Hey guys,
I thought I would throw in my few cents.
So this is my current build:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/pve-staff-glass-cannon-pve-elementalist-glass-cannon-6954.html
I have had this build since the start and had no need to change it yet. I can see few possible changes I could make, but I dont think any of them would be such a huge addition to force me to go and reset my traits.
I will say right now, this is pure PvE build and I am using full Berserker set with some vitality on my accessories. I did PvP with my Ele in betas until rank 25 or so, but right now Ele is in a bad place for PvP imo (lowest armor and lowest HP), so I am using guardian for that instead. (at least armor is much higher and the condition removal is so much better).
Few notes to my build. I would never think of using staff in my early days..but eventually it turned out to be the best weapon for PvE. You pretty much kill 10 mobs at once in the same time as it takes to kill one. So its a perfect weapon for farming or just killing multiple mobs at the same time. Also for me it makes no sense just to be killing 1 mob at a time with this. When I decided to fight mobs I aggro many of them (as long as they are not ranged…if they are, well im in deep trouble) It requires skill in kiting, because Ele just isnt one of the professions that can just stand still and take the beating. I prefer strategy “Never get hit, you wont die, you can keep helping your group that way.”
So for weapon if I go with pros and cons:
Pros – huge support, plenty of CC, a lot of healing, great mobility, many combo fields.
Cons – very poor defense against ranged mobs, killing mobs one by one is not worth it.
There are few options for Sigil..for now Im running with Sigil of Earth that with 60% on crit it applies stack of bleeding to my target. It is again to increase my damage output. I might switch to Sigil of Energy (switching attunements is the same as switching weapons in this case) so pretty much every 10s you get 50% of the endurance back.
The build I have and the whole idea of my Ele is glass cannon. I do a lot of damage but im squishy as paper. For that I need to use all skills available and to have as high endurance regen as possible for dodges. There is very high error penalty. If you dont dodge correctly or dont use reflect projectiles correctly or dont use mist form in the worst cases, you will die a lot. This build gives good results but requires very high awareness and mobility.
Traits are pretty much self explanatory.
- Condition removal when entering Water attunement is need. The more points you have in Arcana the faster you can use this trait.
- Dealing more damage when above 90%, again..learn how to make sure you dont get hit by enemies and you benefit from this trait the most.
- 33% Chance to gain vigor on critical hits. With my gear I have Vigor on my all the time and this trait is VITAL for my gameplay. If I dont have Vigor on, I cant dodge as often, I die.
- Elemental Attunement, mandatory for every single Elementalist out there.
- 10% more damage in Fire Attunement…well like it or not, most of your damage comes from Fire attunement.
- Deal 20% more damage to foes under 25% HP. there is really not much else to choose and again, when fighting some boss, last 25% you do 20% more damage with every sill.
- Glyphs 20% faster recharge…even just for the healing glyph, this is just so needed in case you ever get hit.
In here I can see one trait that I would love to have, but just dont have enough points and thats Blasting Staff that increases the radius of Staff AOE spells. But Elemental Attunement and Vigor are so vital for me that I just cant get rid of it…and so are all my other traits.
Other than that, switching to air attunement gives you swiftness and deals damage to your foes, switching to water heals players around you and grants you regeneration, switching to fire gives you Fury, switching to Earth attunement gives you armor.
So now when we have the build covered, last thing is utility skills and Elite.
Glyph of Storms. With my trait has reduced CD and again, goes with my gameplay well. Killing more mobs at the same time is better. Having them CCed and slowed is mandatory for not getting hit. And thus I can throw another AOE damage spell on them to kill them faster.
Arcane Wave. I cant live without this utility. Its the far best combo finisher we have and it can be used in combination with Static Field to give me and others swiftness, with water healing skills to do burst healing and with fire to add burning to foes and might to allies..
Mist Form. Even when you try hard to avoid all attacks, sometimes you just cant. Or you need to get through some passage with a lot of mobs and you dont want them to slow you down. Its one of those “OH CRAP” skills that you need with this spec in case something goes horribly wrong.