Guild Wars 2

Aloha from Hawaii!

So, I’ve got a level 14 ele that I’m working on, and I got to thinking about a build based on the water #1 staff skill: an ele that does a LOT of regen/healing. You’d start putting points into Water up to idk, 20, then 30 into Arcane, 10 into Air, and then last 10 to finish up Water.

I got this idea from a Warrior build called Save Adrenaline, where you use Healing Signet and Adrenal Health to keep a constant health regen going.

So, I’ve been playing mostly with myself (ha ha), and sometimes with my gf or a small group. No one is very good, and we’re just doing map exploration and world/local events. I really like to get into the fray, and I was thinking if there way a way to play an ele that sorta stays up close to the action and has a lot of active health regen. I especially find myself needing a lot of healing when I’m alone. I’m not very good at kiting or doing AoE attacks on moving targets wile staying far away from them. I AM pretty good at evading attacks in a small area by dodging. So anyway, I put this build together with the idea that the “primary” attunement would be Water, while using others of course for combos and other abilities.

The prime idea of the build is for it to be self sufficient, by way of constantly healing itself… through skills, abilities, and traits. I am obviously still very new to ele, so I really don’t know if this build is viable at all (aside from the “PvE is stupid easy so anything is viable” argument).

I had a hard time with the Water traits to choose. I started with picking utility skills, ones that would let you avoid damage and/or heal. I found cantrips to be the way to go, and by chance picked 3. Clearly, the water tree has a lot of good traits for what I’m trying to do, so I went with Cantrip Mastery and Soothing Disruption. However, Piercing Shards and Soothing Wave also look very tasty. In Arcane adept I chose blasting staff since we’re using a staff, but Renewing Stamina looks great. Unfortunately, while you’re leveling, if you don’t have a lot of precision yet, you won’t crit much, so that seems like a skill only to take later on when you’ve got full zerker gear. As for the last 10pts, I put it into air to get more precision and to get a skill that would help when you’re in any attenuation.

Also, please take a look at the runes/sigils/whatnot I chose for gear. IDK much about that stuff yet, but I chose what I thought made sense.

I’ve read a lot about builds and can’t seem to decide on one. I read some guides, and Neko pointed me to his, but made adjustments due to balancing patches and ended up suggesting this build, saying the first 20 into Arcane, then 15 into water, and then wherever i want from there.

So, what do you guys think? What won’t work about this? Is the trait point assignment order I mentioned (20Water -> 30Arcane -> 10Air -> 10Water) a good way to go? Will this work for leveling, mostly just PvE map explore solo or in a small inexperienced group? What about Neko’s suggested build?

Thanks for looking/posting!!!!

Also, when I say “no one is very good”, i mean that we’re all beginners, but I have a 67 warrior and have played MMOs before. I can dodge and actively change attunements, so I’m not a bad player.

That’s actually pretty close to the classic bunker ele setup.

Sadly, you won’t get anywhere by autoattacking on an ele, nor will you have any degree of success in a single attunement. Especially water staff #1 is underpowered, the heal radius is too small and the heal itself is too weak to merit casting it ever.

I also recommend changing your runes and sigils, you currently have ones that are horribly underpowered. Anything on kill is mediocre at best, and the 6 on vampirism is sort of useless, as is the 2 (the 6 doesn’t even proc soothing disruption). If you really want those 2 and 4 bonuses, though, I suggest splashing 2 runes of the water for the extra healpow and boon duration, both of which would be of benefit to your build.

Water #1 is really not very good healing…
If you are having a bit of problems staying alive I’d suggest going arcane in the first 10 for Renewing Stamina.
For team support, you’ll do better dropping appropriate fields and making sure your teammates know to drop finishers on them (or drop one yourself by putting arcane blast on your skill bar).

You wont get a ton of healing out of spamming 1 and you will never kill anything (or it will take you a stupid amount of time to do so). Ele healing is more from water traits/regen on attunement swap and blasting water fields. Eruption > swap water attunement > geyser > arcane blast+brilliance is a huge burst heal and you dont have to spec specifically for it or stack a ton of healing power (if youre quick you can use flame axe 2 for another blast finisher but its a lot of effort)

Your spec isnt bad either but youre better off taking cleansing water instead of soothing disruption, and id say put your last 10 points in earth instead of air, if youre going to be up close anyway stone splinters is a better damage bonus. Arcane brilliance, blast, armor of earth and lightning flash is what I run a lot when using staff, though the other 2 cantrips have their uses too. Boon duration runes like someone said are a nice touch to get more out of the regen you can give out, but be aware that in about a month most of the rune sets will change so dont blow money on expensive ones.

Although if you hit 80 and only want to do dungeons then all of this doesnt matter because the only stat that matters in those is dps, but staff ele healing is still pretty good in open world pve and wvw

Okay, it sounds like this build is just going to be too slow and ineffective for me. So, I’ve asked one and all to make some suggestions and see if Neko’s suggested Auramancer is good. I’ve started a new thread here, if you all can chime in and help out. Thanks!