Guild Wars 2

Short Analysis on current PvP Dagger Dagger elementalist:

Patch notes i will be talking about
Elementalist
Burning Speed: This skill now evades attacks.
Frozen Burst: This skill is now a blast finisher.
Signet of Restoration: Removed the split on this skill so that the signet passive heal amount will be increased in PvP to match the current PvE amount.
Armour of Earth: Reduced the recharge from 90 seconds to 75 seconds.

Superior Rune of Strength
+25 power
+10% Might Duration
+50 Power
+15% Might Duration; 25% chance when struck to gain might for 10 seconds. (Cooldown: 5 seconds)
+100 Power
+20% Might Duration; +7% damage while under the effects of might.

Earth
Stone Heart: You cannot be critically hit while attuned to earth.

Evasion on burning speed has provided a bit more survivability however this change is rarely noticeable due to burning speed being used more offensively than defensively. When used to escape, this evade helps mitigate damage you would have received.

Frozen burst receiving a blast finisher was very beneficial to main-hand builds. This allows the elementalist another blast finisher to stack might. The addition of more blast finishers works well with Rune of Strength which extends duration of might and provides more damage when under the effects of might.

Armor of earth cool down reduction is nice. Does not change a lot though so continue using it as normal. A simple QoL change that doesn’t change a lot :P

Change to sigil of restoration nerf reverted making it worth considering over ether renewal in situations where the enemy team lacks condition users. However, with the meta taking a large lean towards condition builds (hambow warriors, condition necros, condition engineer build, occasional p/d thief, etc. ) the loss of ether renewal may prove too much as elementalist is still quite susceptible to conditions.

D/D builds are beginning to step away from 30 in the arcane tree. Blinding ashes is not worth taking as the blind being limited to single target is not useful enough in PvP skirmishes. Lightning Rod can be considered but the only interrupts are shocking aura, updraft and earthquake (ground pound!). (please tell me if i have missed any) making it a bit of a waste of skill points to invest into. The damage gained does not warrant the money spent for the trait or the trait points.
Stone heart is quite underwhelming in the face of the condition meta. Diamond skin builds to counteract this condition meta are quite useful in PvP and WvW but yet to be explored.
Gnomez’s diamond skin elementalist- All credits to Gnomez/jkels.6398
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Diamond-Skin-build-w-video

Since the feature pack update the introduction of the new Rune of Strength gives Ele a lot more damage output than before due to the ability to stack might without purposely utilising combo fields. This gives the elementalist more damage and gives might a longer duration. The changes to runes has nerfed the classic 2/2/2 boon duration build and this provides a healthy and possibly better alternative to boon duration.
Great analysis by Ozii on runes for the feature patch. All credit goes to Ozii for his information and video.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/WvW-Boon-duration-post-patch-analysis

Conclusion:
Elementalists are in a better state than previously. The introduction of improved strength runes allows elementalists to reach a higher damage output and consistently maintain might stacks. Assisting with maintaining might stacks is the implementation of a blast finisher on frozen burst (skill 3 dagger mainhand) and the improved might duration from the rune. Signet of restoration nerd has been reverted and can be considered when the enemy lacks conditions. Traits opened up more room to explore with different builds especially to counter the condition meta.
Super tldr; D/D Elementalist is fine in PvP. Go experiment and have fun

Rather short analysis for anyone wondering how this patch affected dagger dagger elementalist. These are my thoughts so do not feel like you have to agree with them. If you have constructive criticism you would like added or you stronkly disagree with what i am saying feel free to post it below.
(This analysis did not cover ALL the changes to d/d elementalist. There are many builds that use traits or gear i did not cover. Analysis was based off the classic 0/x/x/x/30 build and how it changed.)

While I agree that ele is in a better place than before. I feel its mostly just due to the ferocity nerf. Other classes aren’t hitting ele as hard now. But basically now as an ele you need to go full glass use one specific runeset and stack might putting some of your blasts and attunements on cooldown to do the damage you get by choosing warrior and putting on pvt gear and a hammer.

Chuck Zitto.2367:

While I agree that ele is in a better place than before. I feel its mostly just due to the ferocity nerf. Other classes aren’t hitting ele as hard now. But basically now as an ele you need to go full glass use one specific runeset and stack might putting some of your blasts and attunements on cooldown to do the damage you get by choosing warrior and putting on pvt gear and a hammer.

Crit wasn’t affected in pvp, and stop hating on warriors, bro. They got nerfed too.

Before i used to hate warriors in wvw and pvp. I feel with the ferocity changes all classes took a hit including ele however ,because eles rely less on crit and more on power and survivability, wearing the enemy down gradually, they came out less affected in wvw that is. Their build diversity allowed them to get around the straight zerker build that other classes relied on. Speaking in pvp, pvt Warriors with hammers arent that bad. Its the hambows that are stupid.
Also, eles have 4 times as many skills as another class. Its just the way ele is that we have to press 3 more keys to achieve something another class can do with 1.