Guild Wars 2

Hi,

Been messing around with my elementalist to try and make it as effective as possible for my way of game play. I was 0/10/0/30/30 (original daphoenix build). Nothing wrong with that build, but i’m trying to make one that suits the staff a little more, while still keeping it viable for d/d gameplay.

What i’m trying to do is to bring the dps ability of staff up as much as possible while keeping d/d still viable. The staff is especially meant as behind frontline big zerg battles, doing damage, controlling the battlefield and support allies with fields. And use d/d for mobility purposes outside big battles.

Build i had in mind
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/elementalist/?1.0|6.1g.h1h|0.0.0.0.0.0|1n.7e.1n.7e.1n.7e.1n.7e.1n.7e.1n.7e|311.0.211.0.311.e17.211.e13.311.e17.2v.0|0.a6.a6.k58.u58b|2e.1|1l.1u.1o.1t.0|e

Basically in short summary, it’s a 0/10/10/20/30 build. Knight armor and 6x scholar runes, celestial ascended trinkets. And berserker staff/daggers.

Depending on either being d/d or staff i can switch a little with trait skills.

My biggest doubts are the runes. Not sure if scholar runes is really the way to go. Right now i have monk, water and major water. Boon duration runes are great, but not sure what’s better when it comes to dps. So hoping someone could enlighten me on this subject.

I would gladly like to know what experienced elementalist’s think of this build, and if there are any flaws for WvW purposes.

Thank you in advance

Looks fine for WvW.

May want to swap Arcane Abatement for Cantrip Mastery as a 20% cool down is pretty nice and brings your Lightning Flash and Cleansing Fire to 32s.

I would sometimes swap in Armor of Earth (Utility) too cause when you run into another Zerg that Stability is pretty clutch during the first few seconds of initial contact and still lets you act unlike Mist Form.

Rune wise the only other real option is Divinity Runes (more Defense at thee cost of Offense) and Rubies (which would fill some of your missing Crit at the cost of 10% dmg at above 90%). Scholars are solid and will work fine in your setup though. Boon Duration is less important when in the WvW Zerg as you’ll easily maintain perma Swiftness with even 30% and staff doesn’t have many boons beyond that. You will feel it slightly when doing D/D play though as it’s usually more reliant on Boon stacking.

If you don’t got the Celestial Ascended gear the new Charged Quartz gear is pretty competitive with it (just a few points off) but would take 25 days to make.

Otherwise I run something very similar (PVT Armor with Divinity Runes, Knight Jewelry with Celestial Jewls, Zerker weapons on a 0/30/0/20/20 build) and I do pretty great in WvW in all things using Staff or S/D.

The 0/30/0/20/20 build has been on my mind as well. I keep hearing that evasive arcana is the ele’s best trait, but honestly i don’t see a lot of use in it when you’re trying to be on a safe distance with a staff. The scepter/dagger would perhaps compliment staff more, while d/d is a bit too melee compared to staff.

Thanks for the comments.

Personally I think EA has been overrated since they nerfed all the effects being blast finishers. It’s still good, especially in a large setting such as WvW Zerg style combat, because being able to dodge roll in Water and do a decent AOE heal isn’t bad at all or as another Blast Finisher in Earth if you really wanna micro that. The part that I found personally was that more often than not I’m dodging out of Attunement (such as in Air or Fire while DPSing) for survival which then blows the cool down and wastes it so now I want to use the EA Dodge and it’s waiting for another 5 seconds.

You of course also get the extra 20% Attunement Cool Down and Boon duration. Some people think that 20% cool down is wasted with Fresh Air but more often than not when playing as Fresh Air I’m waiting for my other Attunements to be up so I can swap to them and trigger Fresh Air to swap back to Air. Especially with it still being bugged currently and having 0 cool down haha.

Typically I rock S/D most of the time. When you’re running in a Zerg often times the goal is to run through the enemy where things like Ring of Fire, Phoenix, Updraft and Earthquake are devastating. Even Dragon’s Tooth is bound to him someone(s) in the pile. Even your average scenario dropping Dragon’s Tooth on a ledge then swapping to Lightning with Discharge + Lightning Strike can overwhelm people on keep ledges. Also the RTL lets you get out of a bad scenario if you need to. Typically I use staff mostly when Defending (such as defending Center Stonemist or Walls) because the fire and forget AOE is pretty clutch there.

Your gear setup is pretty close to it, might as well play with both specs and see how you like it.

0 20 0 20 30. Just switch one of the traits in arcane for the staff one. Go pvt with some cavalier/zerker accessories. Get around 20% crit chance 50% damage and 1800 attack.

Kodiak.3281:

Looks fine for WvW.

May want to swap Arcane Abatement for Cantrip Mastery as a 20% cool down is pretty nice and brings your Lightning Flash and Cleansing Fire to 32s.

I would sometimes swap in Armor of Earth (Utility) too cause when you run into another Zerg that Stability is pretty clutch during the first few seconds of initial contact and still lets you act unlike Mist Form.

Rune wise the only other real option is Divinity Runes (more Defense at thee cost of Offense) and Rubies (which would fill some of your missing Crit at the cost of 10% dmg at above 90%). Scholars are solid and will work fine in your setup though. Boon Duration is less important when in the WvW Zerg as you’ll easily maintain perma Swiftness with even 30% and staff doesn’t have many boons beyond that. You will feel it slightly when doing D/D play though as it’s usually more reliant on Boon stacking.

If you don’t got the Celestial Ascended gear the new Charged Quartz gear is pretty competitive with it (just a few points off) but would take 25 days to make.

Otherwise I run something very similar (PVT Armor with Divinity Runes, Knight Jewelry with Celestial Jewls, Zerker weapons on a 0/30/0/20/20 build) and I do pretty great in WvW in all things using Staff or S/D.

I somewhat disagree on getting rid of arcane abatement in (when taken in the absolute sense). Arcane abatement is a somewhat situational trait that can be incredibly useful while roaming. It makes certain shortcuts possible to take without dying and allows you to do fall traps on people that don’t have the trait. Alternatively, in some scenarios you can cast static field then switch to earth and jump into it to blast (or use the fall for static field). If you’re in a group that does a lot of drop down shortcuts, Arcane Abatement may be indispensable. Mostly it lets you do certain things without dying.

kirtar.8453:

I somewhat disagree on getting rid of arcane abatement in (when taken in the absolute sense). Arcane abatement is a somewhat situational trait that can be incredibly useful while roaming. It makes certain shortcuts possible to take without dying and allows you to do fall traps on people that don’t have the trait. Alternatively, in some scenarios you can cast static field then switch to earth and jump into it to blast (or use the fall for static field). If you’re in a group that does a lot of drop down shortcuts, Arcane Abatement may be indispensable. Mostly it lets you do certain things without dying.

Situationally speaking everything is great. Hell, situationally Shield of Earth is fantastic.

Personally I’m a fan of the stuff that works at all times like a 20% reduction to 2 out of 3 of our utility slots.

Kodiak.3281:

kirtar.8453:

I somewhat disagree on getting rid of arcane abatement in (when taken in the absolute sense). Arcane abatement is a somewhat situational trait that can be incredibly useful while roaming. It makes certain shortcuts possible to take without dying and allows you to do fall traps on people that don’t have the trait. Alternatively, in some scenarios you can cast static field then switch to earth and jump into it to blast (or use the fall for static field). If you’re in a group that does a lot of drop down shortcuts, Arcane Abatement may be indispensable. Mostly it lets you do certain things without dying.

Situationally speaking everything is great. Hell, situationally Shield of Earth is fantastic.

Personally I’m a fan of the stuff that works at all times like a 20% reduction to 2 out of 3 of our utility slots.

Falling damage traits work every time take falling damage. Again, it gives you additional route options in WvW that you could not otherwise have access to. Without arcane abatement certain drops will kill you every time. The falling damage trait is useful in many scenarios in WvW, especially given that one of the spells is static field (and another is earthquake). While things like cantrip mastery improve your effectiveness, they don’t necessarily make things possible that weren’t previously impossible. If anything I could say that it’s even more situational since its effect on the stunbreaking cantrips doesn’t really matter except in prolonged battles. Also this build has zero stunbreaks.

kirtar.8453:

Falling damage traits work every time take falling damage. Again, it gives you additional route options in WvW that you could not otherwise have access to. Without arcane abatement certain drops will kill you every time. The falling damage trait is useful in many scenarios in WvW, especially given that one of the spells is static field (and another is earthquake). While things like cantrip mastery improve your effectiveness, they don’t necessarily make things possible that weren’t previously impossible. If anything I could say that it’s even more situational since its effect on the stunbreaking cantrips doesn’t really matter except in prolonged battles. Also this build has zero stunbreaks.

The shield throw ability on Earth Shield is like so amazing cause when you engage in a big zerg vs zerg fight you can throw it and like cripples everyone in a big line. Can imagine if it hits like 10 people? That’s a lot of cripple. And then there’s the charge, which is crazy good cause it’s a 12 second cool down charge ability for 600 which means it’s even better than RTL. Eat your heart out warriors. Then there’s of course the AOE pull which is great and even an immunity ability so if you really get into trouble you can just hunker down and go immune!

Kodiak.3281:

kirtar.8453:

Falling damage traits work every time take falling damage. Again, it gives you additional route options in WvW that you could not otherwise have access to. Without arcane abatement certain drops will kill you every time. The falling damage trait is useful in many scenarios in WvW, especially given that one of the spells is static field (and another is earthquake). While things like cantrip mastery improve your effectiveness, they don’t necessarily make things possible that weren’t previously impossible. If anything I could say that it’s even more situational since its effect on the stunbreaking cantrips doesn’t really matter except in prolonged battles. Also this build has zero stunbreaks.

The shield throw ability on Earth Shield is like so amazing cause when you engage in a big zerg vs zerg fight you can throw it and like cripples everyone in a big line. Can imagine if it hits like 10 people? That’s a lot of cripple. And then there’s the charge, which is crazy good cause it’s a 12 second cool down charge ability for 600 which means it’s even better than RTL. Eat your heart out warriors. Then there’s of course the AOE pull which is great and even an immunity ability so if you really get into trouble you can just hunker down and go immune!

QFT if you’re not going to even try to be productive. You’re basically doing the same thing you did in PvE build thread.

kirtar.8453:

QFT if you’re not going to even try to be productive. You’re basically doing the same thing you did in PvE build thread.

But…like…ya know…there’s these situations it’s good in! No, really! Situations. I mean these are real situations where this utility would be just amazingly useful.

I don’t know why you aren’t taking me seriously

The argument about traits being situational is really based on whether the player finds themselves in that situation often enough to justify the loss of an alternate trait. If yes, use it. If not, don’t. That would be the case with any trait setup (e.g. if you don’t jump off cliffs, don’t trait for reduced falling damage).

Retsuko.2035:

I keep hearing that evasive arcana is the ele’s best trait, but honestly i don’t see a lot of use in it when you’re trying to be on a safe distance with a staff.

Very true. For staff, evasive arcana is mediocre at best. It used to be more useful for staff Eles when you could use it as a blast finisher. It can still be useful for the other weapon sets, notably D/D.

0/30/0/20/20 is a very good trait setup, and can be adjusted to any weapon set.

Unfortunately, for Eles the divide between glass cannon and bunker is more like an abyss with a rope bridge. No matter what trait setup you choose, I suggest starting with a tankier armor set and gradually adding in more dps-oriented pieces until you find the ideal balance for your play style.

Good luck!