Guild Wars 2

Hello all. My brother, friend and I typically run a trio and have decided to work a new set up. I am looking for advice on the elementalist (I’m new to this class).

The trio will consist of
1. Necro/Warrior/Elementalist
2. Mesmer/Warrior/Elementalist

Since there’s 3 of us and are in Gold atm… we can assume that any fight will turn into 3 vs X.

I have tested weapon sets and it seems to me that sceptor/dagger or dagger/dagger is the way to go for a small group. Specifically I was looking at this build:

Sceptor/Dagger
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQJArYhcMac25wwBd0AC5hLcCsg4hF0AcYpgOA

Lacking experience with the elementalist, I am not sure if what I listed above is on the right track or just stupid.

My questions are how would this spec fair in terms of:
- Survivability
- Damage output

I figure that I would want Knights or Cavaliers because HP is low.

Any help and thoughts on this matter are appreciated.

Thanks!

Dagger/dagger aura share builds are great if you are running power. A necro with boons is very strong.

Scepter/dagger doesn’t have much support utility, but it is good for bursting opponents. It is more of a selfish type of play.

The main thing you want to do is compliment the weaknesses of the necro, mesmer or warrior. The necro is lack of boons, the mesmer is lack of swiftness and condition clears and the warrior is just face roll lol.

FrownyClown.8402:

Dagger/dagger aura share builds are great if you are running power. A necro with boons is very strong.

Scepter/dagger doesn’t have much support utility, but it is good for bursting opponents. It is more of a selfish type of play.

The main thing you want to do is compliment the weaknesses of the necro, mesmer or warrior. The necro is lack of boons, the mesmer is lack of swiftness and condition clears and the warrior is just face roll lol.

As you said, d/d aurashare is probably one of the top small group specs for ele (0/10/10/30/20 is what I would do to maximise my auras and boon output).
Other than that, staff always works if you’re trying to cover friendly weaknesses, because everyone can use that kind of support (especially if you add extra blasts via Evasive Arcana and Arcane Wave), and since you seem to be running with two potentially heavy control types staff damage will be much more effective.

P Fun Daddy.1208:

FrownyClown.8402:

Dagger/dagger aura share builds are great if you are running power. A necro with boons is very strong.

Scepter/dagger doesn’t have much support utility, but it is good for bursting opponents. It is more of a selfish type of play.

The main thing you want to do is compliment the weaknesses of the necro, mesmer or warrior. The necro is lack of boons, the mesmer is lack of swiftness and condition clears and the warrior is just face roll lol.

As you said, d/d aurashare is probably one of the top small group specs for ele (0/10/10/30/20 is what I would do to maximise my auras and boon output).
Other than that, staff always works if you’re trying to cover friendly weaknesses, because everyone can use that kind of support (especially if you add extra blasts via Evasive Arcana and Arcane Wave), and since you seem to be running with two potentially heavy control types staff damage will be much more effective.

Thanks for the responses. I guess my role is best served as playing more towards support then what I actually thought would be beneficial. I’ll give this a shot.

And to respond to your staff / Evasive Arcana suggestion, I am familiar with a 0/10/20/10/30 staff support spec (popular within the blob hammer train stuff I was told).

2 thieves and a mesmer IMO.

support ele that does 6-7k fire grabs.

FrownyClown.8402:

support ele that does 6-7k fire grabs.

Exactly, I build so that my support is more incidental than the focus of my build.
That’s part of why I like staff so much, because my buffs and heals to myself are AoE without any investment on my part past just getting blasts and positioning my AoEs so that I can help everyone. I can then have the fun of raining fire down upon my enemies while my allies meatshield for me
Even with d/d aurashare, which sounds very support-y, you’re still only actually putting one trait explicitly to helping allies, and the rest are mostly for your own benefit and just happen to provide support.

So, not a complete build, as it depends on your play-style and what you enjoy, but there are a few things to note:

1. MIGHT STACKING will help that group comp. a lot. D/D will be very good at might-stacking post-patch with an extra blast on dagger 2 (water), while s/d and s/f are already very good at might stacking. Giving 10-20 might stacks to a condi necro or burst mesmer is TERRIFYING.

2. Boon support – Giving more boons to your friends, especially stab, prot, and swiftness. That being said, you ABSOLUTELY want 20 in arcana for elemental attunement. 20 in earth for rock solid wouldn’t be bad either, as it allows you to secure stomps and support your necro friend with stability (which they have very poor access to).

3. Necro can give some decent condi clear to the party, but mesmer lacks it. Taking some means of group cleanse (evasive arcana, cleansing wave, cleansing water) would be a good idea.

4. Warrior can stun/cc a LOT, so traits that are often over-looked have more value. Consider Tempest Defense, especially if you are going to play power-based spec. Coordinating with your warrior friend to spike when he gets a stun/knockdown will increase your spike by 20% (which is HUGE)!!!! This is doubly good if you go with aura-share too.

5. Your warrior should be able to get stomps most of the time with lots of stability, so you can focus more on doing damage potentially.

6. Don’t discount staff, as the extra cc and water-fields you will be able to put-down will really help improve your team’s survivability. This is extra true if you are smart with earth 2—>water field and consider taking the arcane heal and maybe even arcane blast. Those water-fields alone can give you guys the survivability you need to survive in a 3vMore fight.