Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone, I am participating in a small 1 v 1 SPVP dueling tournament within a couple weeks, and I’m here to ask for any advice/training opportunities that anyone can provide me.

A little about myself: I have played ele since launch, and have played tpvp in the first few months of the game, however, upon realizing the disadvantages of ele in terms of stat distribution, I eventually moved towards WvW where at least some build diversity actually exists. Now I’m moving back towards SPVP, but eles seem to be in a worse spot than when I left. Currently I tend to run a tanky/dps version of the Fresh air S/D build, using soldier’s amulet with zerker jewel.

So to those people who still play an elementalist in SPVP (if there are any), and especially those who spends their days dueling, what advice do you have for an ele going up against the current meta?

For example: Are there “competitive” builds outside of the standard that may not necessary do well for point capture but works better in 1v1 fights?
-What are some practices that works well for you in fights against different professions?

If there are good duelists who would be willing to practice against me, that would be great too.

i personally think eles in duels r pretty good w s/f
i only got difficultys vs guards w blind and warrior w soldier amu and all points spend in last 3 treelines, didnt play warrior longer than 1day before i got bored so idk what kind of build those r, they got x/shield and bow

does ur duel end when someone gets downed or when u die entuirely?
i got an spvp build w downed dmg etc wich is pretty good at pointfights, just die in middle of point and u tick 4 k only w the fire thingy around u, and deal 2-4 k crits w downed auto atk, more w the skill 3 in downed, kind of a suicide ele:p well here is the build:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQJAr9AdOLZ4zQgQUgCmQoQAIeYBOAHWKkDA-ToAg0CnIQShkDJDSSksINKY+B heal depending if there r heavy condi classes like necro or engi in enemy team, same for elite w map
tipp: when ur skill 3 has 3 sec left to use, use vapor form again and then go down on spot u want, u create a lava tomb once again, pretty strong

well if it isnt build u asked, it suprises me how many eles dont know that , maybe u neither , so just telling if u r fighting a condi prof, skil 4 on focus on earth cures 3 condis

against necros i mostly use air 5 w focus, switch fire during cast, dragon toth , ohonix, and they r pretty much dead alrdy, considering u surely gonna burst w lightnings as well

engis, idk rly, never rly seen any good ones(seen some but pretty rare

bursty wars r easy, some who got few defence traits r alrdy nearly impossible to kill

mesmer, cc and burst wont help u much, and u never gonna hit w dragonstooth so dont other trying, since mesmers mostly die easily w few hits(if u hit em, i mained mesmer for rly long so i always knowwch is the real one) i just kite around, dodge phantasms/shatter, and hit w lightnings, once in a while trying phoenix

guards, blind and blocks r a pain, since we dont do many hits, few but powerful hits, just try avoiding their symbols, they will proc burn on u wich hurts more than their actual hits mostly(over time)

other ele, try avoiding their burst,, thats all i am gonna say

ranger, bearbows r the easiest if u got focus, they just spamming from range, u can either reflect all w focus earth 4 or destroy all projectyles w air

condi rangers, u can cleansee quickly if needed, since their weap dmg wont do much, try keeping ur distance anyway(most condi rangers r w sword and dagger), get out of traps asap

thiefs, didnt see many good ones so wont say anything, most thiefs just did last hit when i was fighting other ppl(backstab) , didnt notice em coming (stealth)

i may be wrong at some points so correct me if so and dont hate;p

Thanks for the reply, I’ve been thinking a bit about focus offhand as well, however initial testing wasn’t optimistic since the weapon set doesn’t do very much damage without help from arcane burst skills (I wasn’t using as glassy of a build though). What is your experience on having no additional toughness?

I know for sure that I will be going up against glass thieves, and previous experience tells me that going glass against them is just asking to be insta-popped, but going more hp/armor means I lack the damage to kill them before I eventually use up my sustain.

I’ll experiment more with focus offhand and arcane burst though, I haven’t used it very much and only know a few combos.

S/F is essential for PvP to get stomps off(on a fresh air), other than that I go the usual full zerk fresh air 0/30/10/0/30 with divinity runes and valk jewel to add in some toughness/vitality but every s/d ele I see in PvP gets roflstomped, the defensive aspects of focus just aren’t parallel to any other for a full glass(ish) build. Just keep in mind the focus fire skills are pure garbage.

if u wanna play d/d , yday i made this build, works quite well for both duels and pvp

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQJAoIhUM6c24wwZAg8wlTYZUIkyjcmxGA-ToAAyCsIQShkDJDSSksINKY+B

lightning flash can be swapped for arcan shield

it doesnt have much dmg, but u can survive pointfights , works well in 2-3 vs 1 as well (u r the lonely guy )

this build works awesome vs miniomancers as well, some of u got difficultys vs em

u might say, d/d isnt viable in pvp, give this a shot, it works quite well

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQJAoYhMM6c24wnBd0AA5BKmwiowDlH5MjNA-TkAA0CnIgSJkTIDUSxsiNAB

This will keep chill on your enemy most of the fight. Ive tested this build quite a bit and is fairly balanced and excellent in group play

I actually ended up using a 0/30/10/0/30 build and am finding that it works quite well against people who do not have relentless pressure on you.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQJArYhMMaZ2zwxBd0AyoQIIeYBOAHWekDzgNA-ToAg0CvIqRVjrGTNyas1MKY+B

Frowny, that’s an interesting idea and I might actually look into those chill duration runes. Are there other tested combinations of runes similar to this, (other than the boon duration ones)? I’m trying to find a replacement for the divinities runes I run

Well your could technically max out might duration or protection but it’s better to just use general boon duration runes. Chill works because we have easy access to it. Once I get my computer next week ill take a look at theorycrafting again.

If you go against another elementalist use dagger/dagger. It’s the best in ele v ele duels. Also use it against dps guards. (go 10 air 30 water 30 arcana and focus on chill up-time, probably use hydromancy sigil)

Fresh Air Scepter works well against things like warriors/engineers and is probably the only way you’ll have a real chance of beating a condi necro(just get a good opener and then finish them off while dodging/blinding everything they do). You actually have to run fresh air against warriors or you simply won’t have enough damage to kill them (unless they are bad). Definitely use a berserkers amulet with fresh air. If the warrior is using an axe just dodge/blind/arcaneshield/lightning flash/mist form every single eviscerate and you can maybe win. (yeah, it’s gonna be a tough one)

If you go against a thief, may god have mercy on your soul.

I’ve only participated in one 1v1 tournament but the grand finals ended up being me and my teammate teldo! I actually had to forfeit it to him because I had to be on that twitch show grouch hosted, I think it was called “State of the Game”. That was back when elementalists were good though. Good times.

Good luck with your 1v1 tournament.

Just a little comic relief because it never gets old:

Phantaram.1265:

If you go against another elementalist use dagger/dagger. It’s the best in ele v ele duels. Also use it against dps guards. (go 10 air 30 water 30 arcana and focus on chill up-time, probably use hydromancy sigil)

Fresh Air Scepter works well against things like warriors/engineers and is probably the only way you’ll have a real chance of beating a condi necro(just get a good opener and then finish them off while dodging/blinding everything they do). You actually have to run fresh air against warriors or you simply won’t have enough damage to kill them (unless they are bad). Definitely use a berserkers amulet with fresh air. If the warrior is using an axe just dodge/blind/arcaneshield/lightning flash/mist form every single eviscerate and you can maybe win. (yeah, it’s gonna be a tough one)

If you go against a thief, may god have mercy on your soul.

I’ve only participated in one 1v1 tournament but the grand finals ended up being me and my teammate teldo! I actually had to forfeit it to him because I had to be on that twitch show grouch hosted, I think it was called “State of the Game”. That was back when elementalists were good though. Good times.

Good luck with your 1v1 tournament.

Prob just my personal experience bias but I feel like when I go against eles it’s better to have overwhelming and constant damage rather than the sustain that the 0/10/0/30/30 has, since an ele in spvp really can’t get that tanky. However, given how ridiculously powerful chill is against eles, I can definitely see the merit of chill duration stacking+ d/d setup. I will try the setup against guards as well.

I just worry about the amount of damage that might be needed to finish off someone; there has been too many duels (playing the standard d/d setup) where the fight lasts forever but I can never seal the deal because I can only wear them down bit by bit, and not burst them hard like with fresh air.

Thanks for all the tips though!