Guild Wars 2

I see a lot of build guides on d/d ele and how you can get perm swiftness with traits and boons with auras etc.
I’m trying to understand how you can get perm swiftness exactly and I’m getting very confused. I know I can get swiftness when I attune to air, and then apply swiftness and fury every time i get an aura applied.
But when I attune to air I only get a 5 sec. swiftness.
I’m still fairly new and I like figuring things out. I just can’t think of how you get that boon duration long enough to give perm swiftness?

If you have 30points in arcane then you have 30% boon duration? 60% maybe

Then you can get an adtional 30% in pve or 10% in pvp from 2x Superior Water Runes and 2x Superior Monk runs. An adtional again 10% from 2x Major Water Runes (only in pve).

Swapping attunements like a made dog will net you your perm swiftness. You also get a large amount from Lightning Aura 12-20sec I think (not in game atm and haven’t been on for much in a while).

so if we go Arcane = 30%, runes = 40% pve 20% pvp then you get 70% pve 50% pvp then that 5 seconds is 8ish in pve and 7ish in pvp. Time to recharge air spec is 9 sec + however long you stay in it. So when you addon the swiftness from your 3 auras (lighting, frosty and firey shield from fire 4+ earth 3’s second effect leap finisher) you get a large amount of swiftness.

Hope this rambling help lol.

Awh, okay thanks for that clarification i totally forgot how the arcane traits also increase boon duration!

You’re assumption is correct.

Perma swiftness is most easily achieved on a D/D Ele traited for Zephyr’s Boon and by using your Frost Aura and Shocking Aura whenever possible (and please strategically in Spvp). As well as the swiftness gained from attuning to Air and from using Updraft. In combination with high +% Boon Duration, it is possible to keep it up permanently, as well as having permanent Fury while in combat.

Just did some other testing on auras, and yes I was in combat and near another player.

Fire Aura gained by the combination of Dagger Fire4 and Earth3 Leap Finisher while in combat did trigger Zephyr’s Boon but did not trigger Powerful Aura (so neither Boons or Aura was shared).

Frost Aura gained from the combination of Staff Water4 and a Blast Finisher triggered both Zephyr’s Boon and Powerful Aura.

Boon Duration:
In sPVP: Currently hardcapped (as in can’t go past this value) at 50% for all boons. Achieve this with 30 points in Arcana for 30% and then 2x each Superior Runes of Water and Monk for another 10% for each pair, giving us the other 20%. Major runes do not exist in spvp so we cannot use those to gain extra +% All Boon Duration.
You can have a single boon get up to 70% however, by having the above combination, and then adding a pair of runes that add 20% to a singular Boon, ie. Might or Swiftness.

In PvE/WvW: 30% from Arcana. 40% From Runes as mentioned above by TGSlasher. An additional option for 10% Major runes are Sanctuary Runes, acquired using HotM dungeon tokens, 30 each, 60 for both, which is just one completed Explorable Path. 20% from food: Chocolate Omnomberry Cream (this is a lv80 food, other options are available for lower levels but with less effect).

This gives us a total of +90% to All Boon Durations in PvE/WvW if Spec’d for it.

With D/D you don’t even need to go deep into Arcane traits, Air 3 (with Zephyr’s Boon), Air 5 and Glyph of Elemental Harmony seem to do the trick for me.

If you’re using a staff you’ll need some boon duration though, it usually goes Air 4, pop Air 5 and use Arcane Wave inside it, and Glyph of Elemental Harmony.

You don’t need sigils/constant att swapping for perma swiftness.

Muppet.6485:

Frost Aura gained from the combination of Staff Water4 and a Blast Finisher triggered … Powerful Aura.

no it didnt; ice field+blast finisher = aoe frost armour … im surprised at the amount of people who dont seem to notice the aoe…

(staff)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Windborne_Speed 10 s every 30 sec
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Eruption > http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Static_Field_ (not sure how long it lasts though)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elemental_Attunement 5s every… 12(?)-9 secs

25 secs f swiftness every 30 seconds (not counting the blast; as its harder to pull off and i dont know the duration)

(d/d-f)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shocking_Aura (10 seconds from zephyrs boon… according to wiki… i have a feeling like it could just be swiftness from attunement that someone didnt take into account… but too lazy to check) every 25 secs
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fire_Shield 5 secs every 40 secs
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Frost_Aura 5 secs every 40 secs
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elemental_Attunement 5s every… 12(?)-9 secs

every 200 secs you can get (assuming shocking aura is only 5 secs) 25s from frost/fire 40 from shocking aura 50 secs from elemental atunement,115 secs of swiftness every 200 secs

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glyph_of_Elemental_Harmony 10s every 25 secs (which means 80 sec more for d/x every 200 secs and 10~ every 30 secs for staff)

meaning (without boon duration – which is impossible as elemental attunement requires 10%… but w/e) (stupidly fast key pressing/response times with 9/10 sec recharge on attunment) (no attunement/CD clashes) staff would get over 100% uptime D/x would get 195sec/200sec 97.5% uptime with glyph of harmony

(and D/D has RTL… which is faster than swiftness for 2 secs every 15 secs… though it would slow down elemental attunement)

Linguistically Inept.6583:

no it didnt; ice field+blast finisher = aoe frost armour … im surprised at the amount of people who dont seem to notice the aoe…

Eh, my bad. It was late at night and I was in the middle of studying for a midterm, so I wasn’t really functioning properly.

I thought I was far enough away from the other Player to have him outside of Blast Finisher range, but I suppose I was mistaken. The combo did however trigger Zephyr’s Boon as he gained Fury/Swift in the amounts that my stats would provide.

You don’t need ANY boon duration to get permanent swiftness with D/D, nor do you need to swap attunements.
Shocking Aura (with Zephyr’s Boon) gives 10s on 25s recharge, GoEH gives 10s on 25s, Updraft gives 10s on 40s. Add those up and you have 105% uptime. With GoEH’s cast time of 1.5s, you still have 102% uptime.
No Boon Duration or attunement swaps needed, just 10 in Air for ZB.

also swiftness duration stacks. at the end of a short fight i often have over 1m of swiftness left.

@Linguistically Inept
You didn’t count updraft. It gives swiftness.

@gimmethegepgun
Zephers boon works differently for different auras. Lighting aura gives double buff durations.

For standard cruising:

twin daggers, zephyr’s boon + elemental attunement (boon duration runes are nice but not absolutely necessary).

put water 4 and air 3 on auto-attack (daggers).

start in water, once frost aura activates, attune to air, once shocking aura activates, go to either fire or earth.

Return to air as much as possible.

Return to water when frost aura is dropping off cooldown.

You get a couple seconds of swiftness from the air attunements + 10(to 16) seconds from shocking + 7 (to 12) seconds from frost aura.

Rotate these ad infinitum and you stack swiftness slightly faster than it drops off.

TGSlasher.1458:

@gimmethegepgun
Zephers boon works differently for different auras. Lighting aura gives double buff durations.

I know. That is taken into account with what I said. Other auras get 5s, Shocking Aura gets 10s.

Staff:

Air 4, Air 5 + Arcane Wave (Area swiftness blast finisher), Glyph of Elemental Harmony. If you have at least 10 points in Arcane (and that trait which gives boons on attuning), switch to another attunement, switch back to air when the swiftness is running out and everything else should be off CD by then, plus you’ll get the swiftness from attuning to air.

If you’re in combat and have evasive arcana, you could also attune to earth and dodge into the static field for an additional blast finisher, but unless you’re actually trying to run away, there’s probably better uses for the blast finisher, and that one only works in combat.

Not sure how much boon duration is needed to make that rotation perma-swiftness, but I have 50% boon duration personally and have 20-30 seconds left on swiftness when I can reattune to air, so that’s probably a lot more than I need for perma swiftness alone.

I also don’t have any problems getting perma swiftness on staff, even though I use another “rotation”. Even without Boon Duration it should be difficult to be “swiftnessless”

Magnetic Aura (if you have Zephyr’s Boon) → Eruption → Static Field over Eruption + Arcane Wave into it → Windborne Speed + if equipped Glyph of Elemental Harmony → further Rotations depend on your cooldowns, but Magnetic Aura will be available soon afterwards

Hint: you can also get another Static Field with Arcane Abatement Trait when having to jump off a higher cliff, so you can also start the rotations after such a fall and don’t have to waste your weapon Static Field

TGSlasher.1458:

@Linguistically Inept
You didn’t count updraft. It gives swiftness.

@gimmethegepgun
Zephers boon works differently for different auras. Lighting aura gives double buff durations.

i didnt count updraft because i only ever use it for swiftness at the start of a run, it dodges backwards (i suppose if you have a button hotkeyed to about face it doesnt matter) and i hate heving in on CD at the start of a battle (RTL>updraft being my -and just about every other D/D eles – fight initiator)

- i also went and checked lightning aura swiftness duration shortly after posting; my speculation was incorrect… seems like an anomaly/bug though

Linguistically Inept.6583:

- i also went and checked lightning aura swiftness duration shortly after posting; my speculation was incorrect… seems like an anomaly/bug though

Seems sensible to me. The one that’s in air (the swiftness and crit kitten that it is) gives more swiftness and fury than any other aura.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Linguistically Inept.6583:

- i also went and checked lightning aura swiftness duration shortly after posting; my speculation was incorrect… seems like an anomaly/bug though

Seems sensible to me. The one that’s in air (the swiftness and crit kitten that it is) gives more swiftness and fury than any other aura.

This is correct. It gives double the duration. This is due to it being the Air aura and the trait being in the Air line. At least this is the reason that’s been given.

It’s very easy, even if you don’t use zephyr’s boon.

Staff:
Windborne speed
Eruption + magnetic aura + static field + arcane wave
Once you’re done with that, switch attunement to anything and then get back to air once it’s up, that way you’ll get even more swiftness (elemental attunement)

Daggers
Auras (water 4, air 3), Updraft (assuming you’re just running from X to Y, never waste it in spvp).

Glyph of elemental attunement on air attunement.

20 points in Air Magic with Quick Glyphs (adept) and Inscription (master).

Activate Glyph of Elemental Harmony (now 20 second CD) for default 20 seconds of Swiftness.

Take a few slots in Arcane so that boon duration is higher than default.

That’s all you need, regardless of weapon set. Best if you plan to have multiple glyphs on your bar.

Midgardener.6701:

20 points in Air Magic with Quick Glyphs (adept) and Inscription (master).

Activate Glyph of Elemental Harmony (now 20 second CD) for default 20 seconds of Swiftness.

Take a few slots in Arcane so that boon duration is higher than default.

That’s all you need, regardless of weapon set. Best if you plan to have multiple glyphs on your bar.

Base swiftness duration of GoEH is 10s, not 20s.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Midgardener.6701:

20 points in Air Magic with Quick Glyphs (adept) and Inscription (master).

Activate Glyph of Elemental Harmony (now 20 second CD) for default 20 seconds of Swiftness.

Take a few slots in Arcane so that boon duration is higher than default.

That’s all you need, regardless of weapon set. Best if you plan to have multiple glyphs on your bar.

Base swiftness duration of GoEH is 10s, not 20s.

Inscription gives a boon for any glyphs cast depending on attunement. GoEH is a glyph. Cast it in Air attunement = GoEH 10sec swiftness + Inscription 10sec swiftness.

Works with all the attunements. Cast GoEH in earth = 3sec of protection + Inscription 3sec of protection = 6sec of protection. Add boon duration and other glyphs for increased effect.

Note: Currently bugged. Does not work with elite skill Glyph of Elementals.