Guild Wars 2

Scepter Dagger Build

Contents.
1. Traits
2. Items
3. Stats
4. Role
5. Gameplay

1. Traits

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mMsMz9Mz0mMmxMmMmxMx0x0aocbmkRV8khA70z7070z7khT707kIv70V7owZ70m8ofZ

Purely DPS increasing traits minor survivability, but great Elementalists will separate themselves and learn the proper way to survive without relying on spamming Vitality and Toughness traits and gear. The dagger allows you escape mechanisms and reliable survivability.

2. Items

Scepter dagger hugely uses burns and using this build you are prioritizing Conditions, you will get all your large Power via Might.
Purchase items which consist stats: Power, Condition Damage, Precision, Norgu’s Set a great set and the set I run personally.
Use Chrysocola Orichalcum Trinkets and Exquisite Chrysocola Gems. Weapon: Big Juju and Molten Dagger are amazing and items you would aim to get along with all other items which offer similar stats.

3. Stats

Condition Damage > Condition Duration > Precision > Boon Duration > Power

4. Roles

Playing Scepter Dagger purely generates DPS and little support, you have 2 heals but both are rather impotent compared to those of other weapons.

5. Gameplay

Burning? Burn everything that’s the job. Scepter Dagger has amazing burst damage and gibbing abilities all-around.

Melee range rotation: Dragon’s Tooth, Ring of Fire, Phoenix, Arcane Wave, Earth Attunement Earthquake, Churning Earth. Cast all these spells inside the Ring.

Range rotation: Ride the Lightning, Ring of Fire, Arcane Wave, Roll/run out, Dragon’s Tooth, Phoenix; Spam the Flamestrike and all the Fire abilities on cooldown, use the Ring of Fire in conjunction with Arcane Wave = free Might.

Always use Arcane Blast and Shield whenever needed and whenever not on cooldown.

How do you compare Elementalists using this build (generally any build)? Their Might amount. Anyone who consistently has less than 10 Might stacks during Melee or Range probably are either bad or not doing properly. Melee range should maintain at least 15 and always 20+ stacks, and range should be around 10-20 but that’s totally dependent on the battle.

Please note the variables and situational hazards of every boss and dungeon in this game. This guide may not apply or discuss every single boss, but it gives a general overview of the build I use and get massive praise playing.

Imput
Comments?
Suggestions

Building your DPS purely around burn is a waste. It’s a horrible damage condition. You’re better off focusing on bleeds in earth, or direct damage in air if you want to play scepter.

Don’t even want to start discussing your choice of traits, it’s just bad.

No stunbreaks? Wut?

Edit: Ah crap, just realized you were going for a PvE build. My bad

benda.4893:

Building your DPS purely around burn is a waste. It’s a horrible damage condition. You’re better off focusing on bleeds in earth, or direct damage in air if you want to play scepter.

Don’t even want to start discussing your choice of traits, it’s just bad.

Enlighten me.

Well, your Fire line up is good. I would prefer putting points in Water instead of Arcane to give yourself some more options in terms of survivalbility.

Twoots.2591:

Well, your Fire line up is good. I would prefer putting points in Water instead of Arcane to give yourself some more options in terms of survivalbility.

Noted, but I would consider those in a situational build more. I survive completely fine in all dungeon including arah &&& fractals.

hi Kayanos,

my build is also centered aroun arcane skills but on directdamge with d/d and not conditions. i think your idea is great an i might test it myself too. (gear went in another direction)

suggestion 1:
elemental surge without arcane power is a waste imo. you said “burn everything”. well with the combo of elemental surge and arcane power you can apply 25 seconds of burn if yu stay in fire… (no + duration factored in) – swap it in for arcane blast or the shield… (which you do not need imo – long cd)

plus if you activate in earth you can auto bleed and immobilize at the same time

suggestion 1.2
if you follow suggestion 1 you might find yourself wondering why you spec in fire at all.. … and the answer can only be trait XII .. erverthing else you dont really need. so if thats worth it to you leave it at that spec if not consider suggestion 2

suggestion 2:
put you point in earth and water…

0/0/20/20/30 for more defense and alot of condition removal

0/0/30/10/30 would be also awsome… 3secs group stability an 8sec protection for allies + condi removal…

or use shard of ice for extra vurnability on target

Trying new traits, link updated. Any elaboration or questions please show no hesitation.

I have not yet encountered any other build which is super fun and still does massive damage/DoTs.

I prefer S/F and go through dungeons without taking damage. Fire 1 and earth 1 are my primary condition dmg producers. Still need to get the condition gear so…

This is the way I play Asura S/D elementalist. Reduce dmg taken by team, increase dmg given by team. (don’t go all power as your damage wont make up for the combined damage your team could be doing)
0/25/30/0/15

Team Damage:
At 25 points in air you get a passive that causes 60% of critical hits to cause vulnerability and it stacks duration, so not only your dmg is increased but so is your teams. And with earth spells on =20% cool down, and earth 1 shooting 3 shots, you will keep up a high stack of vulnerability. Use signet of earth for higher crit chance.

For additional team dmg 15 in arcane gives additional might stack on attunement, so
change to the fire line and do the standard might combo DT>RoF>P change to earth line EQ>CE then fall back and apply/keep applying signet of fire for constant burn (use earth line XII to keep up crit chance), attack 1 in earth line to start stacking bleeds and vulnerability.

For team protection:
The 15 points in arcane will give Protection to your team when you changed to earth in your combo.
If you are Asura, then after finishing your combo you apply radiation field. It causes poison and weakness (endurance regeneration decreased by 50%; 50% of Non Critical hits are glancing blows (50% damage); stacks duration)

-RobNHS

Not telling you what you should do, just saying how I play S/D… I’ve tried a DoT bleed build and I’m much happier with this option because bleeds (other than Churning Earth) are only single target (I’m assuming in this build you spend a lot of time spamming Earth 1 to stack bleeds). Some of your burning is AoE, but burning is not the worlds best condition imo, just a nice add on.

S/D also offers something no other class has, 6 blast finishers (assuming you take Evasive Arcana Trait and Arcane Wave), and shouldn’t be ignored.

I run a 15/0/0/25/30 S/D in dungeons and WvW. Maintain 25 stacks of might on my whole team and my might stacking chain does 12-15k dmg AoE each time I cycle through. More of a burst damage build for larger groups, but solo DPS for PvE is so easy anyway, it doesn’t really matter what you hit them with.

Ele has some OK condition damage, but personally I choose to worry more about buffing my team and burst damage and let the necro’s and ranger’s worry about conditions.

I play SD on my ele 0 0 20 20 30. Tanky spec with focus on boon duration and building might. It’s pretty easy to get 15+ stacks of might and keep it. plays much like DD you wear the other guy down instead of bursting. The down side is not having shocking aura and perma swiftness. Up side is better might building and melts newbs faster when they don’t know how to dodge a dragon tooth.