Guild Wars 2

So first off, I’d like to clearly state that this is my first time posting on the forums. If this is in the wrong spot, or if there are otherwise any formatting/formality problems, advice on where to post this sort of thing would be appreciated.

So, with that out of the way, let me get to the point. I’ve spent many hours researching a build for an elementalist. It has a very specific purpose: to provide front-line support to allies with healing and condition removal while disrupting enemies in the opposing force by means of crowd control. I worked very persistantly on what seems to me like an ideal build for the job:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k;4B2VU0-5wMFZ0n-sM;1z4;79-TT;10;329A17AU31;9;0b-kSN6;1Nb;0K-P0T1ZYdZi4150Ds0V;5FYDuFYDo;9;9;9;9;83k3c

(I’m allowed to post links like this, right? If not, Iet me know and I’ll edit it out.)

So this is a D/D build, it has high endurance generation with some useful effects whenever I dodge, including a cleansing wave in water attunement. Aside from that, there’s a lot of emphasis on condition removal so I don’t get shredded while I’m doing my stuff. So I’m actually pretty open to constructive criticism, but if you look at it for long, you may notice there are no runes. I’ve actually settled on what I’d consider to be a couple of good options:

Superior Runes of The Dolyak: Gotta be bulky to frontline, though I don’t know how fitting this choice would be. There comes a point where you’ve put too much into defense and you’ve stopped being productive, and I’d like to not breach that line. Thoughts?

Superior Runes of Svanir: (Possibly runes of Grenth/Ice for more chill duration?) D/D has a fair chunk of easy access chill, along with my sigil of the hydromancer. However, I don’t know how productive chill duration really is.

Superior Runes of The Traveler: These are supposedly good. I can’t afford the sigil, nor the trait for the passive 25% speed in this build. The speed is pretty tempting but I always feel these passive speed boosts have little effect in combat.

Superior Runes of Speed: These look more reasonable, and far less expensive. They would provide me with more bulk, but I worry that I’d be over-investing in vitality without having the toughness to back it up.

I am moderately nervous, as I’ve never made a front-liner for WVW and have never actually played a heavy class, so I’m not even sure this class can survive to do what I designed it to do. Is this build viable? Would it be better to drop some water and/or some arcana in order to get into earth magic? Should I be investing in condition damage at all, such as Power/Toughness/Condition Damage rather than Power/Toughness/Vitality?

Again, ANY advice or constructive criticism is very much appreciated, as I have poured many hours of research into this, and I still have many more to go. My apologies for the barrage of questions. Thanks guys!

Your build looks as bunker as it can get really xD It seems itself like that build will let you be able to do a pretty good job at what you’re aiming for your build to do, just don’t expect to turn the tide damagewise… tho if I can offer some alternatives…

You could replace your trinket set with some cleric accessories to boost heal power, which scales great with eles and give u more of a support role without losing much in survivability. I ran something similar to this effect when I first made my ele, and I’ll tell u it can survive some crazy stuff!

As for rune choices, if you want to try out an aura sharing build, you could try out Rune of the Earth, that way with your D/D set, you’ll have access to all 4 elemental auras in one build. You’ll also have more protection uptime and toughness this way too. You could also try out the 2 monk, 2 water, 2 traveler rune combo for 75 heal power and up to 75% boon duration for your build as well! And I tried dolyak runes as a first choice for my ele before I switched to earth runes then and… The health regen from those runes just aren’t worth it to me.

I’d also use a different food than the might on dodge one, with Renewing Stamina the food’s endurance regen might get outshined by the vigor procs… I could suggest the one that gives heal power based off toughness and vitality, I forget what it’s called though >.<

Looks good for your purposes. It is actually perfect for what you want to try to accomplish as a front liner. I would go 4 altruism 2 water or 2 water, 2 monk, 2 traveler. For your purposes and helping others on the front line boon duration would work well. I would personally go with 3 water 3 monk to get 60% boon duration and 155 healing power if I was using your specific build.

You don’t need the 6 piece bonus of speed or traveler if you have boon duration, you actually don’t need boon duration at all to maintain swiftness with 30 arcana and your zephyr’s boon. You want the protection uptime to allow you to stay front line so boon duration is the best for that.

Colt.9051:

I’d also use a different food than the might on dodge one, with Renewing Stamina the food’s endurance regen might get outshined by the vigor procs… I could suggest the one that gives heal power based off toughness and vitality, I forget what it’s called though >.<

Mango Saffron Icecream

So at this point, having looked at the cleric’s stat option on trinkets, my Hit Points dropped by 3.76k, and I’m up from 330 Healing Power to a tad over 1k. (All of this is still with no runes) I have to wonder if the healing power will fully compensate for the loss of what I consider to be a large amount of health? Does anyone know the math behind this, or where to find it so I can run the numbers? Another thing is the mentioned protection up-time. Would it be more appropriate to go into Earth for extra toughness and Elemental Shielding? (Earth V: Gain protection for 3 seconds when applying an aura to yourself or allies) That would eliminate some of my crit chance, and the better part of my fury intake, which in turn would cut my vigor up time. (I think…) Thanks for the replies so far guys!

Got nothing to add to what the others wrote, as it’s mostly solid advice. The one alternative I see, is that you could try using Powerful Aura combined with Rune of Fire to add a little offensive support to your frontlines too.

Also, keep in mind that you can use Earth 3 to leap through your fire fields to get another aura, or (though it can be hard to time) use blast finishers in the ice fields created by the Ice Elemental summon for AoE frost armor. You’d have to switch elite for the last one to work, but the various elementals’ boons could work well with your frontline support goal.

Dead Jim.4317:

So at this point, having looked at the cleric’s stat option on trinkets, my Hit Points dropped by 3.76k, and I’m up from 330 Healing Power to a tad over 1k. (All of this is still with no runes) I have to wonder if the healing power will fully compensate for the loss of what I consider to be a large amount of health? Does anyone know the math behind this, or where to find it so I can run the numbers?

There was a guy that has done extensive calculations on effective health based on vigor, healing and toughness. It’s buried somewhere in the forums though, but it was very thorough.

which in turn would cut my vigor up time. (I think…) Thanks for the replies so far guys!

I wouldn’t worry about that, you’ll have a lot of hits (fire auto is divided in 3 hits for example) so if you go critical just for vigor, you’ll be fine.

Also, your food’s endurance regen won’t stack with vigor right?

Also, your food’s endurance regen won’t stack with vigor right?

Yeah, I guess it wouldn’t. I’ve only ever extensively played a necro, and they don’t do vigor much. Shame on me for thinking Anet would let me stack something like that…

Freeze duration runes is really good for fighting around 15 to 20. Use glyph of elemental power and its permanent freeze. Larger scale you won’t notice as much. It was so affective my guild used it for gvg a few times

Been out of the loop with this rune, Does the 6th rune bonus on Dwayna runes synergize with cleansing water now? If so, that could be a consideration.

Otherwise, I’d second the 4x altruism and 2x water runes suggested earlier.