Guild Wars 2

-Intro-
So I’ve played my elementalist for quite some time. I’ve tried the 0 0 10 30 30 OP Staff build (a friend still runs this), I’ve tried the 0 0 10 30 30 D/D build (the same as the 0 0 10 30 30 staff minus blasting staff). I switched out to 0 10 0 30 30, finally falling in love with the 0 15 0 25 30 d/d build (using the build as defense and zerker to dish out the hurt).

My final resting place on builds though has to be my Selfish Aura Build. All of my PvP builds to date have had Lightning Flash, Cleansing Fire (or Armour of Earth for tPvP) and Frost Bow (yes, even in tPvP). This S/F build however does not have a Frost Bow (I kind of miss the 5 sec stun). It uses the flame aura and the buffs gained from that aura, as well as some skilful gameplay.
-End Intro-

Build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArdhMmcbtx3wjEABFHgw4BIiQiowDlCzA-ToAg0CnI+R9j7HzPyfs/M6YuA

Fire:
Fire’s Embrace: A key piece of the build, this trait turns our 4 signets into Fire Auras when activated
Ember’s Might: A filler trait, as there isn’t anything too interesting in the adept tier. Lava tomb since the patch could also be good here. I mention combining it with Afflicted Runes as well, haven’t tried this personally

Air:
Zephyrs Boon: Another important piece of the build, this grants swiftness and fury when activating an aura (which our signets do).

Earth:
Signet Mastery: The quicker the signets come off cd the sooner we can use then for more buff
Elemental Shielding: Gain protection when using an aura, or in our case signet.
Written in Stone: Signet Passives last after activated. I enjoy this trait, it keeps healing on skill use, condition removal over 10 and +25% speed (needed for the lack of movement on S/F).

Water:
Nothing, you could trade 10 in arcane for II Shard of Ice (arcane and sig cause vulnerability on activation)

Arcane:
There are only 10 points left. I throw these into arcane for 10% faster recharge on attunements, you know the trait: Elemental Attunement. This also increases the duration of protection.

Utilities:
Signet of Restoration: Heal when using skill (nerfed in pvp) adds an extra signet to our build for more buffs and has a quicker CD then GoEH. Ether Heal would be nice for the condition removal, but it takes away from the buffs.

Signet of Air: This is now a stun breaker, which means my build now has a stunbreaker finally. Signet of Air also gives 25% movement speed and an instant cast blind. The movement speed is a requirement in a S/F build. The instant cast blind can also be to finish off downed players with interrupts.

Signet of Water: This skill is a passive condition removal, unreliable unfortunately. It also offers up some chill on the enemies. I have been thinking of switching this to Fire signet with the changes, however this build lacks a lot of condition damage, so more testing is required (fire signet has a shorter cd, air signets cd got increased by 10 sec, so fire would give access to the faster auras as air sig used to).

Signet of Earth: The icing on the cake. I am slowly falling in love with this signet. Its cd is long (24 sec traited) but what it does is messy, more on this later. Immobilize and Toughness passive.

Elite: Your choice, I like the FGS when using zerkers (I like this at all time actually, the movement gained out of it.

Playstyle:
This build is brutal against ranged foes at the start and end of engagements. Offering Swirling winds as projectile destroy for your buddies and reflect for yourself. The build has 3 blinds, 2 are instant and can be used for downing foes with interrupt or defensively. While the build has be built a lot around conditions, I prefer to take zerkers to hit hard at the start. It is also one of the better amulets I have tested. This build is still usefull against melee (losts of blinds, knockdown and invulnerable) but has a lot more defences against ranged foes.

I did mention a good use for earth signet, here it is. Starting in air, use you Focus 5 for a knockdown, then switch to fire, start your dragons tooth. There is not enough kd time for dragons tooth to land, but you do have a sig of earth. As soon as you dragon tooth cast is finished, fire your earth sig then phoenix. This isn’t the best spike damage in the game but will put your foe on the defensive, using his heal. This is where the Sigil Of Superior doom comes into play (one of the only ways for eles to get poison).

The build requires more attention and skill level then some others and as with most ele builds the rewards don’t match the effort put in.

Before the patch (I haven’t been able to play since) you could achieve almost 100% protection 100% swiftness and 100 % fury if you played your auras at the correct time. However in battle, nothing ever works out as planned.

As to invulnerable and condition removal, this is covered under the focus skills, earth 4 (better then Cleansing Fire) and Earth 5 (better then mist form, although no stun break).

There is not much might stacking or fields at all with this build. The only class I have trouble fighting (pre patch) are mesmers and stealth abusing thieves as the S/F has very few skills that can hit invisible targets.

As to runes, I’m not to sure yet. Looking at Grenth, Afflicted, Forge, Earth, Nightmare, Lyssa or scholar for opening damage. Not sure on this. Afflicted with the new lava tomb might stack nicely against melee.

do you have a video of this build and play style in action? or plan on making one? I think i’ve only encounter 1 ele ever running x/F in pvp a few months ago. not as mobile as x/D, but interesting.

Would definately love a video of this build as well, looks very interesting.

this build is nothing new, i used this build few months back before the rise of cantrip builds, but i was using D/D so i had 2 aura skills on weapons anyway, with signet of air being a stun breaker, this build could be a bit more suvivable then it used to be but im not sure which 3 signets i would take…

The build is interesting. And no I don’t intend to make a video sorry. This build was strong originally before the patch, but with the new builds coming out from other classes I would have to run it a lot more. Atm I’m playing around with a S/F burst fresh air build. Using the air cd then starting dragons tooth, into earth signet phoenix back to air for lightning strikes.

As the d/d has an extra aura, you can more easily maintain 100% protection, not to mention the d/d’s auras are much better. I like the sceptre combined with the focus as it destroys ranged classes. Its all about timing the blinds and defensive abilities. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this at the start but I play mainly hot join 5v5s with one of my friends. We had a tpvp team a long time ago (when staff eles were almost invulnerable). I have played this build in a few tourneys as bunker.

This build lacks a lot of condition cleans (earth 4 and that’s it). Its built to defeat projectile classes and deal with heavier hits (due to a large access to protection). The focus also takes away from the dagger’s movement on RTL. There is also a lack of vigor, so using all your defensive moves at once is a no no. Timing your defences is the best option.

Remember there are a lot of defences, 3 blinds, 1 long duration immobilize, lots of access to protection, destroy projectiles, reflect projectile (also removes conditions), a kd and invulnerability (if needed, this prevents you from capping though).

Again, as I said earlier, I will have to run this more with the new builds emerging. I did enjoy this build pre patch but have been playing around with other builds since. I have also ran into a lot of builds that run conditions so wether the condition removal will be enough is another story.

As to S/F eles, I am the only one I’ve seen except when my friend ran the same build as me to troll spvp lol and in a few tourneys. He usually runs staff support build for mid points.

Thanks for sharing that build.

I tried many build with the Ele for all position in tpvp. I prefer roaming – dps – support (when I am not bunking for my core team) and elementalist are the best in that position.

Actually, I don’t think focus is really necessary for that role. So I switch back to Scepter / Dagger. Signets are enough to give us the buff we need, aka protection, swiftness and fury. This, is all about bursting your enemies while having enough survivability without both last lines of the tree.

I found it is pretty solid for roaming. I use the divinity runes, the valk amulet with the celetial jewels. It’s a well round ele, the traits are perfect to give 3000 power, 3000 armor for roaming. And the sigil passive are a great addition to the all around divinity / celestial things.

Signet of fire is a beast. That signet alone is enough to start our burst chain and finish anyone more reliably than a fresh air tpvp build. (including the immobilize from signet of earth, is a must to happen, of course) It’s of course, more hard to put down the aura build, so more DPS on the long run because less rezing and revival. The risk is lesser than Fresh Air but the rewards seems better, because we don’t die at each 30 sec of a team fight.

I use the sigil of leeching (approx 1000 dam and heal on weap swap next attack – usually instant first) and the sigil of Forces 5% damage.

On that 2 hours gameplay, I find it solid enough to continue playing it and trying different things to make it better.

Because, I don’t like water signet… Well.. I did put my 10 points in water for cleansing waves.

This is for a roaming – burst – dps spec in mind. Otherwise, your build with focus is great to bunk the home point and call the shot, with enough mobility to perfectly rotate when need.

It lack the stomping power of the cantrips build but when you have a (or two) great Guardian it’s less relevant to have them (cantrips) for roaming – dpsing in tpvp role and meta.

So to resume:

S-D Selfish Aura Roamer Éthernel variant:
Scepter – Dagger
Runes of Divinity
Valk amulet with Celestial Jewel (props to Sublime tech)
Scratch signet of water for Signet of Fire
+ 10 points into water (cleansing wave) / – 10 points into arcane.

Any other great mod to have a great ele aura roamer build?

Éthernel

p.s. a lot of player think you are a noob playing with all those signet, so you are less targeted and when you are, they aren’t paying all due attention. The hardest part is to explain to your crew why this build is bettet than the good old scepter/dagger build.

@Jourdelune
Glad you like it. I primarily run with the focus offhand because I live in Australia and the off dagger bugs to much. It was also due to having 100% Fire Shield, Prot, Fury and Swiftness at one point in the build (before the stun break sig of earth change, you had 16 on air, 16 on fire and 24 on earth CDs so if you pop the auras at the right times you would have 100% of the above buffs).

Sig of Fire I’m not to sure about atm, if you can force your opponents cleanse then the fire will add a lot of damage, but general they cleanse it off. I find this a lot harder to play these days with the conditions flying left right and center, but when you get into a projectile fight or a non condition fight you feel like god. The key to the build is keeping your prot up when needed and trying not to use it when using the 2 weapon blinds.

I believe any build using a focus is much more powerful when switching to /D, I just hate all the buggy skills when you have lag :/. I also run with Sigil of Doom, for the poison (this build was originally a rabid build for conditions) which puts on more pressure after a successful burst, but overall reduces your damage output when compared with Battle? (might stacks on change). With condition damage ramped up, anyone hitting you punishes themselves with burn damage, though using the focus offhand reduces this a bit (projectile destroy, reflect and invulnerability).

Edit:
I will have to give your Valk with Celestials a try (usually use Knights, Zerkers or Rabids for most my builds).