Guild Wars 2

Just leveled my elementalist to 80. All the builds on here are for fully specced tempest, however I still don’t have the point to get Tempest yet. I could use a good “vanilla” build in the mean time while I grind hero points.

Is there one with a lot of mobility/runspeed so that I can move quickly from point to point?

Should I be using daggers or staff for PvE as well?

Thanks for your time.

Answering a few questions about your playstyle would be really helpful:

1. Are you playing alone or with a small group?
2. What is your preferred weapon type?
3. What kind of armor do you have or prefer to use?

In general, you can do pretty well in HoT with either D/F, staff, or even s/f. I wouldn’t recommend off-hand dagger unless you take a lot of condi-cleanse, as HoT bad-guys pack a lot of hard-hitting condis.

First line: Damage traitline
If you take staff, you definitely want to take fire 1/1/1 or 3/1/1 (the numbers correspond to the choice in each column), as you will spend a lot of time camping fire.

If you take x/F, you will really want to take air so that you can take fresh air. With d/f, I would take 1/2/2 and s/f would take 2/2/2. Zephyr’s boon (swiftness on aura) is really nice with dagger and focus, b/c the low CD auras make perma-swiftness easier, while its not that great with scepter, which lacks any auras on its own. One with air is nice to reposition. Tempest defense is fine over aeromancer’s training, but I prefer lower CD’s on shocking aura, swirling winds, and gust (which is very good against breakbar enemies in HoT).

If I took S/F, I would want fire and air, as having fire CD reduction (pyromancer’s training) for phoenix is very important for those quick-bursts that kill trash.

Cleanse traitlines
You will very much want a good amount of condi cleanse on a short CD, which means taking one of arcana (for cleanse on dodge) or water (for cleanse on swap and cleanse on regen). Diamond skin isn’t very effective in HoT, where things hit pretty hrad. If you are really having trouble, take both for lots of cleanse and heals, which should help you stay up. With water, you can also take cantrips for more cleanse, or ether renewal for a full-wipe. With arcana, you also get swiftness on air swaps, which pairs well with zephyr’s boon for perma-swifts.

Third traitline: Your pick
If you are having trouble with condis, take both water AND arcana, for lots of cleanse (1 from arcana regen, 1 from arcana dodge, 1 from water trait or multiple from cantrip usage)

If you are fine with taking only 1 cleanse line, take the other damage line (for staff, this means take air 2/3/1, for x/f, this means take fire 1/1/1).

Utilities

Heal: Signet or Ether renewal
Utilities (always): Lightning Flash – being able to skip some verticals helps get around quickly
Utilities (pick 2): cleansing fire, ice bow, glyph of storms, mistform (if you have trouble dying), arcane wave, arcane blast
Elite: Fiery Greatsword (mobility) or Glyph (fire does great damage, earth is a great tank, air helps with breakbars)

Final build options

1. D/F
   Air: 1/2/2
   Arcana: 2/3/1
   Water: 1/2/1 or Fire:1/1/1

1. Staff
   Fire: 1/1/1
   Water: 1/2/1 or 1/1/1 (if multiple cantrips)
   Air: 2/3/1 or Arcana: 2/3/1

1. S/F
   Fire: 3/1/1
   Air: 2/2/2
   Water: 1/1/1
   Ether renewal, ligthning flash, cleansing fire, + 3rd utility of choice

Conclusion
There is no one “build to rule them all” especially in PvE, but this should give you some guidelines to start customizing to your own preferences.