Guild Wars 2

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83561-hamartias-sd-elementalist-build-dps-might-stacking/

Posting mostly to see if anyone can debate the fact that S/d is now the obvious choice for Elementalist PVE.

Before this patch, this build did the most damage, but gave up on providing fury to group— it now provides 100% fury uptime in addition to might.

25 stacks of might and 100% fury uptime make Elementalist pretty much the strongest PUG class.

Assuming mostly zerker stats, 2500 power, 25 might is worth about 35% damage and fury is worth 10-20% damage.

Min maxed warrior/mesmer/guard groups already have 100% fury and 25 stacks of might— but any other group will benefit from these huge boosts.

Going to be investigating a 30/30 version later on.

Lightning hammer will outdps this build as an individual, assuming someone else is bringing the fury and might.

The main thing d/d had over s/d was more access to zephyr’s boon(and sharing it) and since they halved the boon shocking aura gave it isn’t really worth it anymore. Burning speed was nice as a second fire field and still is but now that persisting flames is a given, having half the field uptime isnt an issue for s/d.

I don’t necessarily agree with those builds on that link but I agree with the headline in this thread.

S/D is the worst weapon choice you can make for pve.

The biggest problem with scepter is the auto attacks in every attunment are inferior to dagger and staff auto attacks.

For example with my current gear trait set up which is full berserker gear with scholar runes and using 30/10/0/20/10.

as dagger/x

Dragon claw is 6191dps
Vapor blade is 3850 dps
Lightning whip is 6699 dps
Implae is 3381 dps

vs scepter

flame strike is 1833 dps
ice shards is 3132
arc lightning is 2633 dps
stone shards is 2244 dps

vs staff

fire ball 3676 dps
water blast 1418 dps
chain lightning 2960 dps
stoning 2121 dps

Dagger mainhands worst auto attack is better than scepters best auto attack.As staff you’re better off sitting in fire and spamming fire ball > lava font only leaving every 20-30 seconds so you can stack fury.

This leads me to my next problem with using scepter in pve.

Only phoenix and dragons tooth do meaningful damage.The rest of the damage spells in other attunments all do worse damage than auto attacks.As s/d you’re casting two hard hitting skills, and then not doing meaningful damage for the next 16 seconds.

You’re better off playing dagger/focus or staff and stacking might to 9.

Or, you can stop being bad and play Lightning Hammer in PvE, which does far, far, far, far more damage than any ele mainhand weapons.

Scepter does horrible sustained damage. Don’t be fooled by the dragontooth/phoenix numbers.

Warrior/Guardians can stack might just fine and give group fury.

Smooth Marc.8743:

S/D is the worst weapon choice you can make for pve.

The biggest problem with scepter is the auto attacks in every attunment are inferior to dagger and staff auto attacks.

For example with my current gear trait set up which is full berserker gear with scholar runes and using 30/10/0/20/10.

as dagger/x

Dragon claw is 6191dps
Vapor blade is 3850 dps
Lightning whip is 6699 dps
Implae is 3381 dps

vs scepter

flame strike is 1833 dps
ice shards is 3132
arc lightning is 2633 dps
stone shards is 2244 dps

vs staff

fire ball 3676 dps
water blast 1418 dps
chain lightning 2960 dps
stoning 2121 dps

Dagger mainhands worst auto attack is better than scepters best auto attack.As staff you’re better off sitting in fire and spamming fire ball > lava font only leaving every 20-30 seconds so you can stack fury.

This leads me to my next problem with using scepter in pve.

Only phoenix and dragons tooth do meaningful damage.The rest of the damage spells in other attunments all do worse damage than auto attacks.As s/d you’re casting two hard hitting skills, and then not doing meaningful damage for the next 16 seconds.

You’re better off playing dagger/focus or staff and stacking might to 9.

I think my head is exploding from someone actually using numbers to prove their point instead of the usual “rock solid” reasons for their opinion:

They “have a feeling that this is better.”
They “know that everyone knows what they are saying is true.”
They “have this video of them doing random attacks proving their point.”
They “have wicked screen shots as proof!” (that are just of the combat log showing you nothing)
They “can’t prove it’s better or worse but they know it’s better than what you are doing.”

Im sorry, but I dont understand how your getting the 100% Fury up time without Zephyrs Boon or Fresh Air. Please enlighten me so I too can create a new build.

DJSkittles.7196:

Im sorry, but I dont understand how your getting the 100% Fury up time without Zephyrs Boon or Fresh Air. Please enlighten me so I too can create a new build.

Warrior banners, FGJ, and mesmer signet of inspiration.

Smooth Marc.8743:

S/D is the worst weapon choice you can make for pve.

The biggest problem with scepter is the auto attacks in every attunment are inferior to dagger and staff auto attacks.

For example with my current gear trait set up which is full berserker gear with scholar runes and using 30/10/0/20/10.

as dagger/x

Dragon claw is 6191dps
Vapor blade is 3850 dps
Lightning whip is 6699 dps
Implae is 3381 dps

vs scepter

flame strike is 1833 dps
ice shards is 3132
arc lightning is 2633 dps
stone shards is 2244 dps

vs staff

fire ball 3676 dps
water blast 1418 dps
chain lightning 2960 dps
stoning 2121 dps

Dagger mainhands worst auto attack is better than scepters best auto attack.As staff you’re better off sitting in fire and spamming fire ball > lava font only leaving every 20-30 seconds so you can stack fury.

This leads me to my next problem with using scepter in pve.

Only phoenix and dragons tooth do meaningful damage.The rest of the damage spells in other attunments all do worse damage than auto attacks.As s/d you’re casting two hard hitting skills, and then not doing meaningful damage for the next 16 seconds.

You’re better off playing dagger/focus or staff and stacking might to 9.

You do not press 1 when using Scepter. I even have autocast disabled so I never waste a second using one of the crappy auto attacks.

Hope you didn’t sit there and waste your time coming up with this.

DJSkittles.7196:

Im sorry, but I dont understand how your getting the 100% Fury up time without Zephyrs Boon or Fresh Air. Please enlighten me so I too can create a new build.

Every blast finisher you do inside a fire field with persisting flames gives 10 seconds of fury AOE. You have 8 blast finishers, so 80 seconds of fury right off.

Zenith.7301:

Or, you can stop being bad and play Lightning Hammer in PvE, which does far, far, far, far more damage than any ele mainhand weapons.

Scepter does horrible sustained damage. Don’t be fooled by the dragontooth/phoenix numbers.

Warrior/Guardians can stack might just fine and give group fury.

My Elementalist is my PUG class. Otherwise, I have a kittening zerker warrior and Guardian for min/maxed groups.

In the average PUG, providing 35% DPS through 25 stacks of might, and10-20% DPS through 100 fury uptime is more valuable than sitting there and spamming 1 as a glass cannon.

Zenith.7301:

Or, you can stop being bad and play Lightning Hammer in PvE, which does far, far, far, far more damage than any ele mainhand weapons.

Scepter does horrible sustained damage. Don’t be fooled by the dragontooth/phoenix numbers.

Warrior/Guardians can stack might just fine and give group fury.

True,but I just wanted point out that this build is not very good for pve.

DJSkittles.7196:

Im sorry, but I dont understand how your getting the 100% Fury up time without Zephyrs Boon or Fresh Air. Please enlighten me so I too can create a new build.

You can get 100% up time on fury with the recently buffed Persisting flames by using blast finishers in a fire field.You can do this with any weapon set.

You can stack fury with a hammer build by dropping a fire field, picking up the hammer and using 2 auto attack chains + arcane wave.If you do that your party will always have 100% fury.

Hamartia.3421:

You do not press 1 when using Scepter. I even have autocast disabled so I never waste a second using one of the crappy auto attacks.

Hope you didn’t sit there and waste your time coming up with this.

So do you just stand around when all your 20-40 second skills are on cool down?

I run a S/D build. I will admit that currently I cannot solo certain vets and do not stand a chance against most champions; however, that might be due to the low vitality and healing power which I am now starting to fully understand is crucial to pve solo.

I wanted to simply highlight the system I use which has proven effective.

I use Fire Sig, Dragons Tooth, Fire Ring and Phoenix then pop over to Earth for Earthquake and Churning Earth to get my might stacks. During churning I use Air Sig to help finish the casting. During the casting of churn I determine if I need heals or not. If I do then I will cast Earth Glyph of Storms then pop over to Water and fire off my heals and induce some vulnerability (though not right now because Shatterstone is fubared). If I do not need heals or I am finished healing I will go into Air for some CC to position for another round of Fire Burst Damage but this time when I go back into Earth it is only for the Dust Devil and Rock Barrier. Then hop around through Air and Water until Fire is off CD and then start the whole process over again if needed which t usually isnt.

Now, I know this seems like it would leave me super vulnerable but I have traited to compensate for that: 0/20/0/30/20

There you will see that I have condition reducing and healing system with a touch of defense. The gear is what I intend to get which should correct my low health and further improve my healing abilities which I think is all I need to get in order to take on champions solo.

After some testing I realize that the sweet spot for health should be 19000 and armor 2100 thought until I get the funds to give this a whirl I wont know for sure.

I just want to reinforce the fact that precise dodging and LoS are a key for playing this build well.