Guild Wars 2

Greetings! I’ve recently gotten back into GW2 and, due to time constraints, only have the ability to really focus on one character. In guild wars 1 my main character was an elementalist, I loved the dps I could put out. In GW2, however, the profession feels like it plays much differently with attunement swapping and whatnot. I enjoy playing with either S/D or staff (perhaps I’ve simply been doing it wrong) but I can’t seem to get very strong damage in solo open world PvE. I’m only level kitten it’s possible that I simply don’t have the necessary traits yet.

So I come to ask all you knowledgeable elementalists— how is ele dps at level 80 in PvE (dungeons and open world)? I’m debating between my elementalist and my thief as my main character, any info to help make my decision would be greatly appreciated. BONUS: Could anyone recommend some good S/D or staff dps builds? Elementalist just seems to feel like more of a support profession with less of a focus on damage, whereas my thief feels like I can do some serious killing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

You really might want to try out warrior if you’re looking for damage. Don’t get me wrong, ele DPS can be great, even for farming CoF. Sadly the passive survivability of eles and thieves is low compared to warriors(both have base HP equal to 60% of the warrior’s base HP). Also tbh 100b is pretty broken right now :P

Roll a Warrior first if DPS is the first thing you ask about.

Axe autoattack does more dps than 100blade and you get to move while using it for free no cooldown!

Also please don’t bring full signets just use crit banner, empower allies and FGJ ty.

Thank you all for your replies, but I just find warrior a bit too mindless. Seems like all you have to do is smash your face on your keyboard until things die

The Ele’s DPS is… not great. You can get some snazzy numbers if you spec for full damage, but those burst builds are generally impractical. You’ll get one-shot by monsters in world events and bosses in dungeons.

That said, more reasonable builds can still do ok for themselves. What Eles lack in single-target damage they partially make up for in AoE. A full Fire + Earth S/D combo is still going to tear mobs apart, as long as you can manage to get your damage off without getting beaten into the ground.

Right now, there seem to be three main builds that are working for people:

1) S/D Burst: 0/30/0/20/20 (sometimes /10/30 or /30/10, though), with a slight emphasis on damage in your build. This build uses the new Fresh Air Grandmaster trait to proc Electric Discharge repeatedly. Stacking Electric Discharge with Lightning Flash does actually give the Ele some decent burst, but what’s mostly nice about it is that it’s near-instant and at range. You can dial up the damage from your armor and weapons if you want; you’ll probably die more, but it’s possible to make up much of the difference with just being really good at dodging. In any case, if you want big numbers, this is probably the build for you.

2) D/D Bunker: 0/10/0/30/30. This is the “old-standby.” Builds tend to be tankier with a lot of Healing Power. The idea is more to out-heal your opponent rather than burst them down. This spec relies heavily on Cantrips and cantrip traits as well as specific rotations of spells. It’s been nerfed so that it isn’t as much of an auto-win but can still be very strong.

(You can actually run this spec with S/D as well, if you want. Doing so gives you more of a toolkit playstyle where you pick and choose which spells you want to use on the fly, rather than the S/D burst build where it’s more about combos and D/D which is more about getting into a rhythm.)

3) Staff x/x/x/x/x/20-30 (still likely 0/10/0/30/30). In a group situation, you can kiiiiiinda get away with running whatever you want if you use the Staff. Your single-target DPS will be pretty bad but your AoE potential is virtually unmatched. Staff eles control the battlefield like few other specs, and because you’re so far away you don’t have to worry about survivability quite as much. 20 in Arcana is required for Blasting Staff, and Water is still good to augment your strong support capabilities.

Personally, I like 0/20/0/30/20 and switching between S/D and Staff (my armor is a mix of stats, with full Celestial trinkets). I have a lot of trait options depending on what exactly I’m doing. With a few moments out of combat, I can switch from a heavier emphasis on damage to better sustain, and from one weapon set to the other. I almost never get downed before I can pop a Cantrip to escape and my damage numbers are reasonably respectable.

Esta.9645:

Thank you all for your replies, but I just find warrior a bit too mindless. Seems like all you have to do is smash your face on your keyboard until things die

A DPS Guardian is pretty good too.

Eles, to answer your question, do actually have some of the highest theoretical DPS with a full glass Lightning Hammer Ele build. But I would seriously consider rolling a Warrior or Guardian first, if you’re preoccupied with PvE DPS.

Very well, I will take this all into consideration. Blaine Tog, thank you so much for that thorough overview! I’m going to sit back a bit and reevaluate what I’m looking for in a profession, and if I decide to stay with the ele, I’ll definitely be taking a shot at some of those builds. Once again, thank you all!

There’s really nothing like the old GW1 Eles who were pure ranged burst nukers. Fresh Air has opened up some options for burst but nothing to the extent that we were in GW1. Most of the Ele builds that are common/present today resemble more close up style Earth based Obsidian Flesh style builds from GW1. Not a lot of damage, but very survivable with a bit of damage.

The closest would be a Shatter Mesmer because they have some really high burst moves that can be done from range. Maybe a Rifle Warrior.

If you want high dps still an ele, I would look into the lightning hammer build.
Here’s a video guide I found. You’ll have to tweak it a bit because of the last patch of course.