Hi all!
I love playing my elementalist and I’m interested in seeing the variety of builds that go around for comparison and fun.
I know most people use the various meta builds because – let’s be honest- we like seeing those big numbers and lots of them, but I want to see your creations.
If you would be so kind, please share your eclectic build and your reasoning (if any) behind it be it roleplaying purposes, kittens and giggles, etc.
I use it as effectively a modified bunker/fresh air elementalist. I use it for roleplaying an arcane weapons master that dives into melee’s to deal area damage and take heat off of allies while providing moderate aura support and crowd control. A jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none approach.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdhcMokhdOwnB8RM0AYVW4KEFmUQHYGKVgAwHE-TJBBwAlLDA5BAsc/BAnAAA
I think people will be surprised at the damage a scepter build with zerker amulet can put out. Trade off vitality for damage pressure.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdhcMokhdOwnB8RM0AYVW4KEFkKQA4DOpgOwME-TJRBABxXGAgTAwDPAAi2fAA
Maruader variant
The sheer damage from the burn/bleed is insane.
Earth provides 30+ bleeds in a single rotation, then fire can spike up 15+ burns before half the bleeds fall off. Then back to earth and spike up both burns (scepter 2 combo thru field left from fire overload) and bleeds. Rinse and repeat. The full damage rotation keeps both condis up all the time, and damage never falls below 2k per tick on either one.
Burns can spike to 10k alone and self-mighted.
Bleeds can spike to 9k alone and self-mighted.
In full party buffs, burns up to 25k. Bleeds clocked up to 19k.
It can get pretty silly. Also,it’s fun as hell.
The sheer damage from the burn/bleed is insane.
Earth provides 30+ bleeds in a single rotation, then fire can spike up 15+ burns before half the bleeds fall off. Then back to earth and spike up both burns (scepter 2 combo thru field left from fire overload) and bleeds. Rinse and repeat. The full damage rotation keeps both condis up all the time, and damage never falls below 2k per tick on either one.
Burns can spike to 10k alone and self-mighted.
Bleeds can spike to 9k alone and self-mighted.
In full party buffs, burns up to 25k. Bleeds clocked up to 19k.
It can get pretty silly. Also,it’s fun as hell.
I actually quite like that. Most people say ele can’t do a real condi build but that build shows real damage potential! Especially now that Vipers ascended rings/amulet/backpiece are available in Bloodstone Fen (potential damage increase of 5% or so just due to the increased condi duration)
Actually, best way to do that (since its already at about 91% condi duration for burning and bleeding) would be to get the new ring and amulet and make them both vipers and then make the backpiece sinister to bring yourself up to 100.13% and not waste the extra 1% above 100% that you’d get from making the backpiece vipers.
(edited by UnbentMars.9126)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdhMMokhFQwIC8RMIAYRAoA8AkLZI4IWby2wZA-TJBFAB3+AAA4EAg0+DiXGAA
Earth Shield + Lightning Hammer + Lightning Rod burst shenanigans.
Usual burst rotation revolves around using Focus 5, into lightning hammer, LH 5 into LH3, 3 procs of lightning hammer for… well mediocre, but very fancy burst.
The sheer damage from the burn/bleed is insane.
Earth provides 30+ bleeds in a single rotation, then fire can spike up 15+ burns before half the bleeds fall off. Then back to earth and spike up both burns (scepter 2 combo thru field left from fire overload) and bleeds. Rinse and repeat. The full damage rotation keeps both condis up all the time, and damage never falls below 2k per tick on either one.
Burns can spike to 10k alone and self-mighted.
Bleeds can spike to 9k alone and self-mighted.
In full party buffs, burns up to 25k. Bleeds clocked up to 19k.
It can get pretty silly. Also,it’s fun as hell.
I actually quite like that. Most people say ele can’t do a real condi build but that build shows real damage potential! Especially now that Vipers ascended rings/amulet/backpiece are available in Bloodstone Fen (potential damage increase of 5% or so just due to the increased condi duration)
Actually, best way to do that (since its already at about 91% condi duration for burning and bleeding) would be to get the new ring and amulet and make them both vipers and then make the backpiece sinister to bring yourself up to 100.13% and not waste the extra 1% above 100% that you’d get from making the backpiece vipers.
The community undervalues conditions ele, because it undervalues bleeds in general.
As for that last 10% durration… I thought about vipers rings and ammys, however… I loose on a lot of toughness which is converting to conditions damage, the amount of conditions dmg lost somewhat looses out on the bonus. Gain pwr dmg, true… don’t know it it’s worth the trade off.
I had thought about using a givers warhorn to fill the gap… but I’ve found that 90% seems to be enough. That last bit doesn’t seem to be enough to increase my “stacks per rotation” in any noticeable way.
The sheer damage from the burn/bleed is insane.
Earth provides 30+ bleeds in a single rotation, then fire can spike up 15+ burns before half the bleeds fall off. Then back to earth and spike up both burns (scepter 2 combo thru field left from fire overload) and bleeds. Rinse and repeat. The full damage rotation keeps both condis up all the time, and damage never falls below 2k per tick on either one.
Burns can spike to 10k alone and self-mighted.
Bleeds can spike to 9k alone and self-mighted.
In full party buffs, burns up to 25k. Bleeds clocked up to 19k.
It can get pretty silly. Also,it’s fun as hell.
I actually quite like that. Most people say ele can’t do a real condi build but that build shows real damage potential! Especially now that Vipers ascended rings/amulet/backpiece are available in Bloodstone Fen (potential damage increase of 5% or so just due to the increased condi duration)
Actually, best way to do that (since its already at about 91% condi duration for burning and bleeding) would be to get the new ring and amulet and make them both vipers and then make the backpiece sinister to bring yourself up to 100.13% and not waste the extra 1% above 100% that you’d get from making the backpiece vipers.
The community undervalues conditions ele, because it undervalues bleeds in general.
As for that last 10% durration… I thought about vipers rings and ammys, however… I loose on a lot of toughness which is converting to conditions damage, the amount of conditions dmg lost somewhat looses out on the bonus. Gain pwr dmg, true… don’t know it it’s worth the trade off.
I had thought about using a givers warhorn to fill the gap… but I’ve found that 90% seems to be enough. That last bit doesn’t seem to be enough to increase my “stacks per rotation” in any noticeable way.
Definitely agree with condi ele’s being undervalued. However, with 1600 toughness you quickly run into issues of always having mobs attack you when in a party environment. Without the vitality to back up your survival it seems like you may quickly run into issues given that ele’s are the 2nd squishiest profession in the game. Is that tanking aspect intended or do you have a tactic you use for it?
As for the worry about losing toughness – to – condi damage, I think you would only lose a little, but that would allow you to take the Earth skill recharge rate increase which would contribute a lot to your stacks (especially when combined with the extra 10% duration from transitioning to vipers/sinister from rabid), and you wouldn’t have to worry about potentially taking aggro in a raid setting either.
Thoughts?
That’s a very interesting approach. I’ll have to look into it. However, I can say that I rarely get aggro from mobs, when I do however, I tend to be able to use the aggro to drag the mobs through the persistent effects left by warhorn 5 in fire and earth. Also, that small bit of damage reduction takes a missed dodge from dead, to high pressure.
Also, you’d be amazed how much that small quantity of extra condi damage really is. The further you stack it the better all your condis calculate. The ele is the only class with 2 conversion traits, and thus it’s the highest available conditions damage latout while still maximizing duration. The only way to get more condi damage would be ‘sigil of corruption’ and considering how fragile those stacks are, I don’t trust that sigil. Not to mention to account for the loss in duration I’d need X2 givers weapons, and a sigil of malice… and that seems… riskier for little gain and a reduction in power. (Though it would gain a little vit)
Honestly I’m not sure what is best. But I do know I down the new testing golems faster on my ele than many other toons.
I will test your ideas tonight though. (I just really don’t want to farm for the ascended assessors in vipers… shiver)
That’s a very interesting approach. I’ll have to look into it. However, I can say that I rarely get aggro from mobs, when I do however, I tend to be able to use the aggro to drag the mobs through the persistent effects left by warhorn 5 in fire and earth. Also, that small bit of damage reduction takes a missed dodge from dead, to high pressure.
Also, you’d be amazed how much that small quantity of extra condi damage really is. The further you stack it the better all your condis calculate. The ele is the only class with 2 conversion traits, and thus it’s the highest available conditions damage latout while still maximizing duration. The only way to get more condi damage would be ‘sigil of corruption’ and considering how fragile those stacks are, I don’t trust that sigil. Not to mention to account for the loss in duration I’d need X2 givers weapons, and a sigil of malice… and that seems… riskier for little gain and a reduction in power. (Though it would gain a little vit)
Honestly I’m not sure what is best. But I do know I down the new testing golems faster on my ele than many other toons.
I will test your ideas tonight though. (I just really don’t want to farm for the ascended assessors in vipers… shiver)
Hmm, looking back at the difference in condi damage (which is about 150 or so) I think you may have been right in the first place. Looking at the Earth skills, there isn’t much about skills 2-5 that really help stack up bleed so the recharge rate may not be very useful when compared to the loss of so much Condi damage. I think that the only real improvement would be trading out the accessories for Vipers to get to 100% condi duration (since the duration is a much bigger factor in total damage than condi damage). Those changes would mean a drop of about 40 condi power, but a duration gain of 9.9% which would be a bigger increase overall without the need to take the 20% skill recharge reduction.
This also would lower your toughness to 1453 which, while still high, puts you low enough for most raid tanks to be able to hold aggro off of you while maintaining enough toughness to survive major hits.
The only difference between maintaining what it is now and changing out everything for viper/sinister is more power damage. I’m not actually sure which one would result in higher dps though. I’ll definitely look into it because I’ve never really seen a condi ele build before. It’ll take me a long time because I very much do not have the gear lol, but color me curious.
Edit: For reference, here is the modified build I mentioned with 100% condi duration.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJBLhFyxgyG23AjGwHxiAg52ant12gAQo8AMED2BFBA-TBSAQBCc/hAqnwmKBxmSuIq+DAOhAB4BBESlDkCYRlVA-e
(edited by UnbentMars.9126)
Much appreciated. I can’t wait to test the changes, it would be nice to do more damage and have less aggro.
See, this is why I like non-meta threads. We can talk about the way to make this idea better…. all without someone stopping by to say “trash it, it’s not perfect in a vaccum.”
I’m going to start farming for vipers trinkets it seems.
Looking at the Earth skills, there isn’t much about skills 2-5 that really help stack up bleed so the recharge rate may not be very useful when compared to the loss of so much Condi damage
I still side in favor of the toughness conversion trait, but the above isn’t a good reason to throw out the cooldown trait.
1- 3 stacks-
2- 5 stacks- The 2 gives a toughness bonus, (so if its the first thing you cast when switching into earth, you get a small bonus to condi damage, from trait synergy. if we dont use the cd trait.) The upon releasing the stones they recently buffed it to be 5 bleeds at 12.5 sec tooltipped buffless at 7743. also, its 5 gauronteed projectile finishers, which through a fire field, keeps up burning pressure while out of fire.
3-breakbars (completions sake… i could have removed this line)
4-blast, also in the fire field leftover b4 switch, more might stax! (and possibly this one)
5- 10stacks- The 5 is the best condi move on the weapon set. 2 bleeds for 15.75 sec tooltipped at 3872. x5 sec…. so 19,365… if they stand in it.
f4- 8 stacks- oh and the overload… which is… 1 bleed 14.5 sec 1807 for 4sec, 7,228… then it leaves the aftereffect tornado… doing the same thing, 14,456. if they stand in it. (more while holding firey greatsword… which one wants to do more in earth, so it 2 can help burning from falling off, while supercharging condi damage.
which is why i had given some thought to the trait swap. though it also means i need to swap any leftover rabid trinkets for Sinister, as not to waste stats once one hits that 100.7.
also, question: with this build’s high crit rate, would it be worth it to make room for a sigil of earth, allowing me to maintain a few bleeds while not in earth? it takes some juggling to make it happen, and its not many bleeds… so, i cant decide.
(edited by BrokenGlass.9356)
Looking at the Earth skills, there isn’t much about skills 2-5 that really help stack up bleed so the recharge rate may not be very useful when compared to the loss of so much Condi damage
I still side in favor of the toughness conversion trait, but the above isn’t a good reason to throw out the cooldown trait.
1- 3 stacks-2- 5 stacks- The 2 gives a toughness bonus, (so if its the first thing you cast when switching into earth, you get a small bonus to condi damage, from trait synergy. if we dont use the cd trait.) The upon releasing the stones they recently buffed it to be 5 bleeds at 12.5 sec tooltipped buffless at 7743. also, its 5 gauronteed projectile finishers, which through a fire field, keeps up burning pressure while out of fire.
3-breakbars (completions sake… i could have removed this line)
4-blast, also in the fire field leftover b4 switch, more might stax! (and possibly this one)
5- 10stacks- The 5 is the best condi move on the weapon set. 2 bleeds for 15.75 sec tooltipped at 3872. x5 sec…. so 19,365… if they stand in it.
f4- 8 stacks- oh and the overload… which is… 1 bleed 14.5 sec 1807 for 4sec, 7,228… then it leaves the aftereffect tornado… doing the same thing, 14,456. if they stand in it. (more while holding firey greatsword… which one wants to do more in earth, so it 2 can help burning from falling off, while supercharging condi damage.
which is why i had given some thought to the trait swap. though it also means i need to swap any leftover rabid trinkets for Sinister, as not to waste stats once one hits that 100.7.
also, question: with this build’s high crit rate, would it be worth it to make room for a sigil of earth, allowing me to maintain a few bleeds while not in earth? it takes some juggling to make it happen, and its not many bleeds… so, i cant decide.
That’s good reasoning, and I appreciate the breakdown!
For the final portion, the downside to switching any of the 20% duration sigils out for Sigil of Earth means that you automatically lose 20% condi duration to either bleed or burn. In the interest of following that line of thought, see below.
I re-edited the build to allow for Sigil of Earth while maintaining 100% condi duration:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJBLhFyxgyG23AjGwHxiAgNED2BFhgAQo8A42ant1WA-TRSAQB2UJYIV+FgDEQA1TER1fowDAQanAABu/AAOgAkCYRlVA-e
To make that tradeoff, you lose about 50 condi damage, but the extra 2.5 stacks of bleed every 5 seconds is likely worth that.
I think that would actually be a worthwhile trade, though since the increased stacks (especially adding bleeds while in Fire) cause overall much more damage than the loss in condi damage. Thoughts?
Also, I definitely agree. Theorycrafting non-meta builds is a lot more fun since theorycrafting the meta has been beat to death.
The sheer damage from the burn/bleed is insane.
Earth provides 30+ bleeds in a single rotation, then fire can spike up 15+ burns before half the bleeds fall off. Then back to earth and spike up both burns (scepter 2 combo thru field left from fire overload) and bleeds. Rinse and repeat. The full damage rotation keeps both condis up all the time, and damage never falls below 2k per tick on either one.
Burns can spike to 10k alone and self-mighted.
Bleeds can spike to 9k alone and self-mighted.
In full party buffs, burns up to 25k. Bleeds clocked up to 19k.
It can get pretty silly. Also,it’s fun as hell.
I actually quite like that. Most people say ele can’t do a real condi build but that build shows real damage potential! Especially now that Vipers ascended rings/amulet/backpiece are available in Bloodstone Fen (potential damage increase of 5% or so just due to the increased condi duration)
Actually, best way to do that (since its already at about 91% condi duration for burning and bleeding) would be to get the new ring and amulet and make them both vipers and then make the backpiece sinister to bring yourself up to 100.13% and not waste the extra 1% above 100% that you’d get from making the backpiece vipers.
The community undervalues conditions ele, because it undervalues bleeds in general.
As for that last 10% durration… I thought about vipers rings and ammys, however… I loose on a lot of toughness which is converting to conditions damage, the amount of conditions dmg lost somewhat looses out on the bonus. Gain pwr dmg, true… don’t know it it’s worth the trade off.
I had thought about using a givers warhorn to fill the gap… but I’ve found that 90% seems to be enough. That last bit doesn’t seem to be enough to increase my “stacks per rotation” in any noticeable way.
For spvp and wvw a condition ele is in my opinion a nogo against decent players . Problem is that elementalist can output how many conditions ? condition cleean cleans the number of condition u have. You can also stack 10 burning and 25 bleeding but with a single condition clean pass usually your opponents will clean them both. It is different for profession as condition mesmer, condition engi or condition necro, warrior, or ranger which , in few seconds put on you 5… 6 different condition type ( confusion, torment, poison, bleeding, burning,chilling and others) . This is the reason why for me condition ele is not a good approch as other condi classes can do . For pve it can be different but i don’t play pve . Condition ele is suboptimal respect to other condition specs only becouse it can not put so many different condition as the others
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