Guild Wars 2

Hey ladies and gents,

I am quite new to GW2 in general (have played it for only a couple of weeks after release; quti; and have finally returned now) and even more of a beginner when it comes to the elementalist profession. I like the versatility of the class and, as of late, have developed somewhat of a compassion for PVP. I am mainly playing with 1-2 friends of mine (or solo if i feel like it), so i am not really in an organized team.

onto the my question then:
Apparently THE build for eles atm is the D/D build, but i am really bad at it QQ.
I dont necessarily feel like my positioning is off or my decision making (in terms of which fights to take and which to avoid) is bad, but my damage output kinda seems underwhelming… i guess all that might-stacking while ALSO focusing on everything that is going on around me is my weakness.

I would really appreciate it, if some1 could give me a SIMPLE burst/DPS/might-stacking rotation or some overall advice, on what to look out for.

Furthermore, it would be nice, if some of you could point out the major advantages / disadvantages of other builds, like the Staff or S/F builds, since i actually am still trying to find a suitable playstyle.

Thanks already in advance!

the cele builds damage output will come largely from burn and your air auto attack. what makes the cele good isnt so much the damage output anymore but how tanky you are. Standard rotation is air, fire then usually earth to stack might. Good eles will go into fire drop their fire field, dodge roll in earth for might use earth 4 for might use earth 3 for a fire aura then go into water and use water 3 for might.

S/f is a bit harder to play but has the benefit of decent burst damage and good defensive skills on your weapon. I would even say that the build is becoming “meta”.

Staff is played 2 different ways. The most typical is a bunker build that if played correctly, will not die in a 1v1. Other players like to run a dps build that focuses on putting a lot of on point pressure. Probably the hardest to play and only like 1% of the ele community runs it.

Saying that s/f has decent burst is huge understatement, you can 1shot pretty much all light/medium classes if you land your burst combo

If you want to play D/D celestial Ele, you should build them accordingly, 6/6 water/arcana with cleansing/healing traits.

The goal is to burn your enemies with fire, while filtering other atunements to try and sustain and get a bit of might out of them.

The most important spells to learn to land, are Fire 3 and 5, those deal most damage in your entire kit, except for Earth 5. (which you can also link with your teleport to deal some nasty damage, if you can manage to cast it off)

The usual rotation for might stacking is Fire4>earth4>dodge roll in earth
I also like going into water and blasting off Water 3 for the additional might every now and then since Earth 4 has a rather long cooldown.
But in sPvP, don’t concern yourself too much about Might stacking, it will occur naturally because you will not be the only one using blast finishers on that fire field.
But sure you should try and stack some might if you have the opportunity.

The general idea of the build is try and land your fire spells effeciently, as you fill in your cooldowns with other attunements.
If you play the build right, the Elementalist does pretty decent damage and is actually rather hard to pin down and kill, after a while you will be able to hold a point in sPvP alone against 2-3 enemies, for a decently long time.
As well as being able to survive most fair fights.

Personally, what i found is that the hardest part, is dealing effective damage with the elementalist for new players (myself included) , focus on surviving, as you gradually get a feel for his damage and how to land abilities properly.

It is a good habit to practice your rotation to get the feel of how to to get the most might stacks from your CD and well, the CD of each skills.