Guild Wars 2

Hi! I’ve recently been motivated to pick up my elementalist once more, who I stopped playing right before hitting 80. I remember being unhappy with my ele because I would die extraordinarily fast as soon I made a mistake, one time I was even killed before I could see my downed skills (1st down), which has never happened to me on my other characters. (Not even on my necro during the 1/3 downed hp bug.) So all I’m saying is that this is quite a leap for me, and the idea I’m going for with this is high uptime of protection and vigor while supporting through aura sharing, fields and blast finishers, and hopefully doing a bit of damage as well.

Anyways here it is: http://tinyurl.com/kchyxmw

For reference I play on a t1-ish server and currently run with my guild who fields 15-20 a night, along with whatever pugs that feel like following. We’re used to going up against even-ish numbers or more. I’d like to be successful with this as I believe I’ll find it more fun than the ‘ol supporty staff ele, but I’d like your opinions on it before I try anything. Thanks for any advice!

Auras are neat, and I know that chaining D/D Eles with Shocking Aura and Aura Sharing can be pretty darn strong. A change I’d make, personally, is that I think that taking 10 out of Earth and putting it into Arcana for Evasive Arcana would be for the best. The AoE Cleanse on dodge in Water and the Blast Finisher in Earth are both incredibly useful in WvW.

Oh you’re right! I completely forgot that the water one cleansed it on others and that the earth one was a blast finisher. And since I get a faster attunement recharge rate and more boon duration in that tree that helps make up some of the protection I’ll lose, and in turn I’ll get more utility. Great tip!

And thus another 0/10/0/30/30 Ele was made. Lol.

Look for Zoose’s D/D guide and Daphoenix’s D/D guide (either via search or from looking for their links in my guide). They explain how to play this archetype pretty well.

Also, a Bunker Ele’s main method of healing often comes from attuning to Water and dodge rolling in Water with Evasive Arcana. Just remember that.

I like Ether Renewal more than Glyph of Elemental Harmony in WvW because of its short cooldown and ability to cleanse many conditions.

I like Runes of Melandru, and Runes of Water/Monk, for Elementalists. Good combos include:
-6 Runes of Melandru
-2 Runes of Melandru / 2 Runes of Sup. Water / 2 Runes of Sup. Monk
-2 Runes of Maj. Water / 2 Runes of Sup. Water / 2 Runes of Sup. Monk

Haha I was thinking that too, I haven’t played the elementalist for a long time but that seemed to be the big thing everyone was doing when I was, seems like that’s still true! :P

I actually watched Zoose’s guide while I was making this, to help refresh my memory about d/d, very helpful.

Now that you mention it I’m not sure why I didn’t slot ether renewal, I quite like it myself, as long as no one is able to interrupt me, that is!

I’ve actually used both of those rune setups before, though that was on my old guardian. They’re both quite good and I’ll keep them in mind, though I’ve been wanting to try earth for a while so I’ll start out with that and work forward based on my experiences with it. Thanks for the replies btw!

Rune of Earth is bad and this comes from trying it on my Guardian and Elementalist too… x.x

Actually, right now on these forums, it’s hip for people to bash the 0/10/0/30/30 spec as cookie cutter, unoriginal, and weak (just as a warning). Also, for whatever reason, people seem to move away from it to something else once they’ve played it a ton. I’m not sure why. It’s still very strong. My friends in T1 still use 30 Arcana and 30 Water for Support Eles in WvW.

Oh? o: If I may ask, what did you find bad about it?

Yeah I’m not surprised about the bashing, human nature, really. I personally don’t feel like a cookie cutter, since I didn’t just copy+paste it from whoever and arrived at through my own decision making. I also just don’t believe I’m going to be weak or op, so I don’t think I’m going to be bothered much by what people think. I also may just drop this entirely and go for something different, all depends on whether or not it’s fun.

Neko.9021:

Actually, right now on these forums, it’s hip for people to bash the 0/10/0/30/30 spec as cookie cutter, unoriginal, and weak (just as a warning). Also, for whatever reason, people seem to move away from it to something else once they’ve played it a ton. I’m not sure why. It’s still very strong. My friends in T1 still use 30 Arcana and 30 Water for Support Eles in WvW.

Fresh air is more fun and less predictable, plus Anet has been balancing around boon removal a lot lately as well as specifically targetting this build for nerfs. At least give the guy a little background before you send him farming for a build most of the community is moving away from.

Pretty sure I’d prefer a Water-Arcana Ele over a Fresh Air one for a ZvZ fight at high tiers.

Solo.9027:

Neko.9021:

Actually, right now on these forums, it’s hip for people to bash the 0/10/0/30/30 spec as cookie cutter, unoriginal, and weak (just as a warning). Also, for whatever reason, people seem to move away from it to something else once they’ve played it a ton. I’m not sure why. It’s still very strong. My friends in T1 still use 30 Arcana and 30 Water for Support Eles in WvW.

Fresh air is more fun and less predictable, plus Anet has been balancing around boon removal a lot lately as well as specifically targetting this build for nerfs. At least give the guy a little background before you send him farming for a build most of the community is moving away from.

Wellll first of all I hope you know that what’s more fun for you may not necessarily be true for me. :P I only know a little bit about the fresh air build but I just don’t think it’s that great for the environment I’m going to be using this in. (Also isn’t it usually used in S/D?) Keep in mind that this is going to be in t1-t2 ZvZ. People won’t be trying to predict what I’m going to do, they’ll be trying to predict what the whole zerg is going to do. If I was going to do a roaming or SPVP build (which I don’t really enjoy) I would definitely not be doing this. I’m ok if this build gets more nerfs, if it opens up more effective and enjoyable ele playstyles for zvz. If it gets totally decimated I’ll just go play one of my other characters until I can come up with a new build. Nothing new for me there

Hope.8612:

Oh? o: If I may ask, what did you find bad about it?

Whenever a spec gets nerfed, you’ll see a segment of its players cry out that it sucks now. The 0/10/0/30/30 D/D cantrip build is still really strong, it’s just not as ridiculous as it used to be.

A lot of people are also just bored of playing the same spec for months and months and have moved on to other things. It’s a really fun playstyle, though. I encourage you to try it out for yourself.

Blaine Tog.8304:

Hope.8612:

Oh? o: If I may ask, what did you find bad about it?

Whenever a spec gets nerfed, you’ll see a segment of its players cry out that it sucks now. The 0/10/0/30/30 D/D cantrip build is still really strong, it’s just not as ridiculous as it used to be.

A lot of people are also just bored of playing the same spec for months and months and have moved on to other things. It’s a really fun playstyle, though. I encourage you to try it out for yourself.

Oh when I said that I was asking about why Neko found earth runes bad, hehe. As someone who has had their builds nerfed in the past (though they were never complained about), I totally know the feeling, even if the nerf didn’t destroy the build I tend to experiment with something else. As an altoholic, I can’t stand playing one thing for months on end, so I completely understand people moving on to other things.

The thing with Earth Runes was that the best feature they have is the Magnetic Aura (which DOES proc Zephyr’s Boon, but not Powerful Aura) on a 90 sec CD. The Melandru Runes and Water/Monk Runes give -Condition Duration and Boon Duration, both of which are incredibly useful in a big fight, and a prolonged fight. Perfect, I feel, for ZvZ.

Fresh air builds can have a place in ZvZ (not as much when it gets over about 60v60, but then it’s more a battle of who can spam 1,1,1,1,1,1 the best anyway). In mid-size zerg fights, focusing on finishing downed enemies can have a huge impact. Definitely don’t run full glass, but don’t underestimate the power till you’ve tried it.

For a supporty D/D build for mid-size ZvZ I use 0-0-20-20-30 with rock solid trait, boon duration runes, etc. Stability is probably the most important boon in high tier zerg fights, much more important than fury and swiftness. Aura sharing is good also, I feel it’s okay to trade evasive arcana for it under some circumstances, depends on the composition of the groups you are encountering.

Thrashbarg.9820:

Fresh air builds can have a place in ZvZ (not as much when it gets over about 60v60, but then it’s more a battle of who can spam 1,1,1,1,1,1 the best anyway). In mid-size zerg fights, focusing on finishing downed enemies can have a huge impact. Definitely don’t run full glass, but don’t underestimate the power till you’ve tried it.

For a supporty D/D build for mid-size ZvZ I use 0-0-20-20-30 with rock solid trait, boon duration runes, etc. Stability is probably the most important boon in high tier zerg fights, much more important than fury and swiftness. Aura sharing is good also, I feel it’s okay to trade evasive arcana for it under some circumstances, depends on the composition of the groups you are encountering.

<3 Rock Solid.

The 0/0/20/20/30 build is also one of my faves.

@Neko: Ohhh so it doesn’t proc powerful aura, I see. I remember wanting to ask that but obviously I forgot! I’ll be choosing between the two runesets you mentioned then, since I know both are quite good.

@Thrash: Yuuup what is incredibly frustrating for my group is when we down half of the enemies and then a pug dies and they’re all back up. x_x Burst will definitely help in that situation but for now I’d rather go with this sort of thing. Oh yes 0/0/20/20/30! That’s another build I was toying around with in the build maker here, though that was for a staff build. I may move into a build more like that if aura sharing isn’t as fun as I’m thinking it’ll be.

Imo, you should go for higher power.
If you are used to D/D go for more HP, but lower your armor cause you really dont need 3K.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmKbwx5gjDAkHmgSJiCPUeMTO2A-j0yAorASiAJCAJfgsnyaCMiVtioxqqjsyGT5CoiTqMA6jB-w

Thats the build I use for our guild raids, rarely die and the dmg is insane high.
Can change to Restoration instead of Accuracy if you need the 650HP/Kill

For DnD —-—-

Healing Power too low. You need to up it to around 600+

Recharge rate too low

Crit Damage is fine at 50, so may have to reduce it

Tuff is fine at 1600~1700. You are wasting it

Your vit is fine if you are not being bursted on by 2 very good glass thieves

Pow a little low but will be okay with stacks

You GOE sig heal replace with resto sig

Arc wave replace with lightning flash

Mist is fine

Arm of E take out and replace with earth signet

Earth trait revert to 0 and put it in arcane. Boon duration is good enuf when swapping into earth

Air 10 aura is good choice.

Change Water,arc to the usual traits.

Change what you are okay with.

pretty sure 0-10-0-30-30 aurashare is NOT cookie cutter, but everything else about it was nerfed for some strange reason (bountiful power, cleansing water).

Are you sure you want to grind 10.000 fractals until you get the two cavalier daggers?

:P

Neko.9021:

-2 Runes of Maj. Water / 2 Runes of Sup. Water / 2 Runes of Sup. Monk

This one is quite bad actually

Fuzzion.2504:

For DnD —-—-

Healing Power too low. You need to up it to around 600+

Recharge rate too low

Crit Damage is fine at 50, so may have to reduce it

Tuff is fine at 1600~1700. You are wasting it

Your vit is fine if you are not being bursted on by 2 very good glass thieves

Pow a little low but will be okay with stacks

You GOE sig heal replace with resto sig

Arc wave replace with lightning flash

Arm of E take out and replace with earth signet

Earth trait revert to 0 and put it in arcane. Boon duration is good enuf when swapping into earth

Change what you are okay with.

Pretty much everything you wrote here is either situational or wrong.