Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

I’m looking for a build geared towards dungeons and fractals. Currently I’ve been doing PVE, rolling a fire staff. I’ve read a couple of the build threads that are stickied but I haven’t been playing long enough to understand the terminology as they are really really in-depth. Also, they seem to have been created before the December patch so I am not sure how effective they are.

So if you could, which weapon set, build, and skill rotations work for you?

Thanks!
Andrew

Hey,

I played a decent amount of FotM (~lvl 65 pre-patch, back at 50 now). Here is the build I use for random FotM groups:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImmb6R5wjEAEFucS4xAMUgogFlC7A-jwBBYfBhEJIZmFRjt4qIas6aYKXER12bFRrWKgIWGB-e

If you play with your guild and they know how FotM works you can go full damage (30-30-0-0-10) but for randoms you need some defense (mainly for rezzing) imo.

Besides that you should have a Berserker’s focus, scepter and 2 daggers and 1 full Soldier’s armor (PVT) with you all the time. Sometimes s/f (scepter/focus) is a better choice, e.g. against the final boss in the Volcanic fractal. Don’t forget to change the traits if you change your weapon set. The 2nd armor is for difficult fractals in higher levels.

You also need to change the Slot skills depending on the fractal. Buff food and other Consumables can help too.

The most important thing:

Learn how the fractals work and when to dodge.

If you don’t dodge properly you will die all the time.

Learning what to dodge is the most important thing in fractals. 30/30/0/0/10 with Dagger/Focus is great for that, between perma vigor and the defensive capabilities of focus. If you need more defense, make up for it in gear (swapping a bit of knights for zerk) and in utilities (take arcane shield or mist form over signet of fire, take a real heal instead of arcane brilliance). If that isn’t enough, maybe something like 0/30/10/20/10 or 10/30/10/10/10 would work, but at that point you’re locking yourself out of decent staff DPS. And don’t forget about lifesteal food and skale venom for your consumables.

I would recommend D/F over scepter-based builds (especially while pugging) because pugs steal conjures and pugs will sometimes do silly things that will get you killed, hence stripping you of your conjure. So while LH is a useful tool in fractals, it may not be something you want to trait around.

Part of an ele’s survivability really comes from wise utility selection, too. Lots of trash can be locked down with blinds from Glyph of Storms (Earth) or Lightning Hammer. Glyph of Elementals (Earth) is very good at drawing aggro while you need to rez, and Glyph of Elemental Power (Air) can help maintain weakness on enemies, while GoEP (Earth) can maintain cripple so those bosses aren’t chasing you down so fast.

I second the d/f recommendation for fractal pugs. I usually use 30/30/10/0/0, but moving the 10 to arcana for perma vigor is a safe option. Lightning whip has a 300 range, and you can safely “melee” bosses that most pugs tend to range (arch-diviner, imbued shaman, etc.) Also i find myself spamming swirling winds, because pugs rarely use reflects. Arcane shield + mistform + obi flesh will give you enough time to res your teammates even under focus fire. There are situations where you will want to use LH, but I don’t find myself using it enough to trait for it.

for fractal over 30 i pref play safe so almost always run this build, just remember air autoattack is your best friend

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAodnEEFbYlBKHwjYAhUAFEPeALgDLPyhZwGA-jgCBYfBB/DkEJIEBgZmFRjt4qIasqaAKbYKXJV7KySBknyI-e

for dungeon any light hammer build is ok, juts remember buff might be4 summon your weapon