Guild Wars 2

Folks, I just hit 80 the other night and already had my gear ready for when the time came. I think I have a decent understanding of the class and really loved playing it in PvP and leaving. However, when I jumped into roaming WvW today, I would pretty much just become an instant bag to D/D thieves and rangers. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong but it feels like I have no defenses and they are hitting me like a truck. Is my build wrong or something?

What I have linked below is what I actually have on right now.

Thanks!

[Current D/D Build

i may be wrong but i think u lack toughness

Like, I should change all my trinkets to + toughness?

I should probably say here though a few things which I hope ya’ll understand why I’m trying to learn so much…

I created this character back when GW2 first came out, deleted her, and then quit the game. 8 months later I come back, level a Warrior, Thief, and a Mesmer. None of them have been that much fun even though I do VERY well on the Warrior and the Mesmer. They just bore me…

Anyways, I really want to be able to do well as an Ele because the class plays so much like how I think – completely erratic.

You have too little toughness. 1600 toughness is what I’ve heard is ideal, and can put you at around 2.5-2.6K armor. I’m not sure what the best way to fix this is (I even just made a thread about my own stat problems just now). For trinkets, I’d see if upgrading them to ascended helps if you can stomach doing the fractals. And I’m also not too sure about magi’s weapons to be honest.

Edit:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAoYhcM6cW4wyBf0APAC5fv2JKQ5qJfC-TVCEwARVS1VJ4K9ASVqoVZQu9HAcCAcp+zjHAQAAEAWObGSBonyI-w

I tweaked a few things and these results might be more agreeable. I basically just changed all the trinkets to ascended and gave you cavalier weapons instead of magi’s, but knight’s could work too, as could celestial if you replace one or two of your valkyrie armor with soldier’s or something like that.

In WVW, most roamer are running full zerk (especially the 2class you mentionned.

Since you’re running all-in too, ranger kill you from range before you manage to close range. Thief just strike you from shadow.

I’m running this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAoIhMMqc25gPagOgg440wgmy5tzA-TxBEABS8AAaa/BtU+1neAAOQACqEET1fAA-e
And i roll over every single thief.
I’m not saying this is THE build, but if you complain about dying to fast, it could be an answer
(if you’re wondering about the DPS, i can kill even the most tanky with this, exept good condi engi and PU mesmer but its near obvious ^^)

Ok, based upon what ya’ll have suggested, I went back and made a few more changes which combines some of what ya’ll have said. Can you look at this build and let me know what you think?

[New Build w/Toughness]

Too much ferocity, too little precision. Precision adds more damage overall, until you have 1140 more precision than ferocity. I’d swap all of that valkyrie for knights, and half of that cavalier’s into celestial.

Furthermore, sigil of battle is very strong on ele, i advise you swap one sigil for a battle sigil.

If you’re going solo roaming, swap cleansing wave for regen on crit.

The difference between a good ele and a great one is how he maximizes his defensive utilties. You always have enough defensive traits. For example arcane shield when going hard in the paint or switching to earth for when you expect a hard hit. Utilize shocking aura and the air 2 skill for dd. Practice makes perfect

Gokil.2543:

Too much ferocity, too little precision. Precision adds more damage overall, until you have 1140 more precision than ferocity. I’d swap all of that valkyrie for knights, and half of that cavalier’s into celestial.

Furthermore, sigil of battle is very strong on ele, i advise you swap one sigil for a battle sigil.

If you’re going solo roaming, swap cleansing wave for regen on crit.

Ok, I see what you’re saying but getting celestial gear isn’t an easy task. I put on the build what I had readily available or what I could afford. Until I can get some, what would suggest?

If I change everything to knights, won’t I be taking a huge hit in my health?

Vitality lets you not insta die but it doesn’t help you survive longer in a sustained fight. So basically you need enough vitality to not insta-die from big combos but after that, toughness is going to get you further because it allows your healing to keep up. If you’re getting warn down over time you need more toughness.

If you’re getting insta-nuked then you do need the vitality. But I know you’re not getting insta-nuked because cantrips stop that. Your build also has 300 vitality through traits. You should to drop vitality and add toughness and damage.

The best way to add damage is through power and next best is through precision. Knights is not quite ideal as a set IMO (should be power main) but it does give the stats you need.

Personally I would drop mist form for either arcane shield or cleansing fire. Drop FGS for elemental. Drop sigil of energy for sigil of battle and possibly drop bloodlust for sigil of air.

But the main thing is probably not stats, it’s learning to play (not meant in a condescending way). Thieves are now fairly easy for D/D except for the very best.

You need a mix of resistance and hp in every game and the better your healing the more valuable resistance is in comparison to hp and eles have good healing. You are wearing mostly valks gear and then adding 6 points in water on top of that for more hp. You also have 6 points in both arcana and water giving you great healing but healing compliments resistance better than it compliments hp.

I would take 6 points out of either arcana or water and put it in Earth and take either Diamond Skin or the new anti crit trait. This will give you toughness which will compliment your valks gear hp well, I use valks gear and I know this from experience. Diamond Skin is an underrated trait its not perfect but ppl don’t want to give it its due. It will definitely help in short fights and will mess up the opening move of anyone who is trying to start off with a condition of any sort. Ppl hate having their opening move fail.

The anti crit trait will help against thieves since they have that guaranteed crit out of stealth trait. Or mebbe its a skill I forget. Staying in earth in between fights in case a thief jumps you is no hardship. Once the fight starts you can use the earth gap closer and then switch to fire or air for damage.

I am not an expert in this game but I feel the earth line is underrated. You can get damage modifiers worth +20% along with great defense and various other utilities. Every time I’ve tried to go away from Earth I’ve come back to it.

Investing more than 20 in earth is pointless, every grandmaster trait are bad.
Engaging in earth as DD just break any possibility of opening in DD. You better learn to duel thief and take trait that work every time or not so focused (just in case: lingering element doesnt work with this trait)

To OP, i think your current build is pretty descent, i think the one sayong you have to little preci forgot about perma fury.
Maybe swap one or 2jewel to knight.

Look at this, it could help you to decide:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1li5q3/breakeven_points_of_power_vs_precision_mathtable
(retreive 100 to your IG crit damage)

Again, thanks for all the help folks!

I have been working this build a bit more with what ya’ll have said and I think I’ve come up a final product. It will require that I buy a new set of armor but it’s ok… I don’t like gold…

From what I have so far, the armor is pushing 2800+ so that should help a great deal. I should be able to get a celestial ring tomorrow after the daily.

[Lexi’s Build v4.2]

Not bad. I hope you have WVW’s buff to get the +2K5 HP. With it you should survive near every thing!

One question: does the effet #4 from pack rune work on the wielder ?

That’s a really solid build. Applied fortitude would help a great deal with the lack of vitality, but really nice numbers all around.

And yes Matt, pack works on the wielder.