Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Wolfaen.9461

Wolfaen.9461

Hey,

I am just curious if D/D elementalist are beneficial to GvG fights around 20v20 to 30v30. I joined a WvW guild that runs GvG recently and they instantly had me switch to staff and prefer all their elementalist to run staff. I know staff ele’s have static field, AoE heals, massive AoE Damage, and don’t have to be up close to do anything, but I strongly prefer the D/D playstyle over staff. Are there any elementalist out there that can shed some knowledge about the benefits of a D/D elementalist in a larger small scale battle?

[Wolf] Wolfaen
Elementalist | Ranger | JQ

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: emikochan.8504

emikochan.8504

I’ve seen videos of d/d being effective in gvg on youtube, but I have no idea if that was just because they were more skilled.

Welcome to my world – http://emikochan13.wordpress.com

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Quick Mouse.7635

Quick Mouse.7635

Aura share is pretty strong.

Tactical Fury [TF] – Late NA/early OCX driver (SoS)
Spirit of Faith [HOPE] – RIP

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Thrashbarg.9820

Thrashbarg.9820

The problem with D/D in a GvG setting is, with the current meta anyway, you’ll have to get right into the “kill zone” to do any damage, and you don’t have the inherent mitigation of a warrior or guardian (as soon as your boons are stripped, which they will be, you’re a low hp light armor user all of a sudden, no matter your stats).

It worked a lot better when you could mist>heal, but now there is basically no margin for error.

For GvG static field and water fields are better than anything D/D can bring to the table. You can aura share as a staff user too (arguably better, since shocking aura is countered by stability and magnetic aura reflects a lot of incoming damage in a zerg v. zerg situation).

D/D is best in very small scale fights and large uncoordinated zergs. It can be made to work in GvG but most guilds probably aren’t cool with people playing sub-optimal team builds if they are really into the GvG thing.

Hats off to all the ones who stood before me, and taught a fool to ride.

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: BlackBeard.2873

BlackBeard.2873

You pretty much hit the nail on the head already. Static field alone is ridiculously good in GvG, and your water fields are great. The control you bring and fields you put up with staff is already way greater than anything D/D has to offer. The damage you can output is just bonus. Also, staff survives a million times better by just hanging back out of the killzone.

D/D specializes in skirmishes outputting some aoe-damage while tanking pretty heavily. However, as the fight size grows, D/D becomes nothing more than a ghost that passes among enemy lines just healing to stay alive (and doing little else). D/D’s best usage would be to stack might before engaging.

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: innocent ouarior.1954

innocent ouarior.1954

D/D with Cond duration gear, quick glyph and Elemental Power in Air can provide a large amount of AoE Weakness but besides, yeah, most GvG I’v seen were running max 1 Elem for Static Field.

Right now what I’v seen on (RIP) T1 were blobs of guardian/necros with some warriors and a couple of Mesmers.

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: virtue.7235

virtue.7235

well here are a few D/D eles in GvG and WvW. i know a lot of guilds use at least 1 D/D in organized GvG.

RG (Top GvG guild atm) – usual run 2
https://www.youtube.com/user/IntigoGW2
https://www.youtube.com/user/Arkanikk

and shameless plug
[Agg] (One of the top GvG guilds NA) – usually run 1
https://www.youtube.com/user/SeraneGW2

but yeah a lot of guilds prefer eles to run staff which is understandable because staff is a great weapon for wvw, but is having 4 staff eles a waste in 20v20? well that depends on the guild and its play style

Serane – D/D Elementalist [Agg]
[Agg] WvW – http://www.youtube.com/user/SeraneGW2
Server? We move a lot.

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Contiguous.1345

Contiguous.1345

I play D/D Ele in a guild. Understandably, I get a lot of pressure from the more hardcore members to swap to staff.
Selfish of me – but it ain’t going to happen.

The staff weapon is way too slow and combined with a lot of ground target skills it’s slow AND clumsy. When protected by melee, it’s OK but if it gets caught alone and focussed it’s dead. And that happens all too easily in a fast-moving fight. Especially if you’re actually TRYING to stay around the edge.

What I do find is that with appropriate condition-removal, I can keep moving and dodging through a fight in such a way that I take surprisingly little damage. At the same time, the offensive capabilities with attunement swapping sigils and traits do a lot of damage.
My biggest problem is picking up all the loot bags as they drop. :P

The D/D Ele has one particular skill ‘Churning Earth’, which is truly devastating to a tight group of enemies. Played right, it’s very difficult to counter despite being a slow, channelled cast. For that alone, I think a D/D deserves a place.

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Wolfaen.9461

Wolfaen.9461

I play D/D Ele in a guild. Understandably, I get a lot of pressure from the more hardcore members to swap to staff.
Selfish of me – but it ain’t going to happen.

The staff weapon is way too slow and combined with a lot of ground target skills it’s slow AND clumsy. When protected by melee, it’s OK but if it gets caught alone and focussed it’s dead. And that happens all too easily in a fast-moving fight. Especially if you’re actually TRYING to stay around the edge.

What I do find is that with appropriate condition-removal, I can keep moving and dodging through a fight in such a way that I take surprisingly little damage. At the same time, the offensive capabilities with attunement swapping sigils and traits do a lot of damage.
My biggest problem is picking up all the loot bags as they drop. :P

The D/D Ele has one particular skill ‘Churning Earth’, which is truly devastating to a tight group of enemies. Played right, it’s very difficult to counter despite being a slow, channelled cast. For that alone, I think a D/D deserves a place.

If you don’t mind me asking, how do you gear yourself for GvG as D/D? Do you run full PVT?

[Wolf] Wolfaen
Elementalist | Ranger | JQ

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Sabull.5670

Sabull.5670

Heya, we in Red Guard been prolly one of the biggest users and abusers of elementalists in higher level organised combat for long time. Think one time we had 8 elementalists in 20v20 GvG once.
Unfortunately the wvw meta is constantly moving towards less skilled guardian&warrior retaliation stacks. This puts DD eles in a hard place, but DD still works as a poke and prod burst dps (and burst support), which has always been its true role. Hitting those key abilities and bursts, from the flanks (which you can see exellent showcaseing from /IntigoGW2, like linked above)

However 20v20+ you want to have that minimum 2-3 staff eles ( unless it’s a facerolling guardian blob). So if there is extra eles outside of the mandatory staffies, they might aswell be daggers. Aslong as they know their kitten, fully!

[TA]

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Israel.7056

Israel.7056

Could try a super tanky cc resist build and see if that works.

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Contiguous.1345

Contiguous.1345

If you don’t mind me asking, how do you gear yourself for GvG as D/D? Do you run full PVT?

Basically, I went for as much toughness, vitality and healing power as I could get without completely destroying my ability to hit anything.
It’s really a cheap variant of
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-D-D-ele-5-12-12/first

Daggers: Cleric with Bloodlust (swap to intelligence on full stacks) and Hydromancer.
Armour: Knight’s with 3 Water 3 Balthazar.
Trinkets – started out with Shaman and a mix of Emerald, Sapphire and Beryl. Gradually replacing with lower HP higher Power ascended versions as I get better at staying alive.

I find Healing Power combined with Signet of Restoration a very effective way to survive melee fights.

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: innocent ouarior.1954

innocent ouarior.1954

D/D is good for soloing supply camps and ganking Dolyaks. In big group fights Elem = Static FIeld and D/D doesnt have that.

If you ever find a minmaxing guild that takes an Elem (they shouldnt) at least do the only usefull thing you can.

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Strang.8170

Strang.8170

Aurasharing with protection on auras is rather beneficial for your melee train, and if you can spare 10 in air you´ll get swiftness and fury too.

So what role does d/d fill in a guild group? None of them and all of them.
-Aoe protection with really high uptime for melee blob, about as good as guardian can buff.
-Respectable burst damage with certain combos, not as good output as warriors can do, but near enough.
-Aoe cleansing, not as good as warrior/guardian can bring, but still pretty darn good.
-Aoe cc, not as good as staff ele, or some other professions, but good amount none the less
-Aoe healing, not as good as others can achieve, but still a respectable amounts without needing to sacrifice anything.
-Might, regeneration and other buffs, not as good as other professions can do, but you´ll still be giving away them a lot.
-Aoe swifntess and fury with really high uptime, about as mcuh as other professions can offer.

So basicly they are bit of an all around melee support.

Personaly i run 0/10/10/30/20 with cavaliers, knights, soldiers mix d/d whenever i feel we already have enough staff eles (3-4).
Anyone saying eles in general don´t belong to organised teams is delusional, staff ele is one of the strongest team players in game.

Dr.Strang E – Nameless veterans (NV) – Gandara (EU)
[ ex- Piken Square (EU), ex- Aurora Glade (EU) ]

Is there a place for D/D in GvG?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Kodiak.3281

Kodiak.3281

The problem with D/D in a GvG setting is, with the current meta anyway, you’ll have to get right into the “kill zone” to do any damage, and you don’t have the inherent mitigation of a warrior or guardian (as soon as your boons are stripped, which they will be, you’re a low hp light armor user all of a sudden, no matter your stats).

It worked a lot better when you could mist>heal, but now there is basically no margin for error.

For GvG static field and water fields are better than anything D/D can bring to the table. You can aura share as a staff user too (arguably better, since shocking aura is countered by stability and magnetic aura reflects a lot of incoming damage in a zerg v. zerg situation).

D/D is best in very small scale fights and large uncoordinated zergs. It can be made to work in GvG but most guilds probably aren’t cool with people playing sub-optimal team builds if they are really into the GvG thing.

If the argument against Shocking Aura is Stability isn’t that an argument against Static Field as well?

Kodiak X – Blackgate