For levelling up, I recommend the (0/10/0/30/30…or 0/10/10/20/30) D/D builds. Scepter is really good in dungeons and can be good in open world with groups, but dagger (and staff) are better when solo’ing. I’d say dagger over staff just because it does kill a bit faster and has better mobility…plus a cleave (Lightning Whip).
Now the scepter build you linked seems to be focused a lot on boon support, which is very good since Scepter can have a lot of blast finishers. Fresh Air builds focus on lots of crits and damage. Both can work very well in a casual to midcore situations. While 30 in fire and air both work well, that does mean you’d go full glass cannon (especially in zerker armor).
If you want 30 in fire for Persisting Flames, I’d recommend (30/0/0/10/30) with boon duration runes (2 superior monk, 2 superior water, [2 superior traveler or 2 major water]). That’d give you 70% boon duration which pretty much puts permafury and lots of might stacks on the group. You do lose damage…but the group gets more from you.
I play Fresh Air…really because I like the build. I usually don’t play the meta or optimal builds because every patch they could change. I prefer to find one build I like and stick with it. I use the focus for utility more than on a regular basis. This is what someone else wrote in another forum post about this…
CoE 4-turret golem. Prevents them from rebuffing.
TA U/U all spider mobs.
TA U/U Malrona before she does the AoE instakill technique
AC all paths against spiders.
Fractal Mai Trin – Prevents her from using the pistol-teleport technique, which as an ele allows you to solo her. Makes the other classes go wuttt and other elementalists wonder why they can’t seem to match you.
Uncat fractal harpy Launch lightning balls.
Uncat fractal Old Tom poison nova.
Uncat fractal… I think it was Professor Mew.
Dredge fractal – nullify the dredge ranged attacks when on the switch. Then use Earth 4 and reflect the next set. Then use Earth 5 and invuln the next set. Then Water 3-selfheal or Arcane Shield or whatnot.
Volcanic fractal, when the boss uses its multihit agony projectile series after its shield breaks. It also nullifies all the lava elementals’ attacks as a bonus.
TA F/F runs, nullify archer shots on the way.
SE, stacking situations with multiple elite bombers.
When multiple mobs are doing rapid-fire pistol shots. Like for instance, taking a camp in WvW.
CoE story mode – Kudu
There are more. Basically when your entire party except you is wiping from a projectile based attack, use it there next time.
And it’s not true that only Air 4 and Earth 4/5 are worth using. Learn to use Air 5 and Water 5 strategically to Interrupt important attacks, they’re your ONLY CC skills, generally speaking. Water 4 is important in chilling Defiant bosses and certain mobs like the Assassins in CoFP2.
Fire 4 is also essential to the mightstack start.
However, Fire 5 is pretty much useless.
Nice little outline of when Focus can be used.
For armor, if you want something more defensive, Valkyrie will be better than Soldier. Same Power and Vitality, but with crit damage instead of toughness. Toughness isn’t that great for Eles in dungeons because it increases chance of getting aggro. So while you can take more hits…you have a higher chance of getting hit more. And pretty much with either build…you can easily heal up to full from nearly dead.
I think the two things you need to change about the build (for sure) are your heal and elite. Signet is best used with dagger since you’ll be casting the most with that weapon. For scepter, glyph and renewal are about equal. I prefer glyph since it is a nice bit of burst healing with more boons for me to choose from…though Ethereal Renewal is a stronger heal with really good condition removal…but you can’t do anything for three seconds.
For elites, generally Fiery Greatsword is the one you want. Especially now that you can cast it while you move. Once you learn how to use it, it is an EXTREMELY powerful elite.
Well anyway, I was testing a lot of stuff in the mists, and didn’t really feel satisfied. D/D is nice, but I feel like I need to be on crack to play it reasonably well haha. Lightning whip looks awesome, but after all I shouldn’t be auto-attacking that much. Then I thought about staff, and staff is nice for large scale combat… and somehow it didn’t just tick for me to sit in fire most of the time, spamming the same skill and only swapping attunements if I really need to. So then I thought… why not S/D? Well, I’ve eventually settled on a build that’s REALLY glassy in my opinion, and I’m not so sure if I like that fact. I mean… I’ve tested it against the trainings NPC’s, and I’ve also killed the two bosses in the mists with it. But that’s single target, and I’m a bit afraid that I’ll die as soon as there’s two or more mobs coming at me haha. So I’d like to hear your opinion about it. Will it work for PvE, or is it just too squishy?