Guild Wars 2

Hi there, recently I decided to take a break from from Engi and return to my Ele for some pve/dungeons. I play Staff 30/30/0/10/0…soz I know 30/20/10/10/0 is better, but I die way too often to comfortably stay within 600 range of my targets. Full exotic zerker + scholar runes, some ascended stuff like rings/amulet/trinket.

I admit that I’ve basically got almost no PvE experience outside of dungeon story/exp modes, so I’m having a bit of trouble in groups which decide to simply RUN PAST everything and corner-zerg bosses.

The first issue is running past mobs. I see Warriors and Guardians doing it with ease, hardly losing any health and fantastic mobility, but as I try to stay close to them my health simply runs out. If I eat even 1 CC/cripple I’m dead. ~11k health is basically 1-2 hits from any elite mob, what am I supposed to do??

Second issue is corner-zerging bosses. Again, my health simply vanishes to standard boss/AoE attacks. I summon FGS and go butter-nuts with that crazy awesome damage, next thing I know I’m downed and being a burden on the group.

People may say “well dodge”, except that the heavy classes barely seem to even NEED to dodge and I don’t have infinite stamina, it’s just a matter of time before I get hit and insta-killed.

What to do

Im a staff Ele, too. But I also carry a scepter and focus for such situations. If you pigeonhole yourself into one weapon then you will die.
Sorry bro, I dont intend to be mean but you cant
hammer a nail with a pin cushion, adapt and use the tools appropriate to the situation.

The key to keeping up and staying up through a run is not getting into combat and most importantly not eating back aggro. Swap to Ether Renewal, Mist Form, Lightning Flash, and if you need stability, Armor of Earth. Arcane Shield can be nice to block one hit, but if it takes too many it will put you in combat. Make sure to stack up some swiftness before the run, and stay out of water attunement until you need more condition removal using Healing Rain. In Earth you can use 4 to stall enemies for a few seconds (if you’re about to eat back aggro) or 3 to reflect a projectile (though it will put you in combat).

While learning boss mechanics I would often use Arcane Shield and, if not using a conjure), Mist Form to supplement my dodges. You could also use dodge food (yeah, cheating a bit) or grab Air II or Arcane II to give you more dodges. Don’t use all three, though, as the highest bonus only applies.

Hope this helps!

Rhalas.4167:

Im a staff Ele, too. But I also carry a scepter and focus for such situations. If you pigeonhole yourself into one weapon then you will die.
Sorry bro, I dont intend to be mean but you cant
hammer a nail with a pin cushion, adapt and use the tools appropriate to the situation.

Hmm I have S/D both with bloodlust for fast stacking, but didn’t think to use Focus at all! Forgot how much defensive stuff Focus has. Thanks, it’ll help as far as running-past-enemies goes.

There’s still the issue of getting killed in corner zergs though, can’t use S/F for that because staff is awesome and most of the time I’m using a conjure (FGS or frostbow).

You can use FB/FGS and use S/f. And even use arcane shield. Switch them out after the stack.
Its really not as much trouble as you might think.
I use BL and Force runes. On my staff a I use a perception rune. Like I said, just use the right/ the tool that feels good to you. DOnt let all these forum elitist pigeonhole you. Ive danced over many of their corspes in wvw, pvp and even pve.

In a group with more than 1 ele, I usually use staff to provide more fire fields to my Scepter/Focus/Lightning Hammer partner. The good thing about LH is it allows you to spam blind on the enemy, thus protect you from taking hit. For staff ele, you don’t have a lot of defensive skill from your weapon and you have to stay in 600 range. You wouldn’t want to sacrifice your DPS with too many defensive utility skills either. One of the solutions I have learn from a pro today is using Glyph of Storm, casting on Earth Atunement, prior to engagement. This skill blinds enemies on a small aoe for 4 seconds, long enough to allow you to cast Eruption → Fire Attunement → Lava Font → Meteor Shower → Arcane wave → Arcane shield at the same time, to get passive crit buff. Then face yourself away from the wall, cast Burning Retreat to roll the enemy to death, plus evade at the same time. You can swap to Conjure Frostbow once you don’t have to do corner stack.

If you’re the only ele in a group, think of swapping to S/F/LH. It is a safer way for ele to stack in a corner. LH also does massive damage, cleaves and spams blind easily.

For skipping mobs, especially in Arah, S/F or D/F is much more prefered. You’ll have an instant condi cleanse, an anti-projectile and an invulnerable god-mode with shorter cd than Mist Form. Like DEKeyz has said, the key (oops, no pun intended) is not to draw aggro and put yourself in the combat mode (moving slower). Any types of blocking is much more preferable. I personally don’t like armor of earth for its insanely long cd. But it may work for you.

When I’m holding FGS and deal with bosses like Subject Alpha, I usually do Firey Rush right when he’s at the corner. If he does not put out his insta-down aoes yet, I use #5 and #2. As soon as he uses his insta-down aoe skill, use #3 to evade right into the corner. Then use #4 Rush again So I mostly save #3 anticipating his aoe skill. If that skill is on cd, I’ll dodge forward, or try to block it with Arcane Shield only when I’m activating #4 Rush.

Maybe I really should just update my guide to help explain situations like this.

The Ele is in a curious spot. They have theoretically the highest dps and offensive team support in perfect conditions. 30/30/X does absolutely monstrous damage, and I would suggest looking at DKey’s guide on the PvE Ele if you want to know what the best of the best is.

But the truth is, it is INCREDIBLY difficult to stay alive in this spec for most players. Really really hard. Much harder than, say, 30/25/0/0/15 on a Warrior. You have low health, low armor, and not many means of damage mitigation.

There are of course many ways to increase your survivability while still doing some damage. Of course you’re a scrub and a terrible human being for trying to run any of these suboptimal specs and will never be good enough for a REAL dungeon group you noob! Trying to run something like 0/30/0/20/20 Fresh Air Dagger Focus with Renewing Stamina and Elemental Attunement for Protection on Earth Attune does VERY LITTLE DAMAGE and you DEFINITELY SHOULD NOT RUN IT. Just play your Warrior or Guardian alt if you can’t handle it, because if you can’t run dungeons at their very absolute fastest, then you shouldn’t run dungeons at all!

staff ele on lupicus with lifedrink aggro, how do?

Dead, but before that mistform and run TO Lupi. Hehehehe…

Or, wear PVT.

30/x/x/x/x is actually the worst spec in the game, have fun dying because you can’t kill things fast enough.

30 fire only appeals to nubs because they see: POWER traitline and automatically think it will give them the most dps.

sorrychief.2563:

30/x/x/x/x is actually the worst spec in the game, have fun dying because you can’t kill things fast enough.

30 fire only appeals to nubs because they see: POWER traitline and automatically think it will give them the most dps.

In an organized group you take it for the Fury-on-blasting-in-a-firefield trait. The 25-point damage modifier, plus the inherent Power of the trait line, does in fact significantly raise your DPS.

But most players, even in their own organized groups, will have a SIGNIFICANTLY difficult time surviving.

That’s why the Ele is in such a strange spot. We have guides for speedclears for classes like Warrior, Guardian, and Mesmer. And these builds are difficult to survive in but it can be done with enough practice. A glass Ele is a whole different league of difficulty when it comes to staying alive, however, due to inherently low stats and very few means of damage mitigation. Given, it is certainly possible, and I know groups like [LOD], [IX], [DnT], [rT], and [HC] have some pretty good players who can play specs like the ones DKeys lists in her own guide. But for many players who just play in PUGs on LFG or with their own random guildmates who may have middling DPS, pure glassy Ele builds with 30 in Fire can be VERY difficult to play with. Enough so that there should probably be some advice for players who want advice on how to run an Ele in a casual dungeon run with reasonable (but not speedclear level) kill times.

The problem is Neko that there are certain members of the forums that can be very…aggressive if a build is posted that is not the optimal spec. I’ve considered a few times posting a build I’ve used for S/D Ele for casual-midcore runs…though sadly I haven’t been through every dungeon and every path with it.

Most of my CoF1 runs take between 10-15 mins ((and the rock part slows me down if we have no Mesmer in the group)) and I used a similar build in level 28 and below Fractals. ((Moved 20 points from Fire into Arcana to keep Elemental Attunement and grab EA while I was at it)).

I also don’t run with Lightning Hammer…so…I could post the alternative build up if I could get an actual casual-midcore discussion going…

I don’t think you need to say that only DnT can run the meta speed builds, that’s very silly. I am by no means pro but I play my 30/10/10/20/0 s/f LH build in pugs all the time. It’s a matter of knowing content and practicing (as well as getting non-terrible groups, so I usually look for zerker only).

Eles are pretty good at trash running. The only important thing you need to do is to have these three in your utility slots: Armor of Earth, Vapor Form, and Signet of Air. And have Ether Renewal as heal.

Any Ele can run any trash run in any dungeon with those three utilities, on any build. I have full zerk (All Exotic Zerker Armor, All Zerk Ascended Trinkets, Zerk weapon) with 30/10/10/10/10 and I can trash run Arah P1’s last run without any problems whatsoever.

If you are hit with Immobil/Cripple/Chill just use Ether Renewal. When you get knocked down by a Graveling or some other monster, use Armor of Earth. Last resort, use Vapor Form then switch to water immediately (to regen).

If you have additional stability traits like Rock Solid it gets even easier, or if you are using D/D or D/F or what not (I use staff exclusively) as these weapons have more mobility to let you run even faster or defenses to keep you from going down. For staff I just use Air 4 for swiftness, then swap to water. Swap to earth and use Earth 4 sometimes. If I am already in combat and slowed I can use Water 4 to chill or Air 5 to stun, but usually just stay Water and use water 3 and 5 to heal and remove conditions.

The bigger issue is stacking. I have trouble staying alive in stacks with my build. I can still do all the important speed runs without any problem like AC1, Ac3, COF1, COF2, HOTW1. But I usually die during corner stacking.

As a Staff Ele, one way to offset this is to slot Armor of Earth and Arcane Armor as your util, use it, then switch to Water attunement and your 3, 5 and auto attack skills should keep you afloat.

As for fighting within 600 range, yes it’s very doable. It’s not easy, but once you learn to do it it becomes natural. I can clear any dungeon easily with dodging and all that even on my fully glass build. I am still learning to do the same with Fractals, but it can be done.

And yes, it’s harder than when you’d play as a Warrior or Guardian (heck, I can clear AC with a naked warrior no problem) but that’s the nature of the Ele class. You can’t face tank the way a Guardian or Warrior would, accept this and move on.

maxinion.8396:

I don’t think you need to say that only DnT can run the meta speed builds, that’s very silly. I am by no means pro but I play my 30/10/10/20/0 s/f LH build in pugs all the time. It’s a matter of knowing content and practicing (as well as getting non-terrible groups, so I usually look for zerker only).

I listed quite a few guilds >.>

I think you’re a very good player if you can run 30/10/10/20/0 S/F in a PUG. Truly, I do.

I do pug runs with Staff 30/10/10/10/10. It’s not a problem once you get used to the play style.

Wintel.4873:

Hi there, recently I decided to take a break from from Engi and return to my Ele for some pve/dungeons. I play Staff 30/30/0/10/0…soz I know 30/20/10/10/0 is better, but I die way too often to comfortably stay within 600 range of my targets. Full exotic zerker + scholar runes, some ascended stuff like rings/amulet/trinket.

I admit that I’ve basically got almost no PvE experience outside of dungeon story/exp modes, so I’m having a bit of trouble in groups which decide to simply RUN PAST everything and corner-zerg bosses.

The first issue is running past mobs. I see Warriors and Guardians doing it with ease, hardly losing any health and fantastic mobility, but as I try to stay close to them my health simply runs out. If I eat even 1 CC/cripple I’m dead. ~11k health is basically 1-2 hits from any elite mob, what am I supposed to do??

Second issue is corner-zerging bosses. Again, my health simply vanishes to standard boss/AoE attacks. I summon FGS and go butter-nuts with that crazy awesome damage, next thing I know I’m downed and being a burden on the group.

People may say “well dodge”, except that the heavy classes barely seem to even NEED to dodge and I don’t have infinite stamina, it’s just a matter of time before I get hit and insta-killed.

What to do

It is possible to stay alive in a good group with a Warrior or Guardian. Basically, you can’t get aggro from anything for even a split second or you’ll go down. I have had adds one-shot me before, that is how squishy we are.

Staying alive means having a Warrior or Guardian to grab the boss in the first place. But even that isn’t enough. If you are doing your job, you will do a ton of damage. If your “tank” cannot keep up, you will get aggro however careful you are.

Getting downed is part of life for an Ele in pug’s. There is very little you can do to stop it. Most of the would-be tanks in pug’s take their role too literally, and build actual tanks. They do great at surviving, but their damage is so bad they won’t hold the boss for more than a couple seconds.

edit – About the corner-zerg thing, it is ok for you to run out if you do not have aggro. The point of everyone stacking is to make sure the boss gets into the corner. Once that is accomplished, you are free to back off if you do not have aggro.

In a good group with a warrior and/or guardian (preferably several of them) it’s possible to survive stacking by virtue of the protection and healing you get from Guardians and the buffs from Warrior banners.

But generally speaking, prepare to get downed by bosses while stacking in corners. My solution is to not stack wtih certain bosses — you can get away with not stacking with group in certain bosses like Melraune spider boss in TA Up path.

In some dungeons and bosses this is an issue — some groups will hate you for not stacking with them, as you will cause the boss to use range attacks if you don’t stack, and the group wants to only have to deal with the boss’s melee attacks. For example, in COE not stacking against Subject Alpha will earn you some insults from the stacking group. Not stacking against AC Spider Queen will net the same (“stack you ****** or she’ll use her Poison AOE!”)

In AC, I still get downed by Spider Queen as a glass staff ele while corner stacking, so I have to resort to my “water tactic” as described above, that generally gets me through. In a good group with warriors and guards giving the right buffs, though, I can survive in full DPS mode and just burn the poor queen to bits.

If you move away from the stack as zilcho suggests, you face the ire of the group if anything goes wrong. If you do not beat the boss and the group wipes, you will be blamed for breaking the stack. At best, a kind group will just smile and say, “Let’s try that again.” In many PUG groups, you’ll find some that go, “Kitten this I don’t have all night.” and they rage quit. Worst case scenario, someone will kick you for being “incompetent.”

So break away from the stack at your own risk.

Wintel.4873:

The first issue is running past mobs. I see Warriors and Guardians doing it with ease, hardly losing any health and fantastic mobility, but as I try to stay close to them my health simply runs out. If I eat even 1 CC/cripple I’m dead. ~11k health is basically 1-2 hits from any elite mob, what am I supposed to do??

Second issue is corner-zerging bosses. Again, my health simply vanishes to standard boss/AoE attacks. I summon FGS and go butter-nuts with that crazy awesome damage, next thing I know I’m downed and being a burden on the group. Currently I run S/F for dungeons, focus offhand is great for survivability.

People may say “well dodge”, except that the heavy classes barely seem to even NEED to dodge and I don’t have infinite stamina, it’s just a matter of time before I get hit and insta-killed.

What to do

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

The above is a quote by Aristotle, meaning sometimes practice is the best solution. After you try hard and fail a lot, eventually you won’t fail so much once you understand what to do. I main a warrior and even in full zerk its easier for me to survive in dungeons. However switching to an ele you realize just how squishy they are. I run same gear on my ele, full zerk with scholars and similar traits. When I started out I used to down/die a lot and was basically of no use. However just like any other class you need to understand which skills to designate as your ‘panic’ button. With a warrior in some cases you might be forced to take invul/stability skills. Eles have that in-built into their weapon skill set instead (with focus). Currently I run S/F for dungeons, focus offhand is great for survivability. Also while warriors have more ‘convenient’ mobility, eles do have better (with FGS).

For trash running through mobs: always take stability/invuln, condi-removal and stun-breaks, any class. If I’m expecting to get hit by mobs I use focus earth 2 and 5, 4 to remove any condis. I also take Signet of Air for speed bonus if needed. For general survivability I use Fire 3 for vigor, Water 3 for heal, Air 4 to reflect projectiles (you have to learn which attacks to use this for though). Also blinds/stuns when you can use them and you usually won’t have to dodge those. I almost always have Arcane Shield just in case, Armor of Earth too sometimes (like for the spider boss in AC or Alpha in P1). FGS is very nice for corner-stacking too but sometimes you will have to drop it and use invuln or something, or unstack for a short while to avoid being downed.The mechanics of FGS is similar to warrior GS, you can use 3 to evade plus it has a fast cd. I’m still semi-experienced but this is what I use atm, downed occasionally but not as much as I used to be. Hope this helps

Yeah, there’s no substitute for practice. With Ele, this is extremely true. I used to be down all the time in dungeons before things “clicked.” I am still down a lot in Fractals as I have only started running fractals recently — but I get better at it.

And yeah if you are having trouble doign trash runs, take FGS. It’s amazing for trash runs. I don’t since I can manage without it, but if you are needing that extra dose of mobility use FGS and dash through the mobs with FGS3 and FGS4. They have extremely short cooldown as well so you can really just zip through everything.

Neko.9021:

maxinion.8396:

I don’t think you need to say that only DnT can run the meta speed builds, that’s very silly. I am by no means pro but I play my 30/10/10/20/0 s/f LH build in pugs all the time. It’s a matter of knowing content and practicing (as well as getting non-terrible groups, so I usually look for zerker only).

I listed quite a few guilds >.>

I think you’re a very good player if you can run 30/10/10/20/0 S/F in a PUG. Truly, I do.

Thanks!

Wrt your earlier point: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a build like you mentioned in PUGs or while learning content. I know all the dungeons because I ran my Mesmer through them, so my ele has an easier time now. My point was only that it’s possible, not that it’s possible from the start. Something like Zelhyn’s fresh air build can also be very useful for learning content, since you have so much more defense actually available compared to a LH spamming build.

Mochann.5298:

If you move away from the stack as zilcho suggests, you face the ire of the group if anything goes wrong. If you do not beat the boss and the group wipes, you will be blamed for breaking the stack. At best, a kind group will just smile and say, “Let’s try that again.” In many PUG groups, you’ll find some that go, “Kitten this I don’t have all night.” and they rage quit. Worst case scenario, someone will kick you for being “incompetent.”

So break away from the stack at your own risk.

I was only talking in general. It is true that, most of the time, the corner stacking is only meant to position the boss. As long as you don’t pull aggro, you are not changing a thing by breaking out of the stack. Obviously, if the fight has a special mechanic forcing you to stack, you need to stack.

As for the ire of the group, it cuts both ways. If you can’t stay alive in the stack, don’t break out, and die then you face their wrath when the group wipes at 5%. When you die, you’re (in theory) cutting out 20% of your group’s damage.

Staff dps builds are the hardest to survive for an ele. It’s still easier than thief in my opinion, because you have better utilities to avoid some damage in some cases. Zerk thief is the hardest class to play well on full zerk gear. It can only rely on dodges for boss fights, blind, being their main defense mechanism, works incredibly well on trash, but does nothing for boss fights, and smoke screen is very flimsy / unreliable for many projectiles attacks for some reason.

If you want to learn how to play ele on a damage build, I would rather recommend using lightning hammer builds, with a focus offhand. You might sometimes have to drop your LH for a quick use of a focus skill, but in speedclear groups that’s almost never a problem, the charges on your second conjure should last long enough. If you’re in difficulty, with focus you just quickly drop your LH and cast either Obsidian Flesh, Magnetic Wave or Swirling Winds and you’ll be doing fine for most fights, plus Arcane Shield slotted as one of your three utilities. On trash fights, if you have anyone applying an initial blind, your LH will maintain almost constant blind with its third attack in the auto chain. You can afk melee a lot of things with that. LH is inherently easier than staff fire. It’s also a more reliable dps because if you have to swap attunement in case of emergencies you’ll be dropping your dps to near zero on a staff build, pretty much anything apart from fire attunement and you’re out of luck.
Magnetic Wave also provides the very needed condition removal (is also a blast finisher) on ele dps builds, since they don’t have anything else. Well, staff has the water field, but again, the moment you swap to water you’re looking at 10 seconds of being a useless party member..
Some bosses tend to aggro the earth elemental elite, so cast rocky on fractals like cliffside to help you melee from behind.

Anyway, focus is a divine blessing. I often cast obsidian flesh in fractal during the worst trash pulls like the largest groups of dredge right before casting my lightning hammer, then arcane shield past that, giving you some large uptime where you can just do dps without a care in the world.

x/focus (either d or s main hand) is just too fun and great to have for content like high level fractals. Stacking is never a problem with that setup, and in cliffside pugs I’ve had less trouble resurrecting players who tried to kamikaze a seal on my glass elementalist than my guardian. A combo of obsidian flesh, mist form and arcane shield used successively while rezzing a downed person almost never fails to bring them back up. I don’t do cliffside without slotting mist form because it has saved too many pugged runs from losing party members at the last seal.
You’re squishy, and will go down from a single hit from something like the Archdiviner. At the same time, you have the strongest ability to rez people who were downed at his feet when you have your active defense up. More so than even a guardian. Aegis can only block one attack, and most of the guardian active defense will interrupt the action of rezzing. So overall, it’s not that bad. There are far worse balanced classes out there.

<3 focus. My enjoyment of the elementalist wouldn’t even come close to what it is now without it. Also doing a couple chill here and there from time to time while max melee-ing a boss helps. Drop hammer, double chill, pick second one up if you’re the one being aggroed and no one else is using stuff like cripples.

Are people seriously complaining about staff ele dying too quickly? If that’s a problem back up a little bit. If you’re dying you’re either too close or too far out and getting singled out as a result. If it’s a stack situation switch to LH temporarily so you blind the mobs.

Also if you are trying to do skips, i.e. in Arah, don’t follow behind people, that just makes it harder. Let them go first then do your run after the mob aggro resets. Running behind someone usually means that mobs get pulled to weird places, you have to run through AOEs, etc.

Eh, I find it easier to run after someone, usually if someone goes first they draw the aggro and you just wade in after without having to worry a thing. That’s my experience though, both in Twilight Arbor and Arah, which IMO have the hardest trash runs among the dungeons. But I am sure there are ways to do both. I certainly don’t have a problem soloing the runs, just that I find it easier letting someone take the aggro first — I usually don’t even have to pop any utilities when I follow.

I should try shifting to LH during stacks. That I have not yet tried, but now that I think about it it makes perfect sense. My other trick was to go Tornado and use that to blind — now that you mention it using LH makes FAR more sense. Silly me for not thinking of that! Thanks for the tip.

back up a little bit on Lupicus in phase 3 and cause domes. sounds like a plan.

Bringing staff to a Lupi fight is a no-no.

zilcho.7624:

Mochann.5298:

If you move away from the stack as zilcho suggests, you face the ire of the group if anything goes wrong. If you do not beat the boss and the group wipes, you will be blamed for breaking the stack. At best, a kind group will just smile and say, “Let’s try that again.” In many PUG groups, you’ll find some that go, “Kitten this I don’t have all night.” and they rage quit. Worst case scenario, someone will kick you for being “incompetent.”

So break away from the stack at your own risk.

I was only talking in general. It is true that, most of the time, the corner stacking is only meant to position the boss. As long as you don’t pull aggro, you are not changing a thing by breaking out of the stack. Obviously, if the fight has a special mechanic forcing you to stack, you need to stack.

As for the ire of the group, it cuts both ways. If you can’t stay alive in the stack, don’t break out, and die then you face their wrath when the group wipes at 5%. When you die, you’re (in theory) cutting out 20% of your group’s damage.

This isn’t true in my experience. I’ve run hundreds of pug runs and I have never been criticised for staying in the stack because that’s what everyone wanted.

On the other hand, I’ve gotten tons of flak for getting off the stack.

Mochann.5298:

This isn’t true in my experience. I’ve run hundreds of pug runs and I have never been criticised for staying in the stack because that’s what everyone wanted.

On the other hand, I’ve gotten tons of flak for getting off the stack.

I think you’re not reading me correctly. If there is a special mechanic that demands stacking, then I am not saying it’s ok to break out of the stack.

What I am saying is that if stacking is only meant to position the boss, then by all means break out if you do not have aggro. There is no reason to get yourself killed; you won’t change anything by taking a step back.

Well yeah, all good then. I’m specifically talking about bosses that you can break stack for. Nobody gets upset if you break stack on Verona Spider or whatever her name was in TA Up, or against Slave a master in COF, but people will curse you for breaking stack with AC Spider Queen or Subject Alpha or Lupi (in melee run parties).

Iris Ng.9845:

Bringing staff to a Lupi fight is a no-no.

meteor shower and frostbow 4 spam, such temptation!

It is clear you need to wear one of these. You can buy them of the TP for 60 silver.

It is easy to stay alive as a glass Ele. If you’re stacking against a wall, pre-stack might, Arcane Shield, FGS 3 evade, 2x dodges, and massive dmg. If you’re stacking without a wall, pre-stack might, Arcane Shield, LH blinds, 2x dodges, and massive dmg. In both cases, you’ll be able to stay alive for at least 5-10 secs, and that’s all you need. Trust in your own dmg and the dmg of your group. If your group’s dmg isn’t high enough, find another group (groups that ping zerk exotic/ascended almost always have high enough dmg though, so this usually isn’t an issue).

I’ve found that the #1 reason I die as a glass Ele is bad pulls/pushes, not my own squishiness. Every once in a while, someone will make a bad pull, and the whole group will wipe. This happens FAR more often than just me dying because I’m a squishy glass Ele. Be it pulling Subject Alpha wrong, fearing him into the corner wrong, pulling Laurent wrong, pulling last boss in AC wrong, etc., if the boss doesn’t stick to the wall like glue so we can Fiery Rush with 2x (usually 4x) FGS, we’re all dead. This has been happening less often to my groups, since the 2 people who usually do the pulls have gotten a lot better at them, but it will still happen occasionally.

For skipping, use Arcane Shield. It’ll get you back on your feet when you’re CC’d. Use Armor of Earth; it does the same thing. Although, honestly, I’ve almost never had to use either, since perma swiftness from wars/guard is usually enough, and if it isn’t, guard/mes has stability/cleanses, or thief has stealth. Again, trust in your team. If you’re playing Ele, all you really have to worry about it aiming DT correctly when you pre-stack, spamming LH AA for blinds, keeping yourself alive for the first 5-10 secs of a fight, and getting FGS down in time for 2x or 4x Fiery Rush when the boss gets to the corner. It’s really very easy. You don’t even have to worry about fire fields for your LH blasts, since the guard or staff Ele is giving you those.

I get to aim DT now, but it’s easier with dagger OH than focus OH for fire field. Is it because of the cast time?

Anierna.6918:

For skipping, use Arcane Shield. It’ll get you back on your feet when you’re CC’d. Use Armor of Earth; it does the same thing.

They are great to slot in, in case you do get hit, but the best thing during skips is to not get hit and thus walk at non combat speed and I find focus’s obsidian flesh invaluable for that. Invulns makes it so that even if you do get hit, while you’re under the effect of invuln, you’re still staying out of combat. Just cast obsidian when you feel like the mobs are looking at you funny.

Arcane is a last resort, since while it will block attacks, if it blocks three it explodes which can hit a mob and get you in combat.

Obsidian Flesh -> Dodge -> Dodge -> Still getting hit? Arcane Shield.

Really good for catching the top left corner mist surrounded by skelks in fractal, casting it right before picking up the mist.

Iris Ng.9845:

I get to aim DT now, but it’s easier with dagger OH than focus OH for fire field. Is it because of the cast time?

Yeah, it’s easier with dagger OH. It’s also easier for the wars to summon banners in RoF than in FW, and easier for the party to stomp in the larger field. That’s why I’ve been using dagger OH recently.

Nikaido.3457:

Anierna.6918:

For skipping, use Arcane Shield. It’ll get you back on your feet when you’re CC’d. Use Armor of Earth; it does the same thing.

They are great to slot in, in case you do get hit, but the best thing during skips is to not get hit and thus walk at non combat speed and I find focus’s obsidian flesh invaluable for that. Invulns makes it so that even if you do get hit, while you’re under the effect of invuln, you’re still staying out of combat. Just cast obsidian when you feel like the mobs are looking at you funny.

Arcane is a last resort, since while it will block attacks, if it blocks three it explodes which can hit a mob and get you in combat.

Obsidian Flesh -> Dodge -> Dodge -> Still getting hit? Arcane Shield.

Really good for catching the top left corner mist surrounded by skelks in fractal, casting it right before picking up the mist.

Walk into the spider room in Arah P2 … “Pre…cious…. F..l..e..s..hhh..” hiss