Guild Wars 2

I have almost always played a D/D ele, just prefer the play style over others. For a while I was doing very well I struggled against some classes but did very well vs. others but now that people have learned their classes I have been struggling.

I’ve run everything from a glass cannon build (more for fun) to a very tanky build but it seems no matter what build I have i am just getting ripped apart. Most classes seem to be able to keep distance much easier have much higher movement speed constantly and much longer movement impairing effects. Yes i have condition remove utility skills and spec’d into water for more condition removal, but closing gaps has become a real problem lately vs some classes.

Overall not sure what has changed but I feel that classes or players have gotten better while I have fallen back even though overall my game play has gotten better. Maybe it’s me but i feel like the class has been figured out by most players and they know whats coming cause ele’s have to setup combos and once people know these they are easily avoided. The only class I rarely ever have a problem facing is another Ele I very rarely lose to them no matter what they run…

Not sure what I can do to over come any of these problems but any suggestions would be very appreciated.

Roll a DD thief. Problems fixed (it’s the class that’s broken…not you).

I still dont know why people have such a hard time with D/D Ele. Switch attunements intelligently is key:

D/D has good evasion skills such as Air D/D # 4, Fire # 4; using Earth #3 on a target in the distance in group fights, or using Air #5 to rush out of battle.

Good knockdowns Air # 4, Earth # 4

Switching attunement to water, using # 5 and using glyph of elements to heal will bring you nearly back to full with almost no healing. Plus it grants a low regen if you are at least 5 points in water; it is negligible but every bit helps

Switching to Earth gives you protection, in a 1v1 or prolonged or skirmish this means you can switch to earth, trait earth shield to proc when at 50%, pop regular earth shield when at 25%, do the above Water dance and bam you are full again.

Using Cantrips is a really good way of staying defensive without losing too much dps, properly traited the cantrips grant might, vigor and regeneration.

You can heal in mist form, just make sure to switch to water first for maximum effect. You can also summon the healing elemental while in mist form which acts as a great buffer.

Dodging is a necessity in this game; you have 2 regenerating damage negating chances with dodge, Air #4 acts as an extra dodge, traiting cantrips for vigor gives you more endurance and thus more dodges.

A good trick for burst quickness builds HB warriors or thieves is to pop Air #3, this aura stuns 1 them sec everytime they hit you. See a thief steal or a warrior running towards you ready to bullrush+quick+hb then popping this will give you crucial time to Air# 5 knocking them down and jump away.

By the time they are up you will have switched to earth attunement and used Earth #4 to knock them down again. They are now used up, all cds blown and ready for a pounding.

Lastly, you will die sometimes, you will mess up one of the above at some point. It happens, it sucks and we just have to run back. This profession requires a lot of attunement dancing and quick reflexes to use the abilities you need to live while still destroying all those who dare oppose you with your damage abilities.

If you have any questions or concerns with the above plz address them, I main as a D/D ele with 1067 toughness/15kish health and die very rarely while still dishing out all the meager hurt the devs have granted us. Hoped this helped.

@ Colton I do most of the things you talk about although I admit I need to work on my attunement swapping ( I tend to swap to fast).

For utility skills I tend to run cleansing fire, due to stun break, cleanse three conditions and is a cantrip (I trait for vigor and regen on cantrip use), mistform and Arcane wave. I use the arcane wave for a blast finisher and 3 stacks of might. Not sure if I should switch this out for Armor of Earth.

I don’t mind dying it happens and I am fine with that, just seems for the damage i output for the damage I take and the amount of work that has to be put into it doesn’t add up. That and it seems to me melee reign in this game. Also doesn’t help when most classes can have ranged attacks when needed where D/D ele’s are not so fortunate.

Thanks for the reply and I will try to utilize Air # 4 and # 5 differently to see how it works.

If the other classes knows how eles play/function and hes Avaraged skilled you will lose.

You can only knock down players who doesnt have a clue how eles roll or is a poorly skilled player.

Quote system wont work but I have to agree/disagree with you Masternebz. If you constantly go 1v1 as a Ele you are gonna have a bad time. The game is not balanced for 1v1, some classes duel a lot better than others(heck I believe mesmer has a “dueling” trait tree). Anyone one who thinks the game is balanced 1v1 havent listened to developers and havent played enough.

These skills are to help you in a group fight while being focused or if a 1v1 is absolutely necessary. They will help you live when you would otherwise die. A player of average skill can’t destroy a Ele who is really skilled, although I will agree the gap between how much skill is required to beat people of lower skill is large.

The knockdown from Air #4 is instantaneous and very hard to see coming, it takes half a second to switch to air and pop it. Earth #4 does require good timing and capitalizing on a players mistakes, but so do most knockdowns.

We do have to work harder to do less damage then other professions, we also have to work harder to take more damage than other professions, and yes we will also see more nerfs to our class in the future; making it harder to do both. Sure sometimes it feels masochistic, but we are not as broken as some would lead you to believe.

Despite all the haters ..I will keep shouting the truth of the matter, the ele profession is very strong both in 1vs1 and in group fight.

More and more team are discovering the joy of playing ele, outside the well known trebuchet destroyer and bunker builds, you’ve got also some power/balanced builds which are extremely hard to bring down while still able to dish out respectable damage, which will destroy literally every other profession on the long run.

The main concept of the ele is versality, therefore the moment you try to focus on one particular area you get worst results than distributing points in all areas, right now after hours of training against my mesmer friend in deserted server, I have managed to acquire enough skill to beat even mesmers in 1vs1 using my favourite set …d/d, this now for me at least it’s the official 1vs1 set.

@Colton, the nerf on whirpool is trivial matter, the elite still deal good dmg and regarding the signets, ty Anet^^, the activation time of signet of fire is now 1s.
So those were no nerfs really, just adjustments.

is ride the lightning not working or is it the 15 secs after that you can not close?
ride the lightning is obviously better than magnetic grasp but between the two of them it would seem you should be able to keep them close no?

i dont use dagger dagger but i want to know your experiences with why those dont work.

Its both crunchy, its very frustrating to see an auto attack whittle you down while you try to close the gap.

As to the RtL bug its when ever the opponent changes direction it will bug it out and you essentially CC yourself, which also means if your opponent knows that he can bug it out which you could call an exploit but not really due to it being how its programmed.

trait for speed increase with daggers?

frost aura so control their speed while chasing? does that work with ranged attacks?

shouts should work while in RTL so maybe updraft would help?