Guild Wars 2

Looking for opinions on if S/F is viable in WvW for small group roaming/havoc and even in larger 15-25 man things. I’ve just grown to love the weapon set, and really wanna try and make it work even if it isn’t the “Meta”

Should I run Fresh Air?
Considered maybe a signet build?
Am I wasting my time? lol

There’s one problem, and one problem only with running S/F in WvW. You’re slow. If your opponent is faster than you, you can’t run from them. If your opponent has triple the numbers, you have to run from them. Error.

Well, that can be made up by using traveler runes can’kitten

Not really, perma swiftness is the norm in WvW, but on a roamer you need more than that. Ergo ride the lightning, lightning flash.

With FGS you can make S/F work, but it won’t be as effective nor as easy as D/D.

Build-wise, a fresh air build along the lines of 06044 would probably work best for you. Gear is personal preference but let me just say full glass is overrated. Mix in soldier’s, knight’s and maybe valk until you get at an acceptable toughness level. You’ll always be on the glassy side though. Any less than 2100 power, 40 crit chance and 200 crit damage is not doable on S/F.

Utilities are usually arcane shield, mist, flash.

Closing notes, S/F isn’t easy. Wasted cooldown means death often. Just sayin. I advise trying out D/D just because it can give you a taste of what the profession is capable of in wvw.

Appreciate all the great replies Gokil. Few questions still though

1. Is S/D just as viable as d/d for WvW roaming/havoc etc?
2. I heard D/D is very hard to play as on ele, but when done well and practiced right, can be near godly, in which case, is it worth the time and work?
3. If running d/d what kind of setup should I be running?

Caffeine.6724:

Appreciate all the great replies Gokil. Few questions still though

1. Is S/D just as viable as d/d for WvW roaming/havoc etc?
2. I heard D/D is very hard to play as on ele, but when done well and practiced right, can be near godly, in which case, is it worth the time and work?
3. If running d/d what kind of setup should I be running?

for your d/d concerns:

any ele who has reasonable skill level as a player, and doesn’t waste every cooldown they have and is a bit frugal with what skill to use and when, you’ll never kill them.

they mistform out of the battle, ride the lightning, and they’re long gone.

So you can zone guys out as desired. Another option is you can just ride the lightning out of the scrap, heal off, and make your way back in.

but like the other guy stated, if its 3-4 vs 1 you should be ready to make lots of miles in wvw. its a valuable ability.

if your tactics include a steady group with a couple guardians and a hammer war, then maybe you don’t need the speed.

it’s noteworthy to mention for whatever reason, people are using glass ranger cheeseball builds (hilarious and ineffective unless they’re on a wall). the ability to put distance between you is probably a good idea for the short term..

Caffeine.6724:

Appreciate all the great replies Gokil. Few questions still though

1. Is S/D just as viable as d/d for WvW roaming/havoc etc?
2. I heard D/D is very hard to play as on ele, but when done well and practiced right, can be near godly, in which case, is it worth the time and work?
3. If running d/d what kind of setup should I be running?

1. Not really. Although S/D specializes in burst damage, it’s overall damage over time, especially versus moving opponents is very, very low. That’s why it works poorly with a hybrid bunker setup like elementalists traditionally run.

2. This used to be the case, however solid buffs to mainhand dagger and a meta that evolved slightly in our favor has turned D/D ele into a beast, even in the hands of a less experienced player. Sure, it’s not as easy as warrior and the skill-cap is pretty kitten high, but contrary to a couple months ago, a good build and a decent set of brains gets you a loooong way these days.

3. The aforementioned hybrid bunker build. 02066 with strength/hoelbrak/pack runes. Gear is mainly knight’s/zerk/soldier. Unless you can afford celestial in which case that’s a solid pick as well, alongside a good bit of knight’s armor. More specifics are easy enough to find with a little searching around. Always battle sigil.

I have played and solo/group roam as an ele since beta and with all weapon sets/builds. Dagger main hand has always been the easiest to perform well in my opinion. Scepter on the other hand takes more thinking and indeed lacks consistent dps. It is awesome for burst but any bunker built player that can survive can easily recover between the burst cooldown rotations. S/d is more effective for this matter but s/f will require more thinking, skill and effort to defeat such builds. Answering your question is s/f viable in wvw? Absolutely but depends mostly on the player’s skill. I have been solo/group roaming and zerging with s/f for more than 6 months now and my experience with this wep set is amazing within all 3 wvw settings.

Should you run fresh air? Yes! this trait is primarily for scepter playstyle. (specially for burst builds)

Considered maybe a signet build? NO, d/d and d/f performs a whole lot better with signet and condition builds.

Are you wasting your time? The moral of the story is if you are looking to specialize in something else out of the ordinary or simply enjoy causing high damage like a real mage always does on other mmorpgs (in range) then no.

During my journey of transferring to several wvw servers I have met many ele players that perform great with d/d and/or d/f like “pros” yet when they play s/d or s/f they do miserable. Just keep in mind that scepter as main hand is a whole different playstyle than dagger main hand.

Hrm, I generally speaking enjoy the fact that scepter offers me some range. I’ve never been very good at up close characters, and more often than not feel I need range to feel “comfortable”. I guess I could also run some sort of staff builds as well, I guess there are just so many options im a bit confused as to which I like. I do like that scepter has great burst, as big numbers are always fun, and so is just absolutely blowing stuff up. Is the only fresh air setup 0/6/0/4/4 ?? Do I just need to accept the fact that if I run s/f ill be slow? or would you all recommend s/d?

Playing around with d/d tonight, and its pretty fun, tho im still confused by being up close and personal :P

S/F lacks CC, mobility and heals in WVW, it’s just about the worst spec possible you can run.

In pvp, S/F is head and shoulders about S/D due to the invuln on Focus.

In WvW, I much prever S/D to S/F because most wvw thieves are just bad and I’m not scared of them 1-shotting me. The mobility of S/D is way more crucial in WvW where the fit can hit the shan really fast. Basically, you aren’t as scared of burst, and mobility is more important in wvw. Properly built and played, S/D will kill anyone glassy b/c you can anticpate their burst and counter-burst to kill them.

All that said, playing s/d or s/f is fighting an uphill battle for solo-roaming as against anyone NOT glass you just don’t have enough sustained damage to kill anyone not glassy, making your life as a squish much harder. D/D just has so much sustained damage to take down almost anyone, and enough sustain to handle any fight and mobility to gtfo when things go bad. Your life will just be easier if you go d/d.

For small-groups (2-5), S/D and S/F get a LOT better b/c you can dps with someone else to just burst targets completely down.

Makes total sense, thanks for the replies! I’ve been playing d/d today as well, trying to get better at it, and make sure I don’t just waste cooldowns and stuff. Still pretty bad at it in my opinion, and feel fairly useless when playing in larger groups of 15-20 as d/d, but I suppose everything excels at certain things. Also having a very hard time with zerker rangers but that’s prolly to be expected