on only one attunement I’m thinkinf maybe with air and earth or something.

Personally though, I think ice and water attunement as a whole leans on the weaker side of Ele builds unless you’re specifically talking about support…support read there as HEALING!

Consider that if you like earth and rock/sand skills, you’re looking toward several earth aspects:
-Tanking/taking hits/reflecting projectiles
-Applying cripple/bleed/immobilize which can be very devastating to some builds
-Many combos via projectile/blasts
-Control kind of rolls into cripple/immobilize but this is also a strong aspect alone
-Strong tanking weapons include Focus but not much on the condition side.

Aspects of fire include:
-Damage and burning
-Fire combo fields and might
-Some minor utility like leaps/evades/blinds
-Fire’s tricks are so universal, you pretty much can’t go wrong using any of the weapons except maybe Focus if you want to specialize in these.

Aspects of air are a tad redundant or niche:
-Typically focuses on burst damage with little to no condition damage
-Range and speed utility, usually a quirk but can be used to great effect if used right
-Fury/crits and Swiftness
-Usually also some CC in there too
-Air’s quirkiness requires special attention making it possible to be very good or just redundant damage that fire can also accomplish better which is why all the weapons can be great except maybe less so for staff

As for water:
-Less damage and little to no condition damage, just vulnerability
-Hp recovery and regen
-Chill and sometimes rarely CC
-If you build for healing, you can heal a lot. For anything else other than tanking (which needs to work in conjunction with earth), they all do it better.

Basically, what I’m saying is that Water does healing really good but is penalized in every other aspect because of that healing. I personally wouldn’t object to some of the healing being dialed back for ele to build up other aspects like adding more CC and maybe giving it more tanking front via blocks and such. Or maybe push its damage by introducing Retaliation into the water line.

But that all said, I honestly don’t think there is a good ice dps set-up outside of just conjure weapons…

Scepter main hand has the most ice themed abilities. For the off hand weapon I would recomend dagger as it has more helpfull ice themed abilities than focus. You don’t need condition damage for this.

If you are willing to sacrifice a utility slot however Ice Bow is your best source for ice themed abilities, condition damage and healing.

Now go make a build based around scepters or Ice Bow or both. Please bare in mind that this is not wow and the element of your attacks will never register…so whatever build you make…it will be solely for role play and would most likely be subpar….this is the best Ice Mage build I can devise.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQFAbncMAVOgVYCWPAcYilQAbIAUAOAERgGQCw9tOX3rA

Leo G.4501:

Ryou.2398:

ESKan.6782:

If you’re planning to do dungeons/fractals/raids while sticking to only one attunement I wish you protection from the flames of your party members.

Well I wouldn’t focus on only one attunement I’m thinkinf maybe with air and earth or something.

Personally though, I think ice and water attunement as a whole leans on the weaker side of Ele builds unless you’re specifically talking about support…support read there as HEALING!

Consider that if you like earth and rock/sand skills, you’re looking toward several earth aspects:
-Tanking/taking hits/reflecting projectiles
-Applying cripple/bleed/immobilize which can be very devastating to some builds
-Many combos via projectile/blasts
-Control kind of rolls into cripple/immobilize but this is also a strong aspect alone
-Strong tanking weapons include Focus but not much on the condition side.

Aspects of fire include:
-Damage and burning
-Fire combo fields and might
-Some minor utility like leaps/evades/blinds
-Fire’s tricks are so universal, you pretty much can’t go wrong using any of the weapons except maybe Focus if you want to specialize in these.

Aspects of air are a tad redundant or niche:
-Typically focuses on burst damage with little to no condition damage
-Range and speed utility, usually a quirk but can be used to great effect if used right
-Fury/crits and Swiftness
-Usually also some CC in there too
-Air’s quirkiness requires special attention making it possible to be very good or just redundant damage that fire can also accomplish better which is why all the weapons can be great except maybe less so for staff

As for water:
-Less damage and little to no condition damage, just vulnerability
-Hp recovery and regen
-Chill and sometimes rarely CC
-If you build for healing, you can heal a lot. For anything else other than tanking (which needs to work in conjunction with earth), they all do it better.

Basically, what I’m saying is that Water does healing really good but is penalized in every other aspect because of that healing. I personally wouldn’t object to some of the healing being dialed back for ele to build up other aspects like adding more CC and maybe giving it more tanking front via blocks and such. Or maybe push its damage by introducing Retaliation into the water line.

But that all said, I honestly don’t think there is a good ice dps set-up outside of just conjure weapons…

Hmmm well I really like the cc effects of ice mixed with dps, as long as I can use some in my rotation with air or something ill be happy I think. Thanks for the info.

Jack Skywalker.5674:

Scepter main hand has the most ice themed abilities. For the off hand weapon I would recomend dagger as it has more helpfull ice themed abilities than focus. You don’t need condition damage for this.

If you are willing to sacrifice a utility slot however Ice Bow is your best source for ice themed abilities, condition damage and healing.

Now go make a build based around scepters or Ice Bow or both. Please bare in mind that this is not wow and the element of your attacks will never register…so whatever build you make…it will be solely for role play and would most likely be subpar….this is the best Ice Mage build I can devise.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQFAbncMAVOgVYCWPAcYilQAbIAUAOAERgGQCw9tOX3rA

Thanks allot, I hope it is viable!

“Is there a good ice dps build for pve?”

Simple: NO
Water or like you call it, Ice. Is not supposed to be the DPS Element. Staff = Fire, Dagger = Air, Scepter = Fire/Air
What you try to build is a theme build. I understand that, but in Dungeons, Fractals and Raids you are just giving your team a Handicap. For Roleplay or stuff like that it could be fun. But if you really want to play the three named parts of PvE, be preparred to get flamed a lot. Elementalists have there Role and that is for most parts high DPS. You can adapt to all hitboxes and can play all weapons, aslong you use them right. If you try to be something that you are not supposed to be, people will get mad at you. And you cant blame them for that. We all are playing for Success and nobody wants to get handicaped.

Themistokles.1238:

“Is there a good ice dps build for pve?”

Simple: NO
Water or like you call it, Ice. Is not supposed to be the DPS Element. Staff = Fire, Dagger = Air, Scepter = Fire/Air
What you try to build is a theme build. I understand that, but in Dungeons, Fractals and Raids you are just giving your team a Handicap. For Roleplay or stuff like that it could be fun. But if you really want to play the three named parts of PvE, be preparred to get flamed a lot. Elementalists have there Role and that is for most parts high DPS. You can adapt to all hitboxes and can play all weapons, aslong you use them right. If you try to be something that you are not supposed to be, people will get mad at you. And you cant blame them for that. We all are playing for Success and nobody wants to get handicaped.

Ice isn’t for roleplay, it has cc and dps, I’ve played plenty of rpgs with these uses, and if you read jy other replies you would see I said nothing about only using ice, also yes you can blame them if you aren’t joining meta groups, plenty of people use their own builds, that is why we have an lf g tool to type stuff out for people to see.

Ryou.2398:

Themistokles.1238:

“Is there a good ice dps build for pve?”

Simple: NO
Water or like you call it, Ice. Is not supposed to be the DPS Element. Staff = Fire, Dagger = Air, Scepter = Fire/Air
What you try to build is a theme build. I understand that, but in Dungeons, Fractals and Raids you are just giving your team a Handicap. For Roleplay or stuff like that it could be fun. But if you really want to play the three named parts of PvE, be preparred to get flamed a lot. Elementalists have there Role and that is for most parts high DPS. You can adapt to all hitboxes and can play all weapons, aslong you use them right. If you try to be something that you are not supposed to be, people will get mad at you. And you cant blame them for that. We all are playing for Success and nobody wants to get handicaped.

Ice isn’t for roleplay, it has cc and dps, I’ve played plenty of rpgs with these uses, and if you read jy other replies you would see I said nothing about only using ice, also yes you can blame them if you aren’t joining meta groups, plenty of people use their own builds, that is why we have an lf g tool to type stuff out for people to see.

This is GW2. Unlike WoW and TES Ice gives you no cc and dps! What I made for you is a role play build…because the traits you want on ice do not exist in this game for ice. If you looked closer to the build I made you, you would have seen that all you got is a support build with 1 weapon (ignoring the 1 you can conjure) and themed utilities! (outside of ice bow most of those utilities are actualy good).

So let’s get you straight now…Ice is water in solidified form and this game preceives Ice as a subset of water…therefore all ice/water abilities IN THIS GAME takes AWAY FROM YOUR dps so you can support your teams with mostly heals and boons.

If you want to do dps and cc as an elementalist…then the combos you need to be looking at are fire+earth IN THIS GAME!

Sure, in other RPGs Ice is DPS, but this is GW2. And when you ask for a DPS Build there is no DPS Build with mostly Ice use.
DPS Builds for Elementalist are
Staff – Camping in Fire and only gos to Air if Glyphe and/or Ice Bow are not on CD for DPS boost with Air Overload.
Dagger/X – Uses Fresh Air and is mostly in Air and Fire. Water only for Healspikes.
Scepter/X – Air and Fire
Water is not included in DPS Rotations. Frost Bow is something you can use. If you would have asked the same question without DPS involved. I wouldnt have said something.

Jack Skywalker.5674:

Ryou.2398:

Themistokles.1238:

“Is there a good ice dps build for pve?”

Simple: NO
Water or like you call it, Ice. Is not supposed to be the DPS Element. Staff = Fire, Dagger = Air, Scepter = Fire/Air
What you try to build is a theme build. I understand that, but in Dungeons, Fractals and Raids you are just giving your team a Handicap. For Roleplay or stuff like that it could be fun. But if you really want to play the three named parts of PvE, be preparred to get flamed a lot. Elementalists have there Role and that is for most parts high DPS. You can adapt to all hitboxes and can play all weapons, aslong you use them right. If you try to be something that you are not supposed to be, people will get mad at you. And you cant blame them for that. We all are playing for Success and nobody wants to get handicaped.

Ice isn’t for roleplay, it has cc and dps, I’ve played plenty of rpgs with these uses, and if you read jy other replies you would see I said nothing about only using ice, also yes you can blame them if you aren’t joining meta groups, plenty of people use their own builds, that is why we have an lf g tool to type stuff out for people to see.

This is GW2. Unlike WoW and TES Ice gives you no cc and dps! What I made for you is a role play build…because the traits you want on ice do not exist in this game for ice. If you looked closer to the build I made you, you would have seen that all you got is a support build with 1 weapon (ignoring the 1 you can conjure) and themed utilities! (outside of ice bow most of those utilities are actualy good).

So let’s get you straight now…Ice is water in solidified form and this game preceives Ice as a subset of water…therefore all ice/water abilities IN THIS GAME takes AWAY FROM YOUR dps so you can support your teams with mostly heals and boons.

If you want to do dps and cc as an elementalist…then the combos you need to be looking at are fire+earth IN THIS GAME!

I didnt say it was wow, but how can you not see the effects on ice? You must not use it at all apparently, Ice has cc, it has vulnarability and a few other tools against mobs, what do you mean it doesnt do similar things as in other games? What do you think freezing does? And again who said you cannot make a hybrid of using those ice abilities with others for dps? Just because you have a problem with it doesnt make it true.

And I never meant pure dps, if that wasnt clear then im sorry im perfectly aware that ice has things like cc support mixed with some dps, but I think this is a mentality thing, allot of my guard abilities have dps/support abilities but they are still used in many builds for dps regardless.

Actually ive heard quite a few complaints that people dont know how to use cc very well in this game when it has masssive potential cc is a support style rather you like it or not.

Ryou.2398:

I didnt say it was wow, but how can you not see the effects on ice? You must not use it at all apparently, Ice has cc, it has vulnarability and a few other tools against mobs, what do you mean it doesnt do similar things as in other games? What do you think freezing does? And again who said you cannot make a hybrid of using those ice abilities with others for dps? Just because you have a problem with it doesnt make it true.

And I never meant pure dps, if that wasnt clear then im sorry im perfectly aware that ice has things like cc support mixed with some dps, but I think this is a mentality thing, allot of my guard abilities have dps/support abilities but they are still used in many builds for dps regardless.

Actually ive heard quite a few complaints that people dont know how to use cc very well in this game when it has masssive potential cc is a support style rather you like it or not.

The problem is that even with the strongest possible water/ice build you’d be so low on dps that you’d need 5 water/ice eles to match a single staff-fire ele or lightning dagger ele. And the cc potential? That’s only a problem if you camp a single element and refuse to ever switch. A good ele uses fire or air for dps and switches to other elements when needed for cc, support or utility.

You can create an ice dps build and you can roleplay an ice mage with it. But don’t expect anything near the dps of a meta build. The water section only has a few skills that can compete in terms of dps, and their cooldowns are too long to create a rotation.

BunjiKugashira.9754:

Ryou.2398:

I didnt say it was wow, but how can you not see the effects on ice? You must not use it at all apparently, Ice has cc, it has vulnarability and a few other tools against mobs, what do you mean it doesnt do similar things as in other games? What do you think freezing does? And again who said you cannot make a hybrid of using those ice abilities with others for dps? Just because you have a problem with it doesnt make it true.

And I never meant pure dps, if that wasnt clear then im sorry im perfectly aware that ice has things like cc support mixed with some dps, but I think this is a mentality thing, allot of my guard abilities have dps/support abilities but they are still used in many builds for dps regardless.

Actually ive heard quite a few complaints that people dont know how to use cc very well in this game when it has masssive potential cc is a support style rather you like it or not.

The problem is that even with the strongest possible water/ice build you’d be so low on dps that you’d need 5 water/ice eles to match a single staff-fire ele or lightning dagger ele. And the cc potential? That’s only a problem if you camp a single element and refuse to ever switch. A good ele uses fire or air for dps and switches to other elements when needed for cc, support or utility.

You can create an ice dps build and you can roleplay an ice mage with it. But don’t expect anything near the dps of a meta build. The water section only has a few skills that can compete in terms of dps, and their cooldowns are too long to create a rotation.

I see, I think we where getting communications crossed, I may find some potential in ice dps in some kind of mode though, but I get what your saying now. I guess ill be happy as long as I get to use it but your right about using all 4 elements, I really enjoy switching attunments.

Also on the cooldowns, even with the trait to lower water cooldowns is it that bad?

Yes….water for dps is bad….you usualy just pop appropiate cd’s then switch to the element which has the strongest aa once you are done.

If you want to play around ice combos, then you’re rotation should be staff air 4 pre combat, into earth 1 to initiate,earth 2 because the skill on it has a delay before going off,into staff 4 to set up the ice combo field,then go into fire for burst…by the time you reach fire you’re staff 2 earth skill would have triggered on top the ice field.

Ryou.2398:

Themistokles.1238:

“Is there a good ice dps build for pve?”

Simple: NO
Water or like you call it, Ice. Is not supposed to be the DPS Element. Staff = Fire, Dagger = Air, Scepter = Fire/Air
What you try to build is a theme build. I understand that, but in Dungeons, Fractals and Raids you are just giving your team a Handicap. For Roleplay or stuff like that it could be fun. But if you really want to play the three named parts of PvE, be preparred to get flamed a lot. Elementalists have there Role and that is for most parts high DPS. You can adapt to all hitboxes and can play all weapons, aslong you use them right. If you try to be something that you are not supposed to be, people will get mad at you. And you cant blame them for that. We all are playing for Success and nobody wants to get handicaped.

Ice isn’t for roleplay, it has cc and dps, I’ve played plenty of rpgs with these uses, and if you read jy other replies you would see I said nothing about only using ice, also yes you can blame them if you aren’t joining meta groups, plenty of people use their own builds, that is why we have an lf g tool to type stuff out for people to see.

If you aren’t using Fire in some way, you’re going to have a very hard time getting people to accept your definition of what you are considering a DPS build. Even if you were Fire and Water, and swapping elements, you’re not a very effective DPS build.

Obviously, you’re interested in using water, which is fine, but just be aware of how it’s used and what it’s strengths are.

Obtena.7952:

Ryou.2398:

Themistokles.1238:

“Is there a good ice dps build for pve?”

Simple: NO
Water or like you call it, Ice. Is not supposed to be the DPS Element. Staff = Fire, Dagger = Air, Scepter = Fire/Air
What you try to build is a theme build. I understand that, but in Dungeons, Fractals and Raids you are just giving your team a Handicap. For Roleplay or stuff like that it could be fun. But if you really want to play the three named parts of PvE, be preparred to get flamed a lot. Elementalists have there Role and that is for most parts high DPS. You can adapt to all hitboxes and can play all weapons, aslong you use them right. If you try to be something that you are not supposed to be, people will get mad at you. And you cant blame them for that. We all are playing for Success and nobody wants to get handicaped.

Ice isn’t for roleplay, it has cc and dps, I’ve played plenty of rpgs with these uses, and if you read jy other replies you would see I said nothing about only using ice, also yes you can blame them if you aren’t joining meta groups, plenty of people use their own builds, that is why we have an lf g tool to type stuff out for people to see.

If you aren’t using Fire in some way, you’re going to have a very hard time getting people to accept your definition of what you are considering a DPS build. Even if you were Fire and Water, and swapping elements, you’re not a very effective DPS build.

Obviously, you’re interested in using water, which is fine, but just be aware of how it’s used and what it’s strengths are.

I am new to elementalist and I was reading on metabattle that air is a good dps build. I know it uses the fire trait line but for the most part you’ll be in air. So to say, if you’re not in fire then you’re not dps, is that not correct? Again, I’m new to the profession so still figuring it out.

Currently I’m using the Fresh Air DPS build in dungeons and for map completion. I prefer melee and find using a dagger is a lot of fun.

I do have two questions and I searched the internet for the answers but couldn’t come up with anything.

1) Why is the meta using a warhorn for the Fresh Air DPS build? I understand having access to tempest allows the use of it but why is it better than dagger? For support?

2) Why use the fire trait line when using the Fresh Air DPS build? According to metabattle one should but I’m in fire for a split second then switch back to air. Would arcane be a better dps choice? I saw someone mention that in another thread. And until I get more experience with ele I’m thinking of switching the fire line for earth for more defense. Once I have more experience under my belt then I’ll switch back to the appropriate trait line for dps.

I want to understand the why behind the choices I’m making versus just doing what some other person said.

Thanks!

iczek.9628

1) Why is the meta using a warhorn for the Fresh Air DPS build? I understand having access to tempest allows the use of it but why is it better than dagger? For support?

2) Why use the fire trait line when using the Fresh Air DPS build? According to metabattle one should but I’m in fire for a split second then switch back to air. Would arcane be a better dps choice? I saw someone mention that in another thread. And until I get more experience with ele I’m thinking of switching the fire line for earth for more defense. Once I have more experience under my belt then I’ll switch back to the appropriate trait line for dps.

1. I never felt the need to test out dagger with my tempest. I am unsure how much of a dps lost Ring of fire/Fire Grab is compared to Lightning Orb/Wildfire. Since those are the main dps skills you tend to use for your offhand in pve setting.

2. Fire traits add more dps overall than Arcane. Burning rage 10% to burning targets, Burning precision 33% chance to burn enemy on crit, Pyromancers training 10% dmg in fire. In arcane Bountiful power is the only reliable dps boost and it add 2% dmg per boon.

Q: “Is there a good ice dps build for pve?”
A: Absolutely not. I dare you to join even a level 5 fractal and use straight Water Attunement the entire time, best of luck old chap.

OP is a complete joke.

Stahlic.9458:

Q: “Is there a good ice dps build for pve?”
A: Absolutely not. I dare you to join even a level 5 fractal and use straight Water Attunement the entire time, best of luck old chap.

OP is a complete joke.

Oh the irony considering you just assumed and didnt even read the replies, I never once said only use water.

Hey iczek.
The thing with the Metabattle Build is that it is meant for Dungeons, Fractals or even for Raids. So not really only for Open World PvE. It works great there too, but you can adjust the build for Open World.
Fire is taken for the best DPS Rotation.
When you use Fire Traitline, the CD from Dagger 3 (Burning Speed) is reduced to 10 Seconds and you can use it everytime after you finished Air Overload. Also Wildfire is reduced to 20 Seconds and can be used every second Rotation. That is the best DPS Rotation.
Fire is pure Damage increase.
Arcane Traitline is a Damage loss and is only taken if you have high boon uptime. Mostly with a good Mesmer and Rev in your Team for Raids. But with the Fresh Air Dagger/X Rotation there are normaly not many Boons up so you loose even more Damage.
If you struggle to survive at the start wit Ele, i would take Water over Fire and use something like 2,3,2. You still have good Damage but also your Heals are much more often Available. Only swapping to Water gives you 1.3k Healing.
I dont like Earth in PvE. The Defens is great but the Damage decrease is just to high for my taste.
Thats what i run sometimes:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJBIhdSfJ0fJ20AY2AwhJWaAMhAZA4D6eZ7sjWicQRIGA-ThRBABP8AAA4EAYmSwC1Dc1+jyPKV/JAwBwv9NAe+5nf+5nb6ff+3n/tUA8tFA-e
This is what you can run also. It looses some damage, but is much easyer to play at the start.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJBIhdSfJ0fJWhJ4gJwhJWaAMijQR4HIEIDAfQ3L7md0C-TxRBABAcCAKUHwV7PK/oU9HzUC+wDAAPtABAOA+tvBwzP/8zP/cT/7z/+8vlCgvtAA-e
Here you have much more Regeneration and also great Condi Cleanse.

About the Warhorn.
It gives you so much more then Dagger Offhand. Reflect, Waterfield, High DPS (Lightning Orb/Wildfire).
Dagger is great for comboing your Firefileds, but because of Air Overload (big Lightning Field) it is not that easy to keep up the Damage and also blast your Firefields.

Hope i could help.

To add to what Themistokles has put, learning what your blast combos are and what are water fields can help dramatically with surviving. Using war horn and dagger you can switch from air after an overload to water, press 5 then 3 to create a water field and blast it, switch to fire to continue rotation.

There are also times when you want certain other aspects like invulnerability and projectile mitigation over the support and dps war horn brings. Focus brings this and is in general much better for surviving and you should switch to this when needed. Example being the dredge cart in sorrows embrace path 3.

Don’t be afraid to swap to a different element to use a skill with fresh air, it costs you a lot less than staff to do that.

Ulion.5476:

iczek.9628

1) Why is the meta using a warhorn for the Fresh Air DPS build? I understand having access to tempest allows the use of it but why is it better than dagger? For support?

2) Why use the fire trait line when using the Fresh Air DPS build? According to metabattle one should but I’m in fire for a split second then switch back to air. Would arcane be a better dps choice? I saw someone mention that in another thread. And until I get more experience with ele I’m thinking of switching the fire line for earth for more defense. Once I have more experience under my belt then I’ll switch back to the appropriate trait line for dps.

1. I never felt the need to test out dagger with my tempest. I am unsure how much of a dps lost Ring of fire/Fire Grab is compared to Lightning Orb/Wildfire. Since those are the main dps skills you tend to use for your offhand in pve setting.

2. Fire traits add more dps overall than Arcane. Burning rage 10% to burning targets, Burning precision 33% chance to burn enemy on crit, Pyromancers training 10% dmg in fire. In arcane Bountiful power is the only reliable dps boost and it add 2% dmg per boon.

Thank you for your reply and for explaining why fire is better. Your explanation helped.

Themistokles.1238:

Hey iczek.
The thing with the Metabattle Build is that it is meant for Dungeons, Fractals or even for Raids. So not really only for Open World PvE. It works great there too, but you can adjust the build for Open World.
Fire is taken for the best DPS Rotation.
When you use Fire Traitline, the CD from Dagger 3 (Burning Speed) is reduced to 10 Seconds and you can use it everytime after you finished Air Overload. Also Wildfire is reduced to 20 Seconds and can be used every second Rotation. That is the best DPS Rotation.
Fire is pure Damage increase.
Arcane Traitline is a Damage loss and is only taken if you have high boon uptime. Mostly with a good Mesmer and Rev in your Team for Raids. But with the Fresh Air Dagger/X Rotation there are normaly not many Boons up so you loose even more Damage.
If you struggle to survive at the start wit Ele, i would take Water over Fire and use something like 2,3,2. You still have good Damage but also your Heals are much more often Available. Only swapping to Water gives you 1.3k Healing.
I dont like Earth in PvE. The Defens is great but the Damage decrease is just to high for my taste.
Thats what i run sometimes:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJBIhdSfJ0fJ20AY2AwhJWaAMhAZA4D6eZ7sjWicQRIGA-ThRBABP8AAA4EAYmSwC1Dc1+jyPKV/JAwBwv9NAe+5nf+5nb6ff+3n/tUA8tFA-e
This is what you can run also. It looses some damage, but is much easyer to play at the start.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJBIhdSfJ0fJWhJ4gJwhJWaAMijQR4HIEIDAfQ3L7md0C-TxRBABAcCAKUHwV7PK/oU9HzUC+wDAAPtABAOA+tvBwzP/8zP/cT/7z/+8vlCgvtAA-e
Here you have much more Regeneration and also great Condi Cleanse.

About the Warhorn.
It gives you so much more then Dagger Offhand. Reflect, Waterfield, High DPS (Lightning Orb/Wildfire).
Dagger is great for comboing your Firefileds, but because of Air Overload (big Lightning Field) it is not that easy to keep up the Damage and also blast your Firefields.

Hope i could help.

Yes, your explanation helped. I want to understand what combos to use and what they do. I googled that and came up with a wiki page of ele combos but it didn’t explain in what order to use them and what effect they had. Again, I really want to understand how to play an ele effectively and I believe in order to do that learning the combos is a big part.

I believe once I fully understand the combos it will greatly improve my survivablity and be a great asset to my group in dungeons and fractals(once I start doing them more). I don’t want to take the easy, less effective way out and camp fire staff or dagger air but switching through the different attunements when the situation calls for it.

Is there a guide or site that explains the different combos and how to use them? I did watch a video of fury and might stacking. That will take me some time to master. But are there others sites for combos? Also, when using staff and dagger what skills can I use break the “break bar”?

I really appreciate everyone’s help. And I’m sorry OP, it want my intention to hijack your thread.

So I swapped out my off hand dagger for a warhorn and swapped out the fire line for water and boy was it fun. There were two of us fighting a champ and when we got low on health I swapped to water and, hit 5 then 4 and gave us regen.

I was using warhorn 4 to break the champ’s bar, slowly. It was a good time.

apharma.3741:

To add to what Themistokles has put, learning what your blast combos are and what are water fields can help dramatically with surviving. Using war horn and dagger you can switch from air after an overload to water, press 5 then 3 to create a water field and blast it, switch to fire to continue rotation.

There are also times when you want certain other aspects like invulnerability and projectile mitigation over the support and dps war horn brings. Focus brings this and is in general much better for surviving and you should switch to this when needed. Example being the dredge cart in sorrows embrace path 3.

Don’t be afraid to swap to a different element to use a skill with fresh air, it costs you a lot less than staff to do that.

Yes, this is something I will need to do myself, I want to get some people together and just practice class skill combos.

Hey iczek,
you can run in your Waterfield (WH 5) and use Water 3 Blast Finisher and Earth 4 after that. You will get two additional Area Heals, Protection and Magnetic Aura from it. You should be full Heal again and also have more sustain for some time.
If you need even more Heal you can start with Water 4 before the combo.
There are more Blast Finishers that can work well like Afterblast (Earth Shoud).

Dagger/Warhorn is not that great in breaking Breakbars. You can use Air 4 and Water 4. If you really need to be the one that works at the bar you can use Tornado and skill 3 on CD. But there are other classses that are better in this. We are supposed to deal the highest damage^^

Just fiew ideas:
Only open world full ice tempest build ( i don’t suggest you to take this into dungeons): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJBLhdSfJ00AWhJY9AwhJWeAMhAwC4B4OZvsbWiaQQ4PC-e
Open world NON-tempest kinda-same build http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdhUMophVOw6B0RMQBY0K4GUHnNwDYCKzxAQBA-e
The stats as u prefeer. More dps? berserk/madauder. More tanky? Soldier/knight/wanderer. More healer? Cleric/zealot

For dungeons i recomend you to take one of the “meta” builds, or something that is in the same way of play of your group. I mean, if all your team is meta and wants to oneshot all the mobs, your less damage is not welcomed!

Themistokles.1238:

Hey iczek,
you can run in your Waterfield (WH 5) and use Water 3 Blast Finisher and Earth 4 after that. You will get two additional Area Heals, Protection and Magnetic Aura from it. You should be full Heal again and also have more sustain for some time.
If you need even more Heal you can start with Water 4 before the combo.
There are more Blast Finishers that can work well like Afterblast (Earth Shoud).

Dagger/Warhorn is not that great in breaking Breakbars. You can use Air 4 and Water 4. If you really need to be the one that works at the bar you can use Tornado and skill 3 on CD. But there are other classses that are better in this. We are supposed to deal the highest damage^^

Thanks for the information!

About the break bar, I was concerned others would expect me to greatly contribute to breaking it. It sounds like the only expection for the ele is great dps which I should be able to do with my berserker gear.

Thanks for the tip on using water #5 then #3 followed by earth #4. I’ll put it to use. I’m sure it will be helpful for my party in dungeons.

To the OP. You seem to want a build that is using ice themed skills like Ice Shards and actual skills which include a chill condition as your main way of damage dealing? You talk about using three elements which makes me wonder if you are talking about traits or about attunement usage.
Either way, scepter would be your weapon of choice. Which is, sadly, far inferior to the other weapon choices you could use. You will not get any love from people in dungeon, fractals and especially raids with such a build.

My best advice would be to play your elementalist to the fullest. That includes proper attunement rotations and swapping depending on what the situation requires (CC, healing, slow effects, etc). It also means using water and ice in way they are meant to be used: to apply regen, slow, heal, etc.
Elementalists are elementalists in the end and not some type of fire or ice mages.

iczek.9628:

Themistokles.1238:

Hey iczek,
you can run in your Waterfield (WH 5) and use Water 3 Blast Finisher and Earth 4 after that. You will get two additional Area Heals, Protection and Magnetic Aura from it. You should be full Heal again and also have more sustain for some time.
If you need even more Heal you can start with Water 4 before the combo.
There are more Blast Finishers that can work well like Afterblast (Earth Shoud).

Dagger/Warhorn is not that great in breaking Breakbars. You can use Air 4 and Water 4. If you really need to be the one that works at the bar you can use Tornado and skill 3 on CD. But there are other classses that are better in this. We are supposed to deal the highest damage^^

Thanks for the information!

About the break bar, I was concerned others would expect me to greatly contribute to breaking it. It sounds like the only expection for the ele is great dps which I should be able to do with my berserker gear.

Thanks for the tip on using water #5 then #3 followed by earth #4. I’ll put it to use. I’m sure it will be helpful for my party in dungeons.

People do expect you to contribute to taking off a big chunk of the break bar. Tidal Shard (Warhorn Water 4) and Cyclone (Warhorn Air 4) are perfect for it. You will also be able to chill with Frozen Burst (Dagger Water 3) and immobilize with Magnetic Grasp (Dagger Earth 3). You might be required to use Conjure Frost Bow (Utility) which will allow you and another person who picks up the second bow to use Deep Freeze (Frost Bow 5) which is one of the most powerful CC skills in the game.

Honestly, it would be a huge waste for you not to focus on CC with such a long list of powerful skills.

Henry.5713:

To the OP. You seem to want a build that is using ice themed skills like Ice Shards and actual skills which include a chill condition as your main way of damage dealing? You talk about using three elements which makes me wonder if you are talking about traits or about attunement usage.
Either way, scepter would be your weapon of choice. Which is, sadly, far inferior to the other weapon choices you could use. You will not get any love from people in dungeon, fractals and especially raids with such a build.

My best advice would be to play your elementalist to the fullest. That includes proper attunement rotations and swapping depending on what the situation requires (CC, healing, slow effects, etc). It also means using water and ice in way they are meant to be used: to apply regen, slow, heal, etc.
Elementalists are elementalists in the end and not some type of fire or ice mages.

iczek.9628:

Themistokles.1238:

Hey iczek,
you can run in your Waterfield (WH 5) and use Water 3 Blast Finisher and Earth 4 after that. You will get two additional Area Heals, Protection and Magnetic Aura from it. You should be full Heal again and also have more sustain for some time.
If you need even more Heal you can start with Water 4 before the combo.
There are more Blast Finishers that can work well like Afterblast (Earth Shoud).

Dagger/Warhorn is not that great in breaking Breakbars. You can use Air 4 and Water 4. If you really need to be the one that works at the bar you can use Tornado and skill 3 on CD. But there are other classses that are better in this. We are supposed to deal the highest damage^^

Thanks for the information!

About the break bar, I was concerned others would expect me to greatly contribute to breaking it. It sounds like the only expection for the ele is great dps which I should be able to do with my berserker gear.

Thanks for the tip on using water #5 then #3 followed by earth #4. I’ll put it to use. I’m sure it will be helpful for my party in dungeons.

People do expect you to contribute to taking off a big chunk of the break bar. Tidal Shard (Warhorn Water 4) and Cyclone (Warhorn Air 4) are perfect for it. You will also be able to chill with Frozen Burst (Dagger Water 3) and immobilize with Magnetic Grasp (Dagger Earth 3). You might be required to use Conjure Frost Bow (Utility) which will allow you and another person who picks up the second bow to use Deep Freeze (Frost Bow 5) which is one of the most powerful CC skills in the game.

Honestly, it would be a huge waste for you not to focus on CC with such a long list of powerful skills.

Thanks for the feedback, Henry. It’s confusing when one player implies to focus on dps and not worry about cc and another states to do both dps and cc. I’m willing to do both. I want to play my ele to the fullest.

Thanks for sharing the cc tips. I’ll save this page for future use. I am familiar with frost bow, but should that be slotted in dungeon runs? I was using the Fractal Fresh Air dps build which doesn’t have it slotted.

Henry.5713:

To the OP. You seem to want a build that is using ice themed skills like Ice Shards and actual skills which include a chill condition as your main way of damage dealing? You talk about using three elements which makes me wonder if you are talking about traits or about attunement usage.
Either way, scepter would be your weapon of choice. Which is, sadly, far inferior to the other weapon choices you could use. You will not get any love from people in dungeon, fractals and especially raids with such a build.

My best advice would be to play your elementalist to the fullest. That includes proper attunement rotations and swapping depending on what the situation requires (CC, healing, slow effects, etc). It also means using water and ice in way they are meant to be used: to apply regen, slow, heal, etc.
Elementalists are elementalists in the end and not some type of fire or ice mages.

iczek.9628:

Themistokles.1238:

Hey iczek,
you can run in your Waterfield (WH 5) and use Water 3 Blast Finisher and Earth 4 after that. You will get two additional Area Heals, Protection and Magnetic Aura from it. You should be full Heal again and also have more sustain for some time.
If you need even more Heal you can start with Water 4 before the combo.
There are more Blast Finishers that can work well like Afterblast (Earth Shoud).

Dagger/Warhorn is not that great in breaking Breakbars. You can use Air 4 and Water 4. If you really need to be the one that works at the bar you can use Tornado and skill 3 on CD. But there are other classses that are better in this. We are supposed to deal the highest damage^^

Thanks for the information!

About the break bar, I was concerned others would expect me to greatly contribute to breaking it. It sounds like the only expection for the ele is great dps which I should be able to do with my berserker gear.

Thanks for the tip on using water #5 then #3 followed by earth #4. I’ll put it to use. I’m sure it will be helpful for my party in dungeons.

People do expect you to contribute to taking off a big chunk of the break bar. Tidal Shard (Warhorn Water 4) and Cyclone (Warhorn Air 4) are perfect for it. You will also be able to chill with Frozen Burst (Dagger Water 3) and immobilize with Magnetic Grasp (Dagger Earth 3). You might be required to use Conjure Frost Bow (Utility) which will allow you and another person who picks up the second bow to use Deep Freeze (Frost Bow 5) which is one of the most powerful CC skills in the game.

Honestly, it would be a huge waste for you not to focus on CC with such a long list of powerful skills.

Thank you I will keep this in mind.

Ice themed build with as much dps as I can get into it:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdnMIClMgNNAWPA0RgBKArujJhhAtCuB1RZOGAKAA-ThRBABmpE8hHAAlq/c1+jyP80DAwJAAA-e

Unfortunately your two ice storms have rather long cooldowns, though they do nice damage, and your damage in between in so-so. It’s actually pretty alright damage as far as ranged dps goes, and you can probably do more dps than the average player, but you’ll only pull half as much dps as an optimal melee dps elementalist. Also you have no capacity to self buff might and fury.

It isn’t good, but it can work

Henry.5713:

Elementalists are elementalists in the end and not some type of fire or ice mages.

This hasn’t really been true since the introduction of tempest. There are very good builds that focus mostly on one attunement. The top dps build uses only fire (plus ice bow). The other meta dps build is 85% air 15% fire. The staff heal build is almost entirely water

You’re an elementalist, not an Elsa
There is no good “ice” dos build
That’s the issue with new eles, they think they just have to play one element and think they’re 100% utilized
If you want a dps build then you’ll need earth/fire/lightning
You’re meant to cycle all ele elements, not just one and if you think otherwise then don’t play ele.

reikken.4961:

Henry.5713:

Elementalists are elementalists in the end and not some type of fire or ice mages.

This hasn’t really been true since the introduction of tempest. There are very good builds that focus mostly on one attunement. The top dps build uses only fire (plus ice bow). The other meta dps build is 85% air 15% fire. The staff heal build is almost entirely water

And in WvW if in a zerg you’ll spend about 75% of the time likely in water for heals when doing zerg v zerg fights. While most commanders will want you to be going through other damage dealing and stun based attacks from fire and air the rest of the time… In this regard, focusing on water helps but you still need to find a happy medium between healing and cc and survivability.

sorry, I meant PvE for those 3 builds
raids for the water one

Chasind.3128:

You’re an elementalist, not an Elsa
There is no good “ice” dos build
That’s the issue with new eles, they think they just have to play one element and think they’re 100% utilized
If you want a dps build then you’ll need earth/fire/lightning
You’re meant to cycle all ele elements, not just one and if you think otherwise then don’t play ele.

Facepalm, do people ever read beyond the topic anymore?

Ryou.2398:

Chasind.3128:

You’re an elementalist, not an Elsa
There is no good “ice” dos build
That’s the issue with new eles, they think they just have to play one element and think they’re 100% utilized
If you want a dps build then you’ll need earth/fire/lightning
You’re meant to cycle all ele elements, not just one and if you think otherwise then don’t play ele.

Facepalm, do people ever read beyond the topic anymore?

I was thinking the exact same thing.

in fairness, there are way too many replies to bother reading them all
you could edit the first post if you really wanted people to get the gist of what’s been said already

reikken.4961:

in fairness, there are way too many replies to bother reading them all
you could edit the first post if you really wanted people to get the gist of what’s been said already

It shouldn’t matter in my first message it doeant say I only want to spam ice, yea I guess you can take it that way but only if your assuming. Common sense should tell me that in picking 3, specs not just one.

Anyways I edited it to make it more clear.

If you want to roleplay and still pump out decent damage, run Ice Bow (which uses ice attacks in all attunements), Glyph of (lesser) Elementald to summon ice minions, and flash freeze is pretty good too. Scepter/focus is probably the most viable ice-offensive weapon combo. You can also switch to earth and use obsidian flesh / magnetic surge and just pretend it’s ice, since there is no animation.

I rarely don’t reply on forum, but when I see someone who’s as passion as an “Ice” or Water Elementalist. I have to reply and bro I feel you!

Back in GW1 I was sooooo passionate of being a Good DPS Water Elementalist with a lot of chilling, crowd control. In GW2? Whoever design Ele and whoever approve his idea are completely garbage… at least give us an option to play a theme ele but ohhh no, we need to play their way!

I give up long ago to be a “water ele”, but you can use more water spell, icebow never leave my bar even when they stupidity reduce the dmg. I still rely on Fresh-Air trait and overload air to deal dmg. Basically I stay in Air/Water most of the time.

GW2 completely fail to design CHILL condition and Water spells…. it’s sad, but I still like the overall game package so I continue to play.

I suggest Water/Air/Tempest trait, with Fresh-Air (the other two are up to you, use inscription if you like ice golems). Cleansing Water, Aquamancer Training and Piercing shards (work with ice storm from icebow).

Ice magic works best underwater in this game unfortunately. If you play the underwater content and get used to bursting trident #2 and #3 properly, and can trap enemies to get a good surge of #5 (like trap them against the floor or a wall, sink them with #4, trap them with #3 and detonate the ice wall as you fly through etc.), then yeah you can have a lot of fun with ice magic.

There’s even some tricks you can do with combo fields to generate might or stealth (elementalists can stealth with a smoke field from earth and a leap finisher from water underwater).

Fire magic is pretty meh underwater. Water magic does it all, damage cc and healing. It just takes a bit of skill to land #2 ice orb bursts to get the double-hit from the orb hit and then detonation just after the pass-through for maximum damage. I completed the Trident Master (5,000 kills) achievement messing around with all the trident spells and water was by far my favourite in the end… so yeah, maybe get used to playing underwater?

There’s a few L80 underwater areas out there, I’m not really that familiar with Honor of the Waves but I have a bit of fun in Malchor’s Leap doing the Jinx Isle chain. Just an idea, since there’s a fair bit of “forgotten” content out there..

On land though… ice is meh. It’s all about fire and air really.