Guild Wars 2

I am basing this off the d/d ele most likely speccing into earth/water/arcana.

Stone heart will prevent cries while attuned to earth. Now even though this sounds awesome, would it actually be good? It would allow us to switch to earth to avoid a massive crit backstabbing from a theif, bind them with 3 and knock them down with 4, and then set us up for a damage rotation. The downside is we have to stay in earth, the attunement that is basically only used for blast finishers. I could see it being a staple in s/f, but how does it compete with signet of restoration + written in stone in the tried and true d/d ele build?

Written in Stone will allow us to actually use our signet heal skill that has always been a no no button unless it is your last option. Written in Stone will keep the passive effects and lower the cooldown to 20s! This basically provides us with an extra heal as well as our water 5 being reduced by 33% if we spec into water.

Written in Stone is the far better option here.

cleansing wave will get unnerfed so there will be a bit more healing already, (around 500 i guess) so the signet heal is not really needed. stone heart negates bursts and shuts down crit procs.
prot + earth gm minor + stone heart = goodbye burst.

I’d only really consider written in stone for a signet-based build, and even then some people elect not to use it (I use it in my s/f condi signet build). If you’re only running the signet of restoration, stone heart will likely be the better option overall.

We have to wait and see how the traits workout and what place ER will fit.

I think it entirely depends on what everyone is running on the opposing team IF I am choosing between these two:

- If there are a lot of spike builds on the enemy team, I am taking stone heart.
- If there are a bunch of tanks/bruisers, I am taking written in stone

The more I think about it, though, I think you are better off just taking air to get fresh air (MAYBE lightning rod for the strong synergy with tempest defense), tempest defense (or air training), and one with air (probably better than zephyr’s boon). That will give you TONS of damage, and great mobility to gtfo when things go south. Fresh air is one of the strongest traits an ele has, even on d/d. Not only does this allow you to use your attunements even MORE strategically (so you don’t HAVE to just follow a strict rotation), but you also get access to lightning-whip all day + free lightning procs. Further, air has quite a few great defensive tools (besides lightning whip, every skill can be used effectively for defense on d/d), that are great to have access too on-demand. Finally, tempest defense is no joke to overcome the low access to stunbreaks, and adds quite a punch to follow up your updraft/earthquakes.

Signet of restoration often competed with Ether renewal.

While ether renewal is getting nerfed (CD increase AND Cantrip trait competing with cleansing wave) SoR is getting a buff with written in stone. I mean, you get CDR in addition to the maintain of the passiv.
Stone earth force you into earth, do you really want to camp earth ? ruin your rotation ? Beeing outplayed by a thief that just have to wait for you to leave earth ?
Or have a better sustain and keep outplaying the burst build by actively mitigating them.
I dont even mention how strong air and earth signet are. Yes 3sec root on 20sec cd is nice especially when it gives you 180 permanant bonus armor

the 4k heal of the signet won’t keep you alive if you get bursted so i would take stone heart over written in stone very time.

the only situation in which written in stone is actually better is against other celestial classes but then again those fights are endless and it won’t make a difference.

Jekkt.6045:

the 4k heal of the signet won’t keep you alive if you get bursted so i would take stone heart over written in stone very time.

That’s why SoR is the most used healing skill in DD PVP: it can’t save you from burst. Kappa

you’re right, it can’t. same for healing signet. it takes longer to recover from big chunks of damage. the 4k heal won’t make the difference in most of the cases.

if you get bursted the difference will be the following:

4k mighty blow
3k shadow shot
6k shatter

you heal 4k

vs

protection and stone heart

1500 mighty blow
1000 shadow shot
2500 shatter
no sigil procs which is another ~5k

But that’s 4K over … nothing
For 1sec cast time, its worth

if you think it is then take it, i think it’s not so i’ll take what i want.

Hate the ninja edit ^^

As i said, there is counter play to stone heart. And its pretty easy by the way: just wait for the ele to leave earth. Unless you’re running condi scepter, earth AA sucks pretty well ^^

You said if yourself: “IF you get busted”. Mesmer shouldnt be able to burst you if you play well. For theThief, if you manage swap to earth before he backstab you from stealth, gg

You also said it: its a matter of taste, i won’t be running it, you will, fine.
But i’m using both math and “in reality” fact, while you’re permanantly assuming that you’ll be in earth while beeing bursted. That’s just what i want to point out

Remedy.3429:

The downside is we have to stay in earth, the attunement that is basically only used for blast finishers.

But we don’t have to stay in earth and camping on it. You can ruin the enemy burst even swapping on earth for a couple of seconds.

Mattmatt.4962:

While ether renewal is getting nerfed (CD increase AND Cantrip trait competing with cleansing wave)

We can’t talk about a proper nerf for the celestial ele builds (d/d and Staff, even if d/d don’t use this healing skill commonly for now), cause the two trait that we were used to take (Cantrip Mastery and/or Shooting Disruption) will be merged in one that grant regeneration&vigor with the 20% reduced recharge. Indeed, ether renewal will be the best if you will take this trait: an healing skill that grant us regeneration and vigor (one extra condition remove if you take Cleansing Wave) and with less than 15s cooldown.

I’m not using soothing disruption. I feel like having to use my defense cd (cantrip) for cleansing while i can cleanse with my water attunement is silly. And now that attunement’s cd is 8,5 (assumling AR, but that’s not a kittenumption ^^) it’s way better than soothing disrution when talking about dispell