Guild Wars 2

I am curious what kind of skill sequence other people use. I would like to keep this post just a list of skill seq so that people can read and try out and not crowded with criticisms.

Here is mine which I use for PvE and this is staff AoE build.

1. Frozen Ground (W4) or Static Field (A5) for multiple foes, Lightning Surge (A2) for single target.
2. Ice Spike (W2)
3. Eruption (E2)
4. Flame Burst (F3)
5. Lava Font (F2) Need to complete this before eraption from step 3 occurs for 3 staks of might.
6. If foe(s) is near you then Arcane Blast (utility) within Lava Font area. Combination of Lava Font, Eruption, and Elemental Attunement (arcane trait) will give you 7 stacks of might.
7. Meteor Shower (F5)
8. Use Arcane Shield (utility) as necessary to protect your self while casting Meteor Shower (this will give you also chance of explodes for more damage)
9. Lava Font (F2) again
10. Flame Burst (F3) again
11. Glyph of Storms (utility)

Normally I stop after step 6 and spam Fireball til foe dies for normal small fight.

For regular PvE farming?

Opening with Phoenix and Flame Tooth so they both land at the same time – followed by ring of fire and arcane blast + a dodge or two (for two / three blast finishers and 6 / 9 might stacks) and Firegrab to finish – that usually kills a regular mob.

If not, switch to Air, blind, 1 and 2 with an updraft at the end to repeat the fire sequence.

If there’s multiple mobs the sequence is the same except more work trying to get the mobs close together for Flame tooth and phoenix to hit, and usually an earthquake followed by a blind and churning earth.

1. In Earth – Glyph of Storms.
2. Eruption or Churning Earth.
3. Whatever the situation calls for. aka. faceroll?

This is my PvE build sequence. Using D/D.

Start in Earth.
Attune to Air (hits with lightning)
Move towards them to close distance
Once in range, you will begin whipping
Use A3 – grants a stun defense when they hit you
Use A2
Use A5 – interrupts them, knocks em down and counts as an evade
Use A4 – puts you right on top of em again with them on the ground
Attune to Fire (does damage to anything near me)
Use F2 for 1 tick of damage (adds burning) – unless multiple targets as it is a full frontal
Use F5 – Fire Grasp – does damage to everything in front of me

Any solo mob is likely already dead. In bigger fights or AOE fights, I would…
You will have aggro by this point, so go ahead and dodge backwards
Use F3 to run through everything and do PBAOE
Use F4
Use Arcane Blast
F2 again for full effect
Switch to Water
W2 for full effect (full frontal)
W3 to chill everything around you
Most likely W5 to help with healing unless you’re doing quite well
Switch to Air (lightning strike)
A2
A3 – if you are taking damage
A4 – aoe everything around you
Switch to Earth
E4 – interrupts everything and gives you some time to do the next step
Arcane Shield – protects you to finish the next step
E5 – big aoe

Most likely everything is dead now… if not, you can pretty much continue the sequence until completion.

NOTE: I would not recommend this for PvP or WvW.

It depends on the mob I’m fighting. Orr creatures tend to take a little more work and veterans are fly by the seat of your pants type. Here’s a typical rotation I have. D/D with Hydromancy and Might sigils.

1. Drake’s breath
2. Fire Grab
3. Auto Attack (or Burning Speed through the target)
4. Ring of Fire
5. Attune to earth—Churning Earth (Area of Might)
6. Ring of Earth
7. Earthquake (or auto attack)
For longer Veterans—continue
8. Attune Water—Cone of Cold
9. Frozen Burst
10. Frost Aura
11. Cleansing wave perhaps…May as well!
12. Attune Wind—Lightning touch
13. Shocking Aura
14. Ride the Lightning
15. Updraft
16. Attune Fire—Burning speed and then repeat steps 1-16

Well a lot depends on what I’m fighting. Usually I’m using a staff.

Start in Earth:
- Eruption
- Unsteady Earth (usually lands when eruption actually goes off).
- Switch to fire
- Lava Font in front of the melee chars coming at me slowly.

After that it depends on what’s up and health and all that. Most often it’ll be Flame Burst or switch to Air and Lightning Surge / Chain Lightning to finish off what I can.

Generally mine start out like this:

1. Ring of Fire
2. Phoenix
3. Arcane Wave
4. (Attune to earth) earthquake
5. Earth auto attack
6. (Attune to air) lightning bolt
7. blind
8. (Attune to fire) flame tooth(?)
9. Ring of fire
10. arcane wave
11. fire grab

Wow people try really, really hard (which I guess is good?). Me? I’m lazy :p

For 1-2 mobs

If I’m spunky:
Start in Earth with Eruption
Switch to Fire and Stack might with Eruption + Lava Font combo
Otherwise:
Fireball
Lava Font
Flame Burst
[Meteor Shower for foes that reflect projectiles or foes that are really dangerous]
and.. continue to faceroll Fire abilities.

Sure I could kite or chain many more abilities together, but why bother? It would help me kill them like maybe one second faster (in the case of kiting I would kill them slower).

Now if I get adds or are fighting a veteran/champion then I actually get off my lazy butt and start doing some work.

Unexpected adds:
Begin by evaluating combined damage potential of combined mobs

If combined mob damage < my ability to tank for more than 6s:
Clump mobs together and continue to use Fireball, Lava Font, Flame Burst [might use Meteor Shower, but that is a bit too slow at this point usually]

If combined mob damage > my ability to tank for more than 6s:
Quickly begin strafing to clump and use Flame Burst
Switch to Water, use Frozen Ground
Get appreciable distance and use Healing Rain + Geyser combo
Use healing Glyph if necessary now

If it is possible to tank them with my healed self and regen:
Continue to facetank and use Lava Font, Flame Burst, Fireball etc.

If it is still impossible to tank the mobs with my new health and regen:
Dance between attunements and use their respective damage and CC abilities

Flame Burst
Lava Font
Burning Retreat
Eruption
Unsteady Ground
Static Field
Windborne Speed
Chain Lightning
Frozen Ground
Ice Spike
etc.
etc.

With Veterans, I just have my Earth Elemental tank them while I blow them up in Fire.

With Champions, I kite them around with the dancing I mentioned above.

In groups I’m always switching attunements and do not have a “set” rotation, because the situation can change in a heartbeat.

I’ve PvE’d with this for pretty long with staff. (frustrating in Orr tho)

Eruption
Shockwave as soon as cast time ends on eruption
Instantly after Shockwave has launched swap to Fire
Lava font
Flame Burst
auto-attack. Usually its enough to kill 1 mob at a time because I have condition damage runes/traits. If not:
Swap to air
Static Field
Windborne Speed
Back to Earth or Fire
Eruption/Lava font + Flame Burst

aggro with Staff #1 fireball
run to target, or wait for them to be in decent range
circle target so they don’t hit me, hoping not to aggro additional heat
spam Staff #3, using Staff #4 for quick getaways

maybe i will summom 2 fire elementals, but the long recharge times make me hafta choose

I play as D/D

Air
4 – close the gap, do some damage
5 – knock both of us back, knockdown on enemy
3 – shield for incoming damage
Fire
3 – close the gap created by the #5 air skill, lines up perfectly to explode on enemy
4 – additional damage, combo setup
Earth
4 – combo to #4 fire
5 – #4 knocks enemy down, best chance of landing this skill
Water
4 – Freeze enemy if he decided to hit me then run away or tries to kite
3 – Keep enemy from getting away
2 – Heal + damage
5 – Heal
Then if enemy is trying to get away Lightning – 4 to close gap, and 3 for shield
Fire – 3 →4→5→2 loaded damage

from there it’s situational… I stack pretty heavy on vit and toughness, I’d rather survive longer and stack my damage correctly than load a bunch of damage, get out-healed, and die quick.

Also, my skill slots are…
6: Signet of Restoration – The passive heals per spell cast are great for DD cause it’s such a fast paced build, you cast alot of spells in a short period
7, 8, and 9 are Arcane Shield, Mist Form, and Armor of Earth – I cycle through these to mitigate damage at different times furing the fight, sometimes I will use Armor of Earth when I go from air to fire after charging in, to negate any CC effects and reduce damage while I am in the best part of my opening combo, then I will use arcane shield and mist form as necissary to buy myself time to heal up or for my cooldowns to go down.

Elite skill’s are worthless so I wont even go there.

Ride the Lightning – Updraft – Fire Attunement – Burning Speed – Ring of Fire – Arcane Wave – Fire Grab – Drake’s Breath – Earth Attunement – Earthquake – Ring of Earth – Water Attunement – Frozen Burst – Cone of Cold, heal and aura if mob still lives and back to Fire.

For PvE I use D/D and pretty much the exact rotation that Xolo outlined above me.

If normal mobs though I will usually start at the Fire stage and they are dead by the end of the Earth stage. Full rotation on Supervisors/Skill points and above.

You guys go all out…

Staff PvE:

F2 Lava Font
F3 Flame Burst
Arcane Blast/Arcane Wave/Signet of Air
F1 Fireball (or whenever other spells are on cd)

repeat

For pvp I love:

Ride the lightning→air gust→earth atune→tremor→fire attune→1 autoattack to cause burning-phoenix→dragon touch

PvE 1v1, Scepter/Dagger:

1. Water Attunement
2. Shatterstone
3. Frost Aura
4. Fire Attunement
5. Ring of Fire
6. Arcane Wave
7. Phoenix
8. Dragon’s Tooth
9. Fire Grab
10. Air Attunement
11. Lightning Strike
12. Blinding Flash
13. Arc Lightning

PvE 1v1, Staff:

1. Water Attunement
2. Ice Spike
3. Frozen Ground
4. Air Attunement
5. Lightning Surge
6. Gust
7. Static Field
8. Earth Attunement
9. Shockwave
10. Eruption
11. Fire Attunement
12. Lava Font
13. Arcane Wave
14. Flame Burst
15. Fireball

PvE, Dagger/Dagger:

1. Air Attunement
2. Ride the Lightning
3. Shocking Aura
4. Lightning Touch
5. Updraft
6. Earth Attunement
7. Magnetic Grasp
8. Ring of Earth
9. Earthquake
10. Churning Earth
11. Water Attunement
12. Frozen Burst
13. Frost Aura
14. Cone of Cold (if needed)
15. Cleansing Wave (if needed)
16. Fire Attunement
17. Burning Speed
18. Ring of Fire
19. Arcane Wave
20. Drake’s Breath
21. Fire Grab

So no-one just makes it up as they go along?

The point of all this is to get a good rotation with self combos. Do it right and these “harder to do” skill combinations are pretty powerful.

Set rotations are pointless as the most effective rotation changes depending on the classes you are fighting, and what is happening to your team around you.

What Arcane said. I have some general rotations that I use, but it all changes depending on the situation.

(Scepter/Dagger)
Fire Attune>Ring of Fire>Arcane Wave>Dragon Tooth>Phoenix>Earth Attune>EQ>Churning Earth (use mainly for PvE aoe might stacking)

Air Attune(lightning strike from attune)>Lightning Strike skill>Blinding Flash>Arc Lightning>Ride the Lightning>Updraft>Lightning Strike>Earth Attune>Dust Devil>Stone Shards or Rock Barrier>EQ>Churning Earth (CC rotation, not static, often switched up depending on situation)

Only really switch to water when I need to heal or remove conditions. The above rotations aren’t the only things I do, but they are the closest thing to a standard rotation I have. Pretty much everything else changes depending on what the situation calls for.

I cannot tell a fixed rotation as it depends on type of enemy, number of enemies, situation and current cooldowns. For single PVE damage I use dagger/dagger and fire attunement only, no attunement switching. I only change my attunement to water or air if I need to flee and want to freeze and slow mobs (water dagger 3, 4) or push away (air dagger 5) or run away (air dagger 4). I use Arcane wave and blast as extra damage spells and Ether renewal as heal as it cures conditions, heals the most I think and has low cooldown.
If I am in a group (events mostly) I use staff and fire for area damage or staff and water to play healing.
My elite skill often is Take Root (Sylvari racial) which helps with damage on many mobs or strong mobs and often takes aggro from me giving me chance to heal, deal damage or run.

sPVP D/D

F3
4 5
F1
3 4 2 5
F4
3 4 2
F2
3 2 4 5
F3
3 2
F1
4 2

etc

Staff build, PVE solo:

Varies considerably, but under ideal circumstances I start a fight like this:

Earth 5 (immobilize)
Earth 4 (cripple)
Earth 2 (delayed blast finisher, AOE/Bleed)
Fire 2 (fire field/peristent AOE)
Arcane wave/Arcane Blast (finisher)

adapt as needed from here

This lays down an absolutely huge burst, gives you 6 stacks of might *if close enough to the combo field), and leaves the target crippled and easy to manage.

The reverse combo works well also, if you find yourself starting in fire.
Fire 4 (Burning Retreat)
Earth 5 (immobilize, projectile finisher) (arcane blast if you carry it)
Earth 4 (cripple)
Earth 3 (if fighting ranged foe)
Earth 2 (AOE/Bleed/delayed blast finisher)
Water 3 (for heal in blast finisher) or Water 4 (for frost armor blast finisher)
Now kite like a boss.

Furby.5693:

The point of all this is to get a good rotation with self combos. Do it right and these “harder to do” skill combinations are pretty powerful.

This is really it. What I listed above is just a couple of self-combos you can drop in a couple seconds for a very powerful, very specific set of effects. They are good ones to memorize and rely on cause you can get them off quickly when you need them. In a real fight, of course you will be adapting as you, but these are good spots to start practicing on and good combos for starting fights.

At the moment, my favorite opening is:

Eruption → Lava Burst → Evasive Arcana dodge into the field.

10+ stacks of Might after that mean I can pretty much just Fireball if I feel like it.

Ride the lightning, Updraft, Magnetic Grasp, Earthquake
Gap-closer, CC, Gap-closer, CC
:D

Pretty sure the Elementalist rotation is most accurately depicted by the middle of the following flowchart. I didn’t feel like editing the WoW images and abilities and crap for GW2. Though someone please do if you have the motivation, it will make for a glorious background to my desktop.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e388/vertidog/catdps.jpg

i just mash the buttons

D/D
fire
3, 4
earth
4, 5, 2
water
heal as needed as the monsters are now dead.

In dungeons you switch to water and go
3, 4, heal if needed with 5,

air
3,4,5

fire
2, 5

and then just kind of wait for some more rotations. Most things die pretty quickittenhough.

Depends on what I’m fighting. If it has a pullback sometimes I’ll wait for it to commit (after two swings the risen will throw his pullback pick and if you dodge too late you pull him back lol!), then open with eruption for the bleed, switch to fire, which stacks another 3 bleed, afflict with burning, then lava under it. If it’s the mob with chaos storm I’ll open with magnetic field, and most of “my” damage in those encounters comes from reflecting back to the mob. Anything with heavy armor also calls for an eruption as bleed bypasses defense, get another stack, then go fire.

Underwater, I typically favor earth for tougher mobs and wind for everything else. If against a large group then boiling water as fire and wait for water, and for emergencies or just underwater farming use whirlpool, which is our best ability.

s/d 4 2 3 and arcane wave then earth 4 5 then cancel(i have 15 might then go into air 4 5 3 2 1 then water then fire for the finnusher