Guild Wars 2

Hi guys, Zaragoz here. I just wanted to drop by to get some info for a buddy of mine that just started playing the game, and is planning on maining an Ele. Being an engineer only player leaves me 100% unable to give him good or reliable advice concerning an elementalist. So anyway he is completely new and has done no WvW yet.

He mainly needs a build that will be effective in 1 v 1’s and a small group setting between 2-4 people as roaming is all me and my group of friends usually do anyway. Currently he has his heart set on d/d but I’m sure he’s open to other possibilities if need be. So that’s all I have. Please share with me some builds so I can give them to him. Also please include the gear, runes, and sigils he will be best off taking.

Thanks a ton guys,

Zaragoz

Hi Zaragoz!

D/D is the most popular choice for eles in both WvW roaming and PvP, so it’s a good starting point. Staff is most often used for capture point in organized PvP teams and large scale combat in WvW, while scepter is rarely used outside of gimmickry (burst) builds. Focus is a pretty strong dueling weapon but lacks sustain and utility in group fights.

A well-rounded starter build for D/D ele (while not highly efficient in 1vs1 and high level group combat) may be this one (assuming your buddy can’t get ascended gear, except for some trinkets, yet).
The traits and utilities are very common (0/2/0/6/6): Cantrips and water-traits for self-sustain, arcana-traits support a fluent and agile play style, and air adds a small punch. The stats achieved by the gear composition above are far from optimal, though I think they are a good starting point until your friend can get some ascended weapons and some gold for “better” runes.

Some stats one should aim for on D/D ele for small scale fights are:
– 2k+ Power (with food) – the more, the merrier
– 30%+ Critical Chance
– 180%+ Critical Damage
– 2.2k-2.4k Toughness
– 16k+ HP
– ~400 Healing Power

Full-celestial and the over-abused PvP-meta-build suck kittens against any decent enemy. Your friend should not fall victim to some self-proclaimed pro-gamers and believe that he could kill anyone decent with it.

In 1vs1 most D/D ele builds are pretty cheesy (i.e. I don’t take myself too serious when dueling with my build because one can out-sustain anything but a decent PU condition mesmer or a better ele while tormenting the enemy with perma-burning and strong control effects), however in group fights it gets interesting and the supportive and offensive nature of such a build really blows.

maeggle.6021:

A well-rounded starter build for D/D ele (while not highly efficient in 1vs1 and high level group combat) may be this one (assuming your buddy can’t get ascended gear, except for some trinkets, yet).

This sums it up pretty much, but I would like to point out some differences I would personally make in this build;
I’d swap the XI trait in Water for XII;
Note this is only effective for team play (2-4 player group as suggested); you have one less cleansing ability, which isn’t really neccessary anyways, since your water attunement dodge will cure a condition aswell and due to the vigor stacking you are almost guaranteed to gain more condition cleansing from that.
You trade the cleansing ability for the extra aura to allies; as a d/d elementalist you have 3 auras which are a significant increase in your damage over time. Note however your friend will need to learn proper positioning and combo fields to use this trait to its full extent, so warn him about it.

I’d also swap 2 Soldier pieces of armor for Knights; this will slightly lower his survivability from the first look, but will add precision, meaning crit rate; and this build revolves around it. You’ll want to crit as often as possible to activate vigor from the arcane trait line. You will make up for your loss of survivability with dodging, while still profiting from more critical rate.

This is merely my opinion; I too am searching for a perfect WvW d/d build for me anyhow at the moment, and if I find one, I will let you know.

Regards, Warmage of Gandara.