Guild Wars 2

OK. Been gone almost a year and I just sorta went with .. “Uh, I guess this works?” back when I played before. Thing is, it actually did work! But I’m wondering if I’d be more effective with some gear changes. Without further ado…

My build
variation 1 or variation 2

Heals I use either signet or glyph depending, and various cantrips/glyph of storms for utilities.

My current gear
Carrion armor, cleric accessories (a couple of these green still … oops.)

My playstyle
I like support options in both WvW and the occasional dungeon, while not being sad gimpy for solo activities. I never ran full bunker but I don’t wanna melt, either, especially since RtL cooldown means I can’t GTFO as often. Before I left, the boon sharing was great for my melee-centric roamer group but I could 1v2 or 3 the average players if I played my cards right — albeit taking a moderate amount of time to get people down. But hey, back then only a thief or another D/D ele was gonna outrun me, so I had time

Anyways!

I’m a little concerned I’m not making the most of the frequent self-heals (sitting at just about 800 healing if I recall) or condi damage with current gear. I’d considered celestial? Anyone have a full set who can tell me their stat numbers? Anyone got a better suggestion for D/D with an eye for being well-rounded support?

I’d appreciate any opinions, as long as it’s not “reroll” lol

Make a warrior; optimized!

Rainshine.5493:

I’d appreciate any opinions, as long as it’s not “reroll”

Cough.

You say you haven’t played for a year, so I will judge and help that in mind (aka standardish and general tips, instead of something experimental).

- Both of your build variations work. I prefer the variation 2 from traits. But the standard would be 0/10/0/30/30 (1 | 3, 9, 11/12 | 5, 6, 11 ). Does make you better support aswell. If nothing else, I really recommend taking Renewing Stamina from Arcana. Nothing beats vigor.
- For armor Celestial definetly works great for standardish D/D ele! You can even throw in boon duration runes if you want. Great way for roaming is for example half of your items or less Celestial (like 4-6 Celestial jewellery, or chest/legs/head). And then you use rest of the items and food/weaponstone to balance out that low Power, and might stacking (remember power is da best stat).
- So personally I prefer direct damage approach with nice touch of condi and healing. Rather than condi+ healing approach with little direct. Simply because we don’t have high bleeds nor poison, nor confusion, so…

Sabull.5670:

If nothing else, I really recommend taking Renewing Stamina from Arcana. Nothing beats vigor.

D’oh, that was misclick when I made the build. I use Renewing Stamina instead of Arcane Energy. I’ll fix that in a sec. At the time I didn’t really need the extra condi removal from 30 water, but I’ve been reading that condi builds are way more popular these days so I might hafta look into that.

Right now I do use 2 water runes for extra boon duration but I think I just stuck random jewels into the rest of the slots. :P

So what would you yourself use to flesh out the power stat? Stick with carrion (which has more condi over power still) or something like Soldier or Valkyrie?

If you don’t mind, what are your stats sitting at for D/D? I really appreciate the help

Yeah, I just came back to. After playing in wvw again, I’d strongly recommend a kittening reroll. This class is just a pile of dog kitten.

Snow White.1842:

Yeah, I just came back to. After playing in wvw again, I’d strongly recommend a kittening reroll. This class is just a pile of dog kitten.

Seriously? Let’s try this again.

Rainshine.5493:

I’d appreciate any opinions, as long as it’s not “reroll”

Maybe I need to bold that part or something. If launch taught me anything, it’s that the class has never been nearly as bad as the official forums make it out to be.

From your builds, get rid of earth. The meager points for toughness you get from it aren’t any good unless you’re going balls deep for the full 30. Even then its still questionable at best. On top of that earth’s traits are generally not that great.

Move those points over to water, the vitality will serve you better, and you can buff toughness from gear using pvt.

Both builds use dagger/dagger. My personal favorite as well. Not nearly as functional as it was a year ago. Not nearly as functional as it was six months ago. You’ll find that out with trial and error, and hopefully you have more patience than I.

Scepter/dagger, and scepter/focus seem to be the new dagger/dagger. It does middle ground damage, but for some reason people seem to jump and look now like its amazing and new. Its considered the new ele spike, for whatever that’s worth. I remember spike, and this isn’kitten

Use a scepter/focus or scepter/dagger. Go get yourself a fresh air build. For best survival use all pvt gear.

Or

Dagger/dagger. 0-10-0-30-30 or 0-20-0-20-30. For best survival use all pvt gear.

Or use staff 30-30-0-10-0 and stand way back.

If you’re using exotic gear, either use all divinity runes, or just use orbs. Set bonuses from runes actually cut down the stats you gain, for a minor buff or two and the trade off (generally) isn’t worth it. Some people think it is, but some people also can’t do basic math. And those runes that used to be the exception to this have mostly been nerfed into the ground, making them not the exception to this.

If you’re using ascended gear, celestial. As an ele that has effectively less stat points than every other class (taking into consideration health, defense, etc), you need all the base line points you can get to try to make up the difference. Unfortunately it still leaves pretty much all the other classes to use glass cannon builds and still be able to survive. Not a lively strategy, no pun intended, for an ele who will most likely suffer from a severe case of “stabbed in the face and downed syndrome”.

I apologize for my previous post. I’m just extremely disappointed with the state of the elementalist at this point. Wearing lingerie and struggling to keep up with a wvw zerg, then watching a fully armored warrior float by you like rose petals on the wind (all the while having far more defense and health and damage…etc) is extremely telling about where class balance is heading. From the looks of things it won’t be turning around anytime soon.

If you’re doing WvW get a staff, some berserker/soldier/knight gear and spec 0/10/0/30/30(cleansing water). Follow the commander, drop your water fields/statics on zerg clashes and you should be ok. Edit: if you really want to use daggers then you shoud still get some more crit gear and use 0/20/0/20/30 or something similar. I’ve tried going tanky but it really wasn’t worth it and the support I could do was outshined by guardians.
For dungeons get full berserker(or throw in some soldier if you’re feeling too squishy) and use lightning hammer/fiery greatsword. You should get good dps as long as you can keep yourself alive.
Edit 2: why did editing make a second post instead of actually editing? O_o

Just gonna roll out a few replies without doing a billion quotes.

Snow White.1842:

From your builds, get rid of earth. The meager points for toughness you get from it aren’t any good unless you’re going balls deep for the full 30. Even then its still questionable at best. On top of that earth’s traits are generally not that great.

Move those points over to water, the vitality will serve you better, and you can buff toughness from gear using pvt.

I don’t go earth for toughness so much as for the protection on auras.

I notice the scepter trend … I’ve just never liked that weapon. I used it occasionally when the focus was useful (heavy projectile dungeons, for instance) because D/F just feels super awkward, but yeah.

Thanks for the tips! I am tempted to stick with my jewels then, particularly after your breakdown of them vs. runes

And don’t worry about being cranky … I get it. I just get a little cranky myself because this forum has never been anything but doom and gloom in every thread, which just isn’t productive. Truce?

Wryog.5073:

If you’re doing WvW get a staff, some berserker/soldier/knight gear

…

For dungeons get full berserker(or throw in some soldier if you’re feeling too squishy) and use lightning hammer/fiery greatsword. You should get good dps as long as you can keep yourself alive.

I don’t really like staff. Don’t get me wrong, I have one and sometimes it’s necessary, but I’m not looking to totally change my build — I’m looking to tweak gear to fit my build and playstyle.

But thanks for the advice. I might play around with higher DPS for dungeons. Out of curiosity, what 2 air traits would you take in your proposed D/D build?

but .. but .. I want to tell you reroll so bad. I’m shaking man. It’s hard to hold it back.

There is a massive thread that tells you all you wanna know. A quick sum-up for the gear and traits is here

ImProVocateur.5189:

but .. but .. I want to tell you reroll so bad. I’m shaking man. It’s hard to hold it back.

There is a massive thread that tells you all you wanna know. A quick sum-up for the gear and traits is here

I tried to find something like this! Apparently my googlekittenis weak. Thanks so much.

Forget 0-10-0-30-30. It’s old and not very efficient nowadays.

You should check daphoenix’s posts about it, since that seems to be what you’re using, but I’ll break it down for you if you want.

Knight’s armor, 2x sup monk, 2x sup water, 2x sup traveler. Celestial trinkets, whatever weapons (knight’s, soldier’s, berserker’s, etc). Sigil of battle on one dagger, whatever on the next.

I’m running 0-15-10-15-30. Use renewing stamina instead of that arcane whichever. Basically plays the same as the standard D/D you’re used to, but you will feel the nerfs to defense Anet intended.

Lina.9640:

I’m running 0-15-10-15-30.

Which trait do you use in Earth?

Rainshine.5493:

But thanks for the advice. I might play around with higher DPS for dungeons. Out of curiosity, what 2 air traits would you take in your proposed D/D build?

Zephyr’s Boon(swiftness+fury on aura) and Bolt to the Heart(+20% damage vs enemies with less than 33% HP).

Lina.9640:

Use renewing stamina instead of that arcane whichever. Basically plays the same as the standard D/D you’re used to, but you will feel the nerfs to defense Anet intended.

Crap, apparently I only fixed the error in one build. Renewing Stamina is actually what I run, I don’t use arcane skills usually so that would be a terrible choice lol. Just a misclick.

But thanks for the insight. Is the vulnerability on crit really worth losing another major trait for? I’m hesitant because a) I like to play aggressively and out front and b) I dislike neglecting healing and condi damage completely.

Wryog.5073:

Rainshine.5493:

But thanks for the advice. I might play around with higher DPS for dungeons. Out of curiosity, what 2 air traits would you take in your proposed D/D build?

Zephyr’s Boon(swiftness+fury on aura) and Bolt to the Heart(+20% damage vs enemies with less than 33% HP).

Thanks

I used to run with the standard 0/10/0/30/30. After the Sky Pirates nerf/patch I adapted and ended up loving 0/10/10/20/30 with Celestial armor/accessories and Knight’s weapons (http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k;4BJVU0z4gMkY0;9;599JT;10;05;024-45ASR;1o0-TutbUTsW20FWF7;1Fc-Vt5uau5vav5w54uVI7330;50;9;9;9;9;9;34-6U). I still feel tanky and with improved dps to boot. For runes I use the boon duration/condition reduce combo (2x Sup Monk, 2x Sup Water, 2x Sup Melandru w/Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup) for 60% boon duration and -50% condition duration.

0 10 0 30 30 still works fine