New sPvP build prototypes

New sPvP build prototypes

in Elementalist

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

Here’s a thread to post new build prototypes for sPvP, analyze their strong and weak points, and hopefully improve them as much as possible.

S/D Might-Stacking Cantrip Build
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k34;4kU015-NFZ0;9;4T-9T-37A;12;028A;14o0;3sV2DsV2D4BH
(Uses Arcane Brilliance for the heal slot)

Strong Points

  • Can get to 25 might-stacks easily
  • Perma Fury and a lot of might to yourself and allies nearby
  • Solid survival against conditions (cleansing everywhere) and direct damage (protection and stability ocasionally, a lot of vigor)
  • Some of its strong defensive mechanisms are passive
  • Good healing (water attunement, water trident, cleansing wave, a lot of regen, solid healing power)
  • Arcane Brilliance is a great heal here. At its worst, it complements the other healing tools with a quick-casting, decent heal. At its best, it’s a really strong skill, with a quick and very strong burst heal that can also apply might and fury to you and your party. And it’s not uncommon to use it on fire fields or when swarmed by opponents/ AI, so expect the best out of it frequently enough.

This build sounds really effective in theory. A 20+ might stacking build with perma fury, strong defenses against everything, solid passive and active defenses, high natural power, cantrips everywhere giving you plenty of regen, vigor, might and other benefits, etc. You have strong party support through fire fields (offensively) and healing skills (defensively). You can reach 25 stacks of might without much difficulty. What could fail here?

Weak Points

  • Unreliable attacks and weak auto-attacks make it hard to take advantage of of your might.

This is a big problem with this build, because if you can’t take advantage of your might stacks for higher sustain damage, you’re pretty much playing a weaker version of a bunker build with some ocasional burst. Kinda like the non fresh-air air burst builds, but perhaps this one is better in the condition meta?

Without sigil of fire, air minor #15 and/ or arcane utilities, your burst damage is not as reliable as the air burst builds. Phoenix, Ring of Fire, Earthquake, Lightning Bolt, Fire Grab (when it hits…) are still great skills to cast, but you’ll have a hard time making use of your might in the meantime with no auto-attacks and an unreliable Dragon’s Tooth.

Perhaps it is me who has to learn to master it first, and try to hold some of my bursts until might is high enough, but it’s not always possible when skills like phoenix, ring of fire and earthquake are so deeply tied to might-generation in the first place.

I believe it’s still a solid build, but I’m thinking of some variants:

  • Take 10 points out of fire and water, losing fury and extra cleansing. Put 15 in air and 5 in arcana, for a more reliable burst. Not sure if that would be worth losing 2 grandmaster traits, though. Probably not.
  • Use MH Dagger instead. This results in the loss of two blast finishers, one of them that can be applied easily. That means might-stacking will average around 12-21+, only maxing ocasionally. Meanwhile, Lightning Whip is a solid auto-attack, and you could go 20 in air (at the expense of two grandmasters) for zephyr’ boon and air burst, although the grandmaster traits are probably still worthier. How scary can a 15+ might Lightning Whip be? I’ll have to test it out.

Flexibility

  • Depending on your opposing team or the map, you can switch between Armor of Earth and Cleansing Fire.
  • In a MH dagger Variant, Cleansing Water and Powerful Auras can be equally good, also depending on the situation.

NOTE: Cantrip mastery affects Burning Fire (reduces its cooldown to a tasty 32 seconds), but it does not affects Earth’s Embrace (which still remains at 90 seconds). Anet has confirmed that they will fix this as soon as possible, so this build will be further buffed someday (Earth Embrace will get a 75 second cooldown out of it).

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

New sPvP build prototypes

in Elementalist

Posted by: DiogoSilva.7089

DiogoSilva.7089

I’ve been trying a dagger variant with sigil of hydromancy instead of battle, and it’s been pretty effective. Burst damage is still good, sustained damage is better even with only half the average might, and I feel that fire traitline’s condition duration is more effective with mh dagger than with scepter (longer duration for weakness, chill, immobilize, cripple and relevant burning).

Hydromancy sigil adds some strong aoe burst on nearby targets (can go up to 2k+ of damage, plus chill), and only gets better with might and extra condition duration.

This effectively makes it not a specialized might-stacking build, but you still have 3 three blast finishers on a ring of fire and up to 5 cantrip triggers.

(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)

New sPvP build prototypes

in Elementalist

Posted by: FrownyClown.8402

FrownyClown.8402


Bad Elementalist