Guild Wars 2

Edit: I do realize that the auramancer mentioned on Metabattle:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Tempest_-_Midline_Auramancer

is probably what I am aiming for. However, I would still value any input you guys can give me!

Hi there fellow eles!

The short: Is there a viable tanking/healing elementalist build that focuses on survivability above all else with the benefit of added healing for teammates?

If so, what weapons would this build use? What kind of armor does this build use? What runes do you put on the weapons and armor? How about accessories?

The long: A long time ago I decked out my elementalist in berserker gear for Citadel of Flames farming but took a long break from GW2 and recently returned. I absolutely love the tempest class but boy am I having a hard time staying alive (staff fire/air/tempest) in some dungeons like Twilight Arbor Aetherblades and Arah P1. I believe I am dodging enough/correctly as I have read that is what a berserker elementalist relies on for defense.

Sometimes, though, this doesn’t cut it in PUGs. I would like to find a build that focuses on the opposite of the berserker build: sacrifice most of my DPS for tankiness and support. I want to reenact the effectiveness of my mantra-based mesmer 2 years ago that could sustain myself pretty well.

I have checked many different sources but have come up short as most of the tank builds I have found are quite old.

Does anyone have suggestions? I would like to know what weapon, what specializations to choose, what armor, what accessories, and the runes that go along with all of these if possible. I have a few ideas but I am afraid of making my own build and wasting money on armor only to realize that a certain rune synergizes better than what I had selected.

Any help is much appreciated!

WvW builds aren’t great for PvE. There is a lot of utility that’s good in big fights against other players that is basically useless in PvE, and a lot of utility that’s amazing in PvE but useless in WvW. For instance, Sandstorm and Dust Storm are great defensive skills for dungeons and fractals but useless in WvW. Unsteady Ground and Static Field are great in WvW but of much more limited use in PvE.

Anyway most of that’s pretty easy to swap out, to get a more PvE optimized support build. The bigger issue is that you’ll be doing 1/4 the damage of a dps ele (yes, I tested it.) even if you’re doing a max dps rotation and never using any support skills. So you essentially do basically no damage in actual play, and no one’s going to appreciate that.

My go-to build for being tanky and providing a lot of support while still doing damage is a burning-focused build. In a rotation that provides near permanent protection and tons of heals, it does about 55% as much dps as a full glass ele. Grants decent might too. And if I don’t need quite that much defense, I swap out earth trait for fire, and then I can get 70% as much dps. Still has just as much healing (very slightly more, actually) but less protection uptime, and it also gives the group pemafury. And because it’s condi, in high level fractals, where mobs have more armor, that 70% becomes 100% as much dps as a glass zerker ele. So it’s my 150 AR gear set.

Any power build with as much tankiness and healing ability will have way less dps.

For be healer in pve you can just go full berserker gear, full shout utility Dagger warhorn/staff. Take air (322) water (132) tempest (333) traits.
You can go earth water tempest for more tanky spec (protection from auras + passive damage mitigation)

For pug dungeons i just used my WvW build (Condi oriented hybrid) puting glyph of storms on the toolbar.
The only reason to make a dedicated PvE build with max DPS is for high level fractals and raids.
Of couse a healing bunker is not useful you need noticeable dps.