Guild Wars 2

Chaith.8256:

Something 99999% of people don’t consider when looking at lightning Rod: Conjure Earth Shield.

The 3 procs lightning Rod on the 600 range dash

The 4 procs lightning Rod on everyone in a 600 radius with the AoE pull!

Wrecking Ball staff Ele:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhMMKi2zwzBr0ABAW4AwBIBIeFsBSilqDA-TJBFwACuAA12foaZAAPAAA

Hm, I might play with the shield conjure, though it’s always felt waaaay clunky – like the Lightning Hammer, I struggle to use it against human foes.

Couple of questions about what you’ve done with the rest of the build:
I notice you completely lack blast finishers besides Eruption? You’ve got nice power, and high base crit chance from your runes, but will have pretty low fury uptime if you can’t regularly Eruption into a field. Is the cleanse/mobility from ER+LF worth it?
Also, in traits, your Air Major Master is Air Training (X). While I can see this being useful in a conjure build, two of the weapon CC skills are in Air Attunement, so I much prefer to take Aeromancer’s Alacrity (IX) for more frequent access to Static Field and Gust (with Windborne Speed’s condi clear + swiftness coming in useful too).

cheese.4739:

Chaith.8256:

Something 99999% of people don’t consider when looking at lightning Rod: Conjure Earth Shield.

The 3 procs lightning Rod on the 600 range dash

The 4 procs lightning Rod on everyone in a 600 radius with the AoE pull!

Wrecking Ball staff Ele:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhMMKi2zwzBr0ABAW4AwBIBIeFsBSilqDA-TJBFwACuAA12foaZAAPAAA

Hm, I might play with the shield conjure, though it’s always felt waaaay clunky – like the Lightning Hammer, I struggle to use it against human foes.

Couple of questions about what you’ve done with the rest of the build:
I notice you completely lack blast finishers besides Eruption? You’ve got nice power, and high base crit chance from your runes, but will have pretty low fury uptime if you can’t regularly Eruption into a field. Is the cleanse/mobility from ER+LF worth it?
Also, in traits, your Air Major Master is Air Training (X). While I can see this being useful in a conjure build, two of the weapon CC skills are in Air Attunement, so I much prefer to take Aeromancer’s Alacrity (IX) for more frequent access to Static Field and Gust (with Windborne Speed’s condi clear + swiftness coming in useful too).

*Shrug, sure tweak it how you want. I can’t even play Staff Ele competently, don’t look at me, haha.

It’s playing Ele in the downed state. The Grandmaster is not for blasting fury, the Grandmaster is for having long duration Lava Fonts, but more importantly, long duration Lava Tombs.

Chaith.8256:

*Shrug, sure tweak it how you want. I can’t even play Staff Ele competently, don’t look at me, haha.

It’s playing Ele in the downed state. The Grandmaster is not for blasting fury, the Grandmaster is for having long duration Lava Fonts, but more importantly, long duration Lava Tombs.

Yeah see um… I’ve been running something like this for a fair while now, and definitely enjoy it.

You keep your might and fury (and other boons) when you get downed, so I kinda prefer to blast my fields regularly – and also why Runes of Strength are effective, since they significantly increase might duration.
Zerk Staff Ele survivability is low enough that I don’t really see the point in running ER, with its long-channel heal+cleanse, when Brilliance will provide burst healing if fighting on a point (which is the whole point, when running Lava Tomb) as well as might+fury, or a little extra AoE heal, or whatever other combo effect your current field gives you.

Before Lightning Rod was made useful, I put those 2 points into either Earth (for Stone Splinters, which is nice with the tomb) or Arcana (usually for Arcane Mastery – while boons are great, and almost any build with 4+ Arcana should take Elemental Attunement, I really felt that quicker access to Brilliance/Wave/Shield is better for what I was running at the time).
Lightning Rod is now far better than either of those, I feel – not only does it grant damage (and weakness) whenever using CC, the Air GM Minor trait gives some added vulnerability, and the trait line has lovely crit-related stat increases too. Wheeeee.

Hi guys!

I try to run something like this in wvw:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFEQJAoYlcMowhNOwzB8rNQDgRaIIuAEAihlzCNhpAA-TVSAABYcCA4R9HwUSMxDAAATQppcDG9AxqEEp9HIDAzYA-w
(soldier/celestial D/D with Pack runes, 06026 LR build)
Possibly I change too many things at the same time but I cannot really find the right balance between burst, survival and sustain. I know I wont be the best duellist with this build ever but I usually play in a 5-10 large team. I got killed by condies sometimes… sometimes by sheer burst….

I was thinking on using Conjure Earth Shield too. Sometimes I run Tornado and other utilities instead of Cleansing Fire.

Note: My accessories, runes and the armour pieces are basically set. I can change a few but not all of them. I’m poor.

Thank you for any advice!

EDIT: I have guard stacks…

i should have said this earlier but im talking strictly pvp and while its not a terrible trait u cant make a good pvp build with it d/d needs those 30 in arcana and at least 15 in water so no good scepter needs fresh air so u cant take it and if u go zerk staff and put 30 in fire and 30 in air ur survivability is a joke also most conjured weapons suck in pvp so no earth shield or lightning hammer

but if u think u can make a good build with it in pvp let me know i just think its not worth what u have to sacrifice to get it

I only play wvw…

In a zerg fight I play staff 00266.
But in a havock situation I play D/D because I always play together with another ele who likes to play staff. So our group composition is like 2 guardians, 2 elementalist, 1 thief and 1-2 random (ranger-mesmer-necro… depends…)

The traditional D/D is boring for me, heck I played it for a while. It is fun but I want to try something else. Auramancer was the first choice with boon duration runes and food, but it’s still not “fun enough”.

That’s why I ask you for a Lightning Rod D/D build… Sometimes I have too many condi clean with purity sigil and Cleansing Fire and evasive arcana… simetimes I got condibursted down in seconds…. I just cannot find the good balance between cleanse and the others…. The standard 02066 build was so much easier to learn…

So that’s why I seek advice here…

Zuko.7132:

i should have said this earlier but im talking strictly pvp and while its not a terrible trait u cant make a good pvp build with it
[...]
if u go zerk staff and put 30 in fire and 30 in air ur survivability is a joke also most conjured weapons suck in pvp so no earth shield or lightning hammer

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWnMISLD2zA+NAfEGIAwCHAuAJAxrgMQSsUdA-TJBFwACuAAl2foaZAAPAAA

This is what I’m currently running. While I’m *incredibly* squishy, I also deal hueg damage - and a lot of that can be burst, with combos like Ice Spike -> Static Field -> Gust landing very close together on a target.

The Signet is... excellent. I started using it a few weeks before the signet buffs were announced, for the 4s immob, at 1200 range, that wasn’t a projectile, on 30s cooldown; in the patch, it was also given covering bleeds, and had its cooldown reduced to 25s! Wheee!
It’s well worth interrupting a Meteor Shower cast, or pretty much anything else, to pop it on someone next to you just as you’re going down... I do very few stomps these days, but can beat most foes (particularly zerk ones) if I can get them stuck in my Tomb.

It still isn’t a 1v1 build - due to the lack of cleanse, heavy condi is likely to be a death sentence, and most skilled Mesmers and Thieves can stealth/port enough to waste my cooldowns while staying at range - but if I have to, I can take them on with at least a fighting chance. Static Field is an incredible skill to cast on self, followed by Lava Fonts and immobilises to take out that pesky Thief (or often Medi Guard). Don’t forget that Frozen Ground is an unblockable, wide-area chill! Can hold folks at range or in an AoE, and of course will help a lot when you inevitably need to make a tactical retreat from one of the (admittedly many) situations that it’s necessary.

Team fights, though? Wheee! Traditional off-point nuking is still an option, making use of terrain for cover and trying to throw the few support ablities I have at on-point allies... but if my team has a proper bunker in there (for heals/support/ressing), and there are no enemy Warriors who have Endure Pain off CD,* dropping AoE on the point and getting into the action is far more effective. And fun!

If I was to swap anything out for a conjure, it would probably be Arcane Wave - while it’s great to have the instant AoE crit + blast finisher, there’s no question of losing the stunbreak/blocks from Arcane Shield (or possibly a different stunbreak, like Armour of Earth for its stability), and I really don’t want to drop the control given by Signet of Earth. Will maybe try out the Bow or Shield this evening!

Still not quite sure about sigils... while Fire+Air is great for burst, it might well be better to swap Fire out for Strength:
- decrease in burst (and AoE) damage output
- increase in might stacks (with +55% might duration, the stacks gained from Strength are significant!)
- higher might uptime/guarantee to have might when downed (since I can’t combo while downed and boonstrips are relatively common)
This last point is the main one: the #6 bonus on Strength runes give +5% damage while the user has might, and their #4 bonus isn’t guaranteed to keep it up - particularly if a foe is stomping or healing or targeting someone else, instead of hitting me. I just don’t know if the sustained dps increase from Sigil of Strength is likely to be as effective as the extra burst that Sigil of Fire gives - any thoughts?
__
*I still feel that Endure Pain and Signet of Stone, being complete spike negation skills that don’t stop the user from attacking and moving, shouldn’t contest points - right now there is *no* downside to using them on a point. While Warrior has been given appropriate, much-needed nerfs recently, it’s still far too easy for a zerk War to contest a point while still dishing out crazy AoE damage and taking none themselves.

Chaith.8256:

Something 99999% of people don’t consider when looking at lightning Rod: Conjure Earth Shield.

The 3 procs lightning Rod on the 600 range dash

The 4 procs lightning Rod on everyone in a 600 radius with the AoE pull!

Wrecking Ball staff Ele:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhMMKi2zwzBr0ABAW4AwBIBIeFsBSilqDA-TJBFwACuAA12foaZAAPAAA

I’ve tested earth shield with LR builds, and its rather underwhelming in my experience. Earth shield is useless if you are gonna go balls-to-the-wall down-state ele as you can’t melee at all. Your only hope if caught in a melee fight is dropping aoes on yourself and hoping they are dumb enough to eat it. Plus, its not like down-state ele needs any more damage.

The problem with earth shield is that its just so clunky. 3/4 second cast on a utility before you can even use any skill kills it (Lightning hammer shares this problem in pvp, even with its synergy with LR). Honestly, if your gonna take a conjure, take frost bow to get the proc on deep-freeze followed by instant-KO ice storm. Not only is it 1/4s cast, but also ranged damage. Plus, there are all kinds of fun shenanigans starting a match with double ice storm at mid.

I’m really puzzled by so many of you going 6 in Fire. You’re building around Lightning Rod, and you’re investing in the one tree that has no CCs on any weapon set! If you were getting stuff like Burning Precision or Burning fire, that work in any attunement, I’d get it, but you’re all choosing traits that need you to be in fire attunement as well. And Persisting Flames, well, if you’re using zerker ammy surely you don’t really need the fury that much? I could see it being useful if you were running celestial where your precision is lower, but with the high crit chance zerker already gives you it seems overkill for a GM trait.
Having said that, I haven’t actually tried it, so I’ll do a few hotjoins and come back to this thread! :p