Guild Wars 2

I need some advice for gearing up. To preface:

My main (Guardian lv 80) is running full P/V/T even weapons, ascended trinkets, etc.
I find that he’s relatively balanced and i like that tanky playstyle for him. I don’t feel pigeonholed into a damage-centric role which is great for Guardian class because i like to switch up weapon sets a lot as the combat in this game gets very stale, very quickly.

Now, with my Elementalist, i don’t want to go the same route, but i would like to be relatively viable with all weapon sets and flexible enough to mess around with traits, within reason, to still remain as such. I thought about having 2 gear setups, one being geared toward damage, one being geared towards a more supportive role, but then i think, that’s a lot of inventory / bank space wasted as well as all the effort to get the different weapon sets of multiple stat denominations.

I don’t really care to specialize into D/D.

Anyone have any advice before i blow a lot of gold / karma / dungeon tokens gearing up THIS alt?

From what I understand, short answer, vit is good for fractals. Outside of that you want enough of it (valkyrie jewels etc) to take enough burst and be able to get away. Outside of that you want power/precision/toughness/crit dmg (so PPT mostly). You kind of adjust it to personal taste and need.

Hard to really give specific advice cuz dunno what you intend to do with your ele, weapon, etc.

Thanks for the advice, Zen.

So for ele i was thinking Power / Precision / Vit (if that even exists) or Power / Vit / Cond Dmg. I’m not sure about anything though at the moment.

Like i said, my objective is to be pretty flexible with traits and weapon options, while still being viable without pigeon-holing myself into a certain combination like D/D which i don’t think is all that fun to play.

Anyone else have any advice to share.

lothefallen.7081:

Thanks for the advice, Zen.

So for ele i was thinking Power / Precision / Vit (if that even exists) or Power / Vit / Cond Dmg. I’m not sure about anything though at the moment.

Like i said, my objective is to be pretty flexible with traits and weapon options, while still being viable without pigeon-holing myself into a certain combination like D/D which i don’t think is all that fun to play.

Anyone else have any advice to share.

Power/Pre/Vit? Psh, I wish…

I’m going for PVT weapons/armor and Berserker’s trinkets. If I feel like I don’t need as much survivablity, I’ll slowly be switching out PVT stuff for more Berserker’s stuff. That way I can tweak things as I see fit, while noticing increases in damage/decreases in survivability.

I personally prioritize toughness over vitality typically. Vitality shines more when you’re facing a lot of condition dmg (ignores armour) or burst (gives you more time to react). When you get more comfortable/familiar with ele, you can sacrifice vitality to buff up stats like prec, tough, crit dmg, etc. PVT (soldier’s) and PPT (knight’s) gear are both good choices. PVT would probably be the better choice when learning the class because it gives you more of a margin of error. You can then use lower end accessories (cheaply bought off the trading post) to sort of personalize your build through combinations of accessories + jewels (berserker, knight, valkyrie, etc). From there you can swap out gear in accordance to your play style, the PVT gives you a solid somewhat durable base to start from.

Personally I have no problem with versatility in WvW w/ the standard 0/10/0/30/30 d/d build. I can always switch to staff, swap trait in arcana for increased staff AoE, and spam away while still having the benefits of EA water roll heal and the ability to take quite a few hits. If you’re planning to avoid the d/d aspect and stick to a more ranged approach (scepter/staff) then you can afford to trade off quite a bit of survivability for dmg output. I find the condition dmg options available to the ele are somewhat lackluster and thus don’t bother with condition dmg stacking, leaving them as a sort of small additional dmg, and focus more on upfront delivery (power, prec, +crit dmg)

My current build is glass berserker’s + ruby orbs (will get divinity now that I’m doing pve again).

My favorite thing to do is aoe burst, and I don’t think any other class can aoe and burst as good as an ele.

10/30/0/15/15 or 10/25/0/15/20 as traits, I feel kinda out of place when I think of all the 0/10/0/30/30 flavor of the month players, but I honestly fail to see how they even do any damage with that build.

Don’t spend too much into one or two trait lines, spread the points.
Different weapons have different skills (really!) and you’re going to use different attunes for certain roles depending on your weapon. If you focus on one, you’re blocking yourself from any bonuses from other attunes if you’re not using it with your current weapon.

For example, I use a 20/20/0/20/10. Reduces Fire, Air, Water CDs, extra damage with Fire, support skills or damage with Air, healing with Water. Arcana is for either support or damage.

The key is having points where you can switch traits depending on your weapon. For D/D for example, since I switch attunes at nearly every possible CD, I don’t benefit much from the extra 10% damage in fire, so I pick either 5% damage to burning foes or extra conjured uses (For GS) or burning on critical hits, etc.
For Air I have the option of picking Zephyr’s Boon if I’m D/D, or Glyph Mastery for Staff/Scepter (I use Glyph of Storms for even more AoEs).
For Water it’s Cantrips all the way.
Arcana is either Arcane Mastery for more S/D Might Combos, Elemental Attunement or Renewing Stamina for D/D.

I’d like to get 20 in Arcana because Blasting Staff is awesome for WvW, but when I use S/D or D/D I don’t think I have good choices to compensate whatever I’ve give up for these 10 extra points. Vigorous Scepter and Windborne Dagger seems to be bugged, maybe that’s why.

And just as a comment, I also have a PVT Guardian (really really tanky) and I enjoy fighting 5~10+ mobs at once.
My Elementalist had only Berserker/Valkyrie gear when I began (1800ish armor, 15k health) and the damage was great, but I had a hard time fighting many mobs at once depending on my CDs.
Then I picked a full PVT set (the same as my Guardian) and my damage decreased, but I went to 2500 Armor and 19k health, but I still don’t feel the same as the Guardian.

The constant Guardian’s passive healing plus retaliation makes wonders when killing stuff, and Elementalists lack that (you gotta switch to Water to get the regen), so if you’re planning on getting that to “tank” as you do with your Guardian, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Instead learn how to never get hit and to play safer, and pick a Berserker/Valkyrie gear and enjoy having a 40%+ base crit chance at 80%+ crit damage with tons of Power in WvW/Dungeons.