Guild Wars 2

After reading about someone mentioning condition builds i got to thinking about my Ele. I decided to give it a try in SPvP i came up with:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYnEE1ZYmBCHwjYAgooFTGK04jyjYmpGA-ToAgyCpIaS1krJTTymsNN6YWA

It is rather fragile as the most import stat combo (Dire) isn’t available. I tired with Toughness but it still didnt work really so i moved to the Vitality one and it faired much better, was alot of fun to play. Of course it was still rather squishy but i put that down to the fact that i was only running with 50% of the stat that i needed.

Seeing as i just got the 5,000Achivement Point chest with the 15gold i decided to make a Condition build for WvW:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYnEE1ZYmBWGwjYAgooFTGKE5jyjYmpGA-jkCBIOBkWAgEBMTqIaslhFRjVBBTjSpW7CSFDwrYZ1SBAx0I-w

Is the exact build i am running. Ignore the 2 Ascended as they are from my previous build and would still use them and upgrade them last.

Played most of the night with this build and been picking up loot bags left right and centre. Much more rewarding (kills, loot) wise than my previous build. I wouldn’t say more fun seeing as i havent changed the way i play as i played more condition wise using Reaper of Grenth when in group/zerg fights for a while so i havent needed to change the way i play as i played as if i was a condition build before i even had it

Have to say. Using Reaper of Grenth and then either using Ride The Lightening followed by Updraft into the centre of a zerg or using Burning Speed with Drakes Breath and Ring of Fire into them is a lot of fun.

I tend to when i see them running make sure i get my Ring of Fire and Burning Speed in areas where i know they will be running through which works really well.

Anyway. What would you guys change up to make it a better build? For example, i am having problems deciding what Sigil to use once I hit 25 stacks. I believe that you will be able to use 2 on swap ones come the changes to Sigils which would pretty much make it a choice between Doom and Geomancy

I’ve dueled an ele that ran a d/f condi build with perplex runes and used earth shield.
Still one of the weirdest yet effective builds I’ve come across.
So yeah its possible but outside a dueling situation, condi eles aren’t the best.

I dont aim to be the best, i aim to be effective and yet have fun. So far i am liking it. Never been a fan of either Scepter or Earth Shield conjure, partly due to the fact i think Conjures are very lackluster at the moment.

My “role” as i play it, nothing i have really been told to do, is to predict the direction of where zergs will go and then use Ring of Fire and Burning Speed and get them to run through it either as the charge or as they are running. It can be very effective

Just not sure how best to improve the build other than upgrading to Ascended and Legendary weapons of course.

If you wanted more condition damage I would go for undead runes, the 6th benefit works well with the Dire armor, other than that it looks like a pretty solid build

Yeah i was thinking about that but mobility is so important in WvW especially that i would have to waste a utility slot for the 25% speed buff. Plus taking Travelers buffs every stat, sure the buff might be minor but every little helps and the Boon duration increase is nice as well and the Condition duration increase.

Well the build you choose to wvw seems kinda weird for me (as a condi ele), you seem to have tried arcana XII + water II + arcane utilities, that is too much in my opinion, you could achieve similar results just by using glyph of elemental power, granted that it only affects one target every few seconds, but still, its a stun breaker and you’d save 2 utility slots. I consider evasive arcana better than arcana XII, because besides the obvious blast (bleed +cripple) and healing ( condi cleanse), it does have a few seconds of burn when you dodge on fire.

The dire set for armor is correct, i’d balance it with a few apothecary accessories until you reach about 700-800 healing power. I’d pick perplexity runes over the ones you’re using, confusion is amazing and we have many interrupts for the proc, mind the icd though. For the sigils, I’d suggest you use doom and torment (after you get 25 stacks of corruption) for now.

That build also seems too frail, I don’t really see how you deal with condi bombs or c/c. The thing about building a condi ele is that you don’t really HAVE TO go out of the normal bunker builds to do well and you also don’t need a huge amount of condi damage. Get the usual 0/0/10/30/30 if you’re feeling lazy or 10/0/20/10/30 (with embers might, strength of stone and cantrip mastery) for a little bit more of duration and condi power in expense of healing and condi cleanse.

The thing i don’t like about Glyph is that the chance to proc is rather low. So even though the duration of it is quite long its proc chance is rather low. Not even sure is that chance per a hit or per a crit?

Healing Power wise, currently i am at 494, I will be tweaking as i go to see the sweet spot for it though.

Torment and Doom would proc each other currently. So that would be a bit of a waste. Not keen on Torment either, its only 1 stack which isnt even that much damage. Plus having the fact i have both very low crit chance and very low crit damage i think taking a proc on crit sigil wouldnt be the best of ideas.

Perplexity is an interesting idea though, but until the Confusion duration is actually fixed on it i don’t think it is worth getting, that said they had the time to nerf the rune but didnt fix it – my guess is, it wont be fixed.

The biggest problem i currently have is with mobility, without my Travelers runes and/or Zephyr’s Boon and Inscription i am not very mobile.

This isn’t a solo build. It is for guild raids, random zergs and small groups. I tend to be the kind of person that will rush in and rush out, get a bit of a heal and then go right back in. Condi bombs are pretty much a problem for most classes and most builds I can always swap Brilliance out for Renewal if i know i am going to come up against another condition build. The problem with that is they are either going to be Necros or Engineers both with insane condition bursts so in most situations against that sort of thing it is better to run.

I wouldnt really call it frail. The only times i have really died is when i have had like 5+ people or a zerg swamp me. I can get some pretty decent healing from Brilliance normally use it around 60% and if in the middle of a fight getting 5 procs means i would be pretty much back up to full health.

as for the Arcane part, this is more of a work in progress. Never played with Arcane Surge before so giving it a try and see what it is like, worst comes to worst i could switch it up a bit, go back to EA and change a few things around.

The glyph has 25% chance to trigger at every hit, I think that is a fairly good chance to proc something. The sigils do share cooldown, but with increased condi duration you will be able to have the 2 conditions proc on the same target and even though torment is just one stack it works well as a cover condition since its duration is rather long, as for the proc, you have fury at every elemental swap, I find that enough to trigger it. Perplexity may not be fixed, but it triggers quite often and does very good damage, I still think its worth getting.

As for your problem with speed, idk what weapon set you’re using, but you could get windborne dagger or signet of air, so you don’t have to sacrifice your entire runeset. I still think you should get a good source of stability for your build, be it via utilities or traited skills, I just don’t see how you could pull it in wvw without it, but thats just my opinion.

I wouldn’t really call 15% Boon Duration, 10% condition duration, 6% Crit Damage and 30 to all stats as a waste, thats not even counting the 6/6 which frees up a utility slot. I might give them a try though if the price is cheap enough. Got nothing to lose. Currently just over 15gold for all 6 Thats not to bad i guess.

Does Dagger auto attack count as just one hit? I mean if it damages 3 times surely it counts as 3, if so. That would be pretty decent as its 3seconds at base. After trying it out, it seems that Fire attacks even though they hit 3 times they count as one attack or something as only one proc of burning ever hit them which is a shame

Doom would deal at base duration about 1,000damage based on my condition damage. Increased duration would add about 400-500 damage to it, not to bad for every 10seconds. Still not sure about Torment Sigil though, have no way to gather what sort of damage it would do or anything and as it costs like 6g i would prefer not to waste it.

You have to remember that condis are not always about damage, as an ele, the only real damage you’ll have is burning (and the occasional churning bleeds), if you don’t cover them with other conditions they’ll be easily cleansed. That is why your runeset and sigils should make up for the lack of condis the class has.

Lack of covering conditions is an issue, with high condition damage Confusion can be pretty strong. Plus its on hit, rather than on crit. I have like 6% crit chance that is why i am iffy towards on crit sigils and runes. Doom seems a solid bet though

@ArmageddonAsh
Have you tried swapping Arcane Mastery for Windborne Dagger? I’m not sure if the trade off between cooldown reductions would be worth the benefit of giving you other rune options (like Undead or Perplexity) but I thought it’d be worth mentioning.

I have been toying with this idea as well, but I figure since most of the ele’s condi-causing attacks do direct damage as well maybe I should try a hybrid condi-direct damage build?

So far this is the best I’ve come up with:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmKbnR2wjDARGHIwQhGfIZ8gDA-jUCBoOCh0CIUFAkIgZSFRjtsuIasqFYqSER1eeFRrWKAIWWB-w

Notes:

I don’t actually have the Sigil of Corruption on a Trident — it’s on another dagger.

Pros:

Burning, Bleeding, Vulnerability, and Confusion proc all the time due to hits/crits.

40% pre-Fury precision so I crit a lot (useful to proc Burning/Bleeding/Vulnerability) and with 55% crit damage and 1.6k Power the direct damage is decent as well.

Since Arcane skills always crit I can use those to help proc condis (almost) on-demand.

2.4k Toughness and 15k HP means I’m not super squishy.

Gotta love 27k damage from FGS#2

Cons:

Ether Renewal and Cleansing Wave (Water#5) are my only condi-cleanses.

No movement speed buff (low uptime on Swiftness) unless I swap Signet of Fire for Signet of Air (still have 31% pre-Fury precision so that’s not terrible).

Requires 10+ stacks of Might to really start to shine. This isn’t too difficult solo but it means that I really have to time attunment swaps carefully to manage Might stacks.

So far, I have managed to catch most people off guard since they really don’t know what to expect.

Condi Elementals are great for 1vs1 or even better 2v1. There is however one Major thing wrong with the ele condi skills. Half the skill’s don’t actually do the tick times or dmg is says they will do. Easiest one for you to test out to see the problem is Drakes Breath. should be a 4 second tick skill but it ticks for a lot longer. So when it should tick for 2-3k every second for 4 seconds. what it actually does is tick for around 800 for 13-15 seconds.

I want to say that no, we can’t. Outside of Runes, we’re lacking 3 of the 5 damaging conditions. Where people bring condition wipes to handle engy/necro, it seems like it would be too little to actually be able to keep conditions on people.

Condi Ele can be “done” in the sense that you will still be vastly inferior to a condition Necro, Engineer or Mesmer.
Ele is a direct damage class through-and-through.

Da Beetus.1275:

@ArmageddonAsh
Have you tried swapping Arcane Mastery for Windborne Dagger? I’m not sure if the trade off between cooldown reductions would be worth the benefit of giving you other rune options (like Undead or Perplexity) but I thought it’d be worth mentioning.

I have been toying with this idea as well, but I figure since most of the ele’s condi-causing attacks do direct damage as well maybe I should try a hybrid condi-direct damage build?

So far this is the best I’ve come up with:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmKbnR2wjDARGHIwQhGfIZ8gDA-jUCBoOCh0CIUFAkIgZSFRjtsuIasqFYqSER1eeFRrWKAIWWB-w

Notes:

I don’t actually have the Sigil of Corruption on a Trident — it’s on another dagger.

Pros:

Burning, Bleeding, Vulnerability, and Confusion proc all the time due to hits/crits.

40% pre-Fury precision so I crit a lot (useful to proc Burning/Bleeding/Vulnerability) and with 55% crit damage and 1.6k Power the direct damage is decent as well.

Since Arcane skills always crit I can use those to help proc condis (almost) on-demand.

2.4k Toughness and 15k HP means I’m not super squishy.

Gotta love 27k damage from FGS#2

Cons:

Ether Renewal and Cleansing Wave (Water#5) are my only condi-cleanses.

No movement speed buff (low uptime on Swiftness) unless I swap Signet of Fire for Signet of Air (still have 31% pre-Fury precision so that’s not terrible).

Requires 10+ stacks of Might to really start to shine. This isn’t too difficult solo but it means that I really have to time attunment swaps carefully to manage Might stacks.

So far, I have managed to catch most people off guard since they really don’t know what to expect.

Looking at the build, not to sure about the health. I was actually thinking of Sigil of Earth already. It has like a 2second ICD which is pretty decent.The question would be would it be worth losing 3stacks of might every 10seconds. Though it would help with covering conditions.

Personally i dont like Ember’s Might. I would it out for Burning Precision and move it down a tier and then grab Burning Fire or maybe One With Fire. I do really miss Zephyr’s boon, wish it was combined with Elemental Shielding and stayed in Earth. You also lack Healing Power and with no points in Arcane the cool down for the attunements is pretty high.

So far changes i have made:
Swapped to Toxic Focusing Crystal
Rune Set swapped to Perplexity
Earth Sigil added
added Rabid ring, Rabid Earring and Shaman Earring

Not sure about Sigil of Torment though. With my changes i would have increased base crit chance to 11% 31% with Fury i wonder if it would be enough for a sigil that is only 30% chance to proc

Having tried Sigil of Earth i can see that it is a waste due to my Crit Chance. Even with 60% chance i was getting maybe 3 or 4 procs in like a 30second fight, just not enough to make it worth while. The question is, should i change up some of my gear to increase Precision – even if it means being weaker Vitality and Toughness wise?

As it would be the only “on crit” condition i dont think i will, it would be a waste. Thinking about going with Geomancy instead, 100% chance and its a decent AoE with 3 stacks of bleeding.

Sind Bowdragon.8374:

Condi Elementals are great for 1vs1 or even better 2v1. There is however one Major thing wrong with the ele condi skills. Half the skill’s don’t actually do the tick times or dmg is says they will do. Easiest one for you to test out to see the problem is Drakes Breath. should be a 4 second tick skill but it ticks for a lot longer. So when it should tick for 2-3k every second for 4 seconds. what it actually does is tick for around 800 for 13-15 seconds.

Yeah i already know this, this is because Burning doesnt stack intensity. Though i think it should on Ele, make it something different for condi builds, short bursts of high burning damage would be really interesting to play with.

Looks interesting.

I always believed S/D was better for conditions….and a little safer with the range. I think two must haves for a condition build are poison on weapon swap and perplexity runes.

Forzani.2584:

Looks interesting.

I always believed S/D was better for conditions….and a little safer with the range. I think two must haves for a condition build are poison on weapon swap and perplexity runes.

Once the Sigil changes come, i hope to be able to go Geomancer (3stacks of bleeding) and Doom (poison) that every 10 seconds combined with the Burning, Confusion and such could be quite solid.

Of course not Necromancer, Engi or anything condition build powerful but they all need to be toned down anyway

Sind Bowdragon.8374:

Condi Elementals are great for 1vs1 or even better 2v1. There is however one Major thing wrong with the ele condi skills. Half the skill’s don’t actually do the tick times or dmg is says they will do. Easiest one for you to test out to see the problem is Drakes Breath. should be a 4 second tick skill but it ticks for a lot longer. So when it should tick for 2-3k every second for 4 seconds. what it actually does is tick for around 800 for 13-15 seconds.

If you look at the bottom right of the burn symbol, you will see a 4, meaning that the burning will be applied 4 times. The damage shown is the total damage of the skill’s burning.
It is working and showing mostly as intended.

I have now taken up Torment Sigil and Perplexity runes, Shame that Shocking Aura doesnt seem to apply it at all, though still proccs decently. Torment is about 100damage per a tick not moving, so thats not to bad for just 1 stack and there more for its AoE and for it being another condition. Its got a decent cool down, not 10 seconds like most so thats quite good.

So far, i am really liking it. Quite strange being D/D finishing a Zerg Vs Zerg fight and having so many loot bags and kills.

Lets not forget to go Asura for Radiation Field racial for AoE poison too :P

Disastro.4086:

Lets not forget to go Asura for Radiation Field racial for AoE poison too :P

I am Human, Reaper Of Grenth. Poison and Chill AoE, every 3 seconds. Sure not amazing but until we get a Class Condition Elite gotta make do. FGS isnt to bad for burning either, but no other conditions.

I was dualling a condition ele eariler in WvW and it was really very interesting. They were using D/D, LF and ES utilities (I didnt quite catch the 3rd one), perplexity runes, with what I think was apothecary gear, and then diamond skin.

I honestly have never seen such a rediculous counter to other condition builds.. his ability to heal was insane, his damage was pretty high if he locked you down with immob or chill (which he had a lot of…), although obviously it wasnt the DPS you’d see from a condition necro or engi.

Still, I dualled him quite a few times on my hybrid trap ranger build, which usually I have no problems at all vs any ele on, and I couldnt beat him. I won once after fiddling my build a bit to exaggerate my direct damage and play down my condition damage simply because with his healling just getting past diamond skin was an issue at first. Two thieves from my server also tried and failed to beat him, as did a necro. It was very impressive, easily the most interesting and one of the best ele build I have fought against and well played as well.

He did lose to a berserker phantasm mesmer in the end, but not without a good fight. I imagine that is the builds weakness.. since with such low HP and not great armour it is vulnerable to direct damage (but still, like I said, he beat 2 thieves consitantly), but I cant imagine a better build to roflstomp any other condition build in the game.

Yeah the problem is getting just the right amount of Vitality seeing as even having 1,600 Toughness you can still be hit HARD from some BS builds. Any idea what his traits were? At the very least it was 30 into Earth, Guessing min 20 into water for Cleansing Wave as well.

I still get hit for 12k+ BS even with all my toughness, that alone is like 70% of my total health gone in one hit. Currently sitting at 16.7 Health and 494 Healing Power

Sorry, no I dont. I dont know ele very well so I can only judge his build based on what I can see.. No idea trait wise other than diamond skin :P

I have met a few condition based eles that are very but very impressive with different type of builds and weapon set. You can be sure there are builds out there being used by very few players way before it is ever known here in the forums.

There is no truly viable condition build for eles. I have tried everything, and they all fall short.

Axialbloom.8109:

There is no truly viable condition build for eles. I have tried everything, and they all fall short.

You haven’t try everything. None of us have. Maybe in spvp but in wvw there are many very good viable builds that with the help of the individual player skill they become even more powerful including condition builds for ele.

LightningBlaze.4913:

Axialbloom.8109:

There is no truly viable condition build for eles. I have tried everything, and they all fall short.

You haven’t try everything. None of us have. Maybe in spvp but in wvw there are many very good viable builds that with the help of the individual player skill they become even more powerful including condition builds for ele.

No. They are all weaker than alternative builds.

Hello,

I am new to the elementalist class, and very interested into making a conditionalist! So far, I only play with the staff, so as to support my guild in WvW matches – but my main character is a condition / confusion warrior, and I know how fun / underestimated a condition build can be.

I have given a lot of thought to the provided original build. I quite like it, although I have some hesitations about the following (these being due to my inexperience with the class, so forgive me if this looks stupid):

• Arcane skills seem to be used only for “Elemental Surge”. The additional critical damage does not mean a lot for a condition build, so I wonder whether the investment isn’t too high, in regards of what it yields.
• Limited stability. Coming from the warrior world, I’ve become increasingly aware of how lucky I am to get such an easy access to stability. In my mind, stability is required when going in WvW, but it’s quite a rare sight for an elem.
• 2604 armor, 1326 condition damage, are figures that look a bit too low to me.

Here’s what I’ll probably try:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYhEmgbux3QlDAkCtMeASIkUeozM2A-jECBoOBkWAg6AMTqIasl1FRjV3ATxiIq2HoIa1CBoYOA-w

My reasoning:

• I don’t know whether you guys usually play signets or not, but I find “Written in Stone” to be quite good, helping us gain decent speed and increased toughness, as well as access to blind and immobilize, with a reasonable cool down,
• I rate stability very high, so I choose “Armor of Earth” and double it with “Earth Embrace” over “Strength of Stone” (all the more that it also provides a stun breaker),
• Condition dispel is taken care of by “Ether Renewal” and “Evasive Arcana”,
• Condition variation is obtained with the “Sigil of Doom”, “Shard of Ice” and the “Runes of Perplexity”,
• I wasn’t so sure about the “Runes of Perplexity” (although I have them on my warrior): we only have two interrupts, and have to make them count. My alternative choice was the “Runes of Grenth”,
• I end up with a 1.6k condition damage, 3k defense build, which I find satisfying. As a warrior, I often prefer precision to vitality, so as to trigger additional effects, but I do not know whether elementalists can afford that luxury.

Cheers.

The biggest problem i can see with your build is the lack of healing power. To counter that, i would personally go with Apothecary weapons and Exquisite Passion Flower Gems, that would give you 430Healing Power. While Signet Passives are good, the actives are rather weak so even with Written In Stone i wouldn’t run them.

Switching to Strength of Stone would give you 2,101 Condition Damage when fully stacked with Corruption. For Utilities, i personally dont like Armor of Earth, the 2 boons it gives can easily be removed and then the cool down is wasted.

With your build precision is wasted. You have nothing in the traits, utilities or anything that could proc anything else. So changing the jewels would have little affect, you would like a tiny amount of Condition damage and by tiny i mean like 50-60 but you would gain 170Healing Power

As for Runes, i am also using Perplexity. So far i like them. I am kind of disappointed that Shocking Aura rarely seems to proc it, i mean if they are attacking and get stunned – surely thats an interrupt!?

What race are you? Tornado is SO very useless 99% of the time. Being that i am a Human i run with Reaper of Grenth and it works really well in groups. Other than that you have Fiery Greatsword as an option. Burning on 2 and 4 as well as an increase to Power and Condition Damage

I am finding Elemental Surge to be VERY good. Lets take your build for example. If you ran Elemental Serge and took Arcane Wave, it would inflict a 6 3/4second burning (5,262 potential damage per a target) on ALL targets as well as give them all 3 stacks of Vul in a rather decent radius. I also run with Arcane Brilliance as my heal and it is very solid, it would be even better if D/D and S/D had at least 1 water field

The heal used in different attunements has different affects as well. Same goes for all the Arcane Skills. Arcane Power is pretty good as well, 5 crit hits and 5 stacks of what ever condition would be applied Fire = Burning, Water = Chill, Air = Blindness(would prefer weakness myself) and Earth = Immobilize but again with this one i would prefer like 5 stacks of Bleeding or something as the Immobilize is VERY short duration that makes it rather wasted

Hello,

First, thank you for your insight, it’s very appreciated.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

While Signet Passives are good, the actives are rather weak so even with Written In Stone i wouldn’t run them.

I first started to consider a signet-based for the 25% speed increase of the “Signet of Air”, actually. As for the active being weak, I sort of like soft control (again, warrior background!). However, if I can get consistent speed in another way, then I’ll probably go for something else. Your leveraging arcane skills is definitely interesting.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Switching to Strength of Stone would give you 2,101 Condition Damage when fully stacked with Corruption. For Utilities, i personally dont like Armor of Earth, the 2 boons it gives can easily be removed and then the cool down is wasted.

When running in groups, it is true that you can gain stability from your mates (guardians), so I could consider removing it, all the more that the CD is insane. The thing is, being a warrior, I know how devastating a control chain can be upon foes who do not have stability nor stun breakers.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

With your build precision is wasted. You have nothing in the traits, utilities or anything that could proc anything else. So changing the jewels would have little affect, you would like a tiny amount of Condition damage and by tiny i mean like 50-60 but you would gain 170Healing Power

Yes, definitely superior. Also, I’ll take into consideration your suggestion of using Apothecary for the weapons.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

As for Runes, i am also using Perplexity. So far i like them. I am kind of disappointed that Shocking Aura rarely seems to proc it, i mean if they are attacking and get stunned – surely thats an interrupt!?

If you got some already, then it works. Now, interrupts can only happen when an opponent channels an attack, so I think that auto-attacks (or more generally, weapons skills) without channel time would result into a daze but no interruption.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

What race are you? Tornado is SO very useless 99% of the time. Being that i am a Human i run with Reaper of Grenth and it works really well in groups. Other than that you have Fiery Greatsword as an option. Burning on 2 and 4 as well as an increase to Power and Condition Damage

I play an Asura. The tornado is clearly situational, but I thought it’d marry well with the perplexity runes, given that it an provides lots of opportunity to interrupt.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I am finding Elemental Surge to be VERY good. Lets take your build for example. If you ran Elemental Serge and took Arcane Wave, it would inflict a 6 3/4second burning (5,262 potential damage per a target) on ALL targets as well as give them all 3 stacks of Vul in a rather decent radius.

Yes, it’s pretty good, and definitely an option. If I introduce back some arcane skills, then I’ll have to test how it does against “Evasive Arcana”.

Cheers.

I missed the 25% movement buff from Travelers, so i went with Wind Borne Dagger instead, This frees up either the Runeset or the Utility slot depending on what you was using as the 25% movement. So for you would free up the slot and personally i find the active on that signet to be shockingly bad anyway.

I personally run Mist Form and/or Arcane Shield, Arcane Shield on its on in my opinion is rather weak but combined with Elemental Serge i think its pretty solid. upto 15seconds of Burning, 9 seconds of chill, 3 blindness or 3 seconds of immobilize is pretty solid and its a stun breaker and blocks 3 attacks, i think it would be cool if become a Blast finisher if it blocked 3 attacks or did AoE critical damage or something

The Strength of Stone one could be a replacement for the Written In Stone Trait, if you decide to move away from Signets.

I currently run with Apoth weapons, taking Corruption and Torment sigils, despite the rather low Precision it procs often and is an AoE which is pretty good as well, extra little damage to cover my most damaging one, Burning.

Yeah its a shame, the 2 Interrupts we have are on rather long cool downs as well which is annoying.

An Asura, Ouch. Elite wise, i would say FGS would be your best option switching to Tornado during specific situations and such.

I havent actually missed EA as much as i thought i would have. I mean the dodge in water was nice but the others arent that amazing, especially Air which i used to spend most of my time in before switching builds.

I ran into an ele in OS using a well put together perplex condi build. Was effective, but playing smart still brought the build down. I don’t think conditions work on the higher level players.

Best rune for a condition spec ele perplexity>scavenger>undead. Perplexity is the best condition spec rune because it give you confusion. The extra damage gained from confusion it worth more than the extra condition dmg from the other runes. Scavenger heal and adds more condition damage than undead. Conditions are not the most viable specs for elementalist. The main problems you have with if you go for a condition spec:
you lack condition removals
you do not have enough damaging conditions
you stack bleeds slowly (13s for a full stack).
you need sigil of doom to help with condition damage.

No good elementalist will stay in one attunement for 15sec to get max bleed stacks. The only plus side, condition spec ele can perm-burn. Having a ~900 a tick burn always on your target helps alot.

Currently i have access to: Burning, Bleeding, Torment, Confusion, Cripple and Chill
It’s a decent amount, i could even swap Geomancy out and add in Doom for access to poison but as i run in parties the AoE access is quite nice.

For me, Bleeding is nothing more than a cover, decent cover but still just cover. For me Burning and Confusion are the threats, though i can still get decent bleeding going i don’t really concentrate only on bleeding I spend less time in Earth than i do any other Attunement

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEUQJAoYhEmQbwx5gjDAkHwcCLDFhMSRBNzA-j0BBoOBkkGk6AITqIasl1FRjVPjIqWfETIgFrBA-w

This is the build I have been theorycrafting for a long time, and I’ve boiled it down to this. There is a variant of it that loses 10 from water or arcana to go 10 more into earth for diamond skin, but then I felt the need to swap out Ether Renewal for the signet heal (to keep health above 90%) which would have left me too vulnerable to conditions if the health threshold was dropped below 90%.

Essentially, though, the idea is to have superior regen, condition clearing, and protection/stability uptime in conjunction with high vitality and toughness (for an ele) to survive direct damage bursts and prolonged fights with condition users. Regen uptime will pretty much be permanent (and you’re curing conditions on each application) and it will be ticking for 204, which is decent in conjunction with soothing mist ticking away at 123.

An explanation of skills:
Ether Renewal – Preference, could be swapped out for signet and I would probably advise that if Earth 8 (Rock Solid) isn’t taken.

Glyph of Elemental Power – Mostly for the burn upkeep when out of fire attune, but could also be used for the cripple or chill to prevent being kited or the weakness when a heavy hitter is all up in your grill. Once used, your condition of choice would probably be best applied in air or water due to rapid autos.

Armor of Earth – Could be swapped for your stunbreak of choice but I like the stab and prot too much to give it up. Will be better after balance changes (hopefully).

Lightning Flash – Obvious synergy with the only real bleed applier, earth 5, and for combat mobility.

Glyph Elite – Just use whatever, I would go with reaper of grenth if I was a human. FGS may be a better idea anyways to get out of the fight and either choose to run or reset before re-engaging.

The only REAL problem with this build is its killing power is going to be pretty low, so it’s like… What’s the point? I can outlast (hopefully), but why would that matter if I can’t kill? It would be fun to play, but in the end, I don’t see a reason not to take a necro, engi or mes if you need a condition applier in your group.

Axialbloom.8109:

LightningBlaze.4913:

Axialbloom.8109:

There is no truly viable condition build for eles. I have tried everything, and they all fall short.

You haven’t try everything. None of us have. Maybe in spvp but in wvw there are many very good viable builds that with the help of the individual player skill they become even more powerful including condition builds for ele.

No. They are all weaker than alternative builds.

Actually there’s a very good condi ele in my guild who i see frequently own groups of people by himself. I have no idea what his build is, but i know he doesn’t use perplexity. I think he said they were too expensive and too cheesy anyway.

Just picked up Applied Fortitude, with that and 25 stacks of Corruption. I should have 20,700Health, 1650 Toughness and 1650 Condition. This is before i upgrade 1 non-condition based item and upgrade 2 Exo condition based items. So should end up with between 21,000 and 21,500 health and around 1,800 Condition Damage. Toughness will be between 1700-1800 depending on the stats that i go with.

So far, i am really liking it.
1 Vs 1 I have made has been a mixed back so far. I have Made several thieves run neither of them condition based, killed a few warriors, Guardians, Necros and such but that could just be down to them not being that great

It is nice seeing Churning Earth doing 1k Bleeding Ticks and even with my lowish damage, crit chance and crit damage still can hit for like 3k damage alone, Burning does around 800-850 tick damage, Confusion ticks around 5-600 for the 3 stack one and can get higher if i get interrupt and the 4/6 proc and Torment is around 200 per tick if they are moving. Bleeding i have managed to get to go up to 2k ticks

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Just picked up Applied Fortitude, with that and 25 stacks of Corruption. I should have 20,700Health, 1650 Toughness and 1650 Condition. This is before i upgrade 1 non-condition based item and upgrade 2 Exo condition based items. So should end up with between 21,000 and 21,500 health and around 1,800 Condition Damage. Toughness will be between 1700-1800 depending on the stats that i go with.

So far, i am really liking it.
1 Vs 1 I have made has been a mixed back so far. I have Made several thieves run neither of them condition based, killed a few warriors, Guardians, Necros and such but that could just be down to them not being that great

It is nice seeing Churning Earth doing 1k Bleeding Ticks and even with my lowish damage, crit chance and crit damage still can hit for like 3k damage alone, Burning does around 800-850 tick damage, Confusion ticks around 5-600 for the 3 stack one and can get higher if i get interrupt and the 4/6 proc and Torment is around 200 per tick if they are moving. Bleeding i have managed to get to go up to 2k ticks

Props for trying something new with a positive attitude. That’s a huge part to keep improving with this profession.

LightningBlaze.4913:

Props for trying something new with a positive attitude. That’s a huge part to keep improving with this profession.

Yeah seem to be the same old, same old really so got kinda bored. Saw another Ele Condition build a while and thought it was quite interesting. Didn’t ask them for there build or anything as i wasn’t really interested in my ele at the time.

Once i came back I thought i would give it a try. Can you do conditions better on other classes? Sure, are they as much fun? In my opinion No. I have played Condition Mesmer, Condition Necromancer and Condition Engineer they all felt very overpowered in just how much pressure and conditions they could spam and it got rather boring, rather fast.

Here i am just aiming for a solid condition build that can be a little bit of support to my Guild and small groups and i love D/D Ele combat style – Kinda like a magical version of Thief, just without the broken stealth and insane burst damage in one hit they can do.

I think one of the best things about this game is that you can do whatever you want with your class. Condi builds for ele have always existed and its nice to see that people are at least willing to try them out, it’s good for those builds who perhaps will get a little more attention and for the class that gets more diverse.

Right its been a while since i updated this last – So far its working quite well, great in group fights. Okay in Solo fights, though it loses to other condition builds simply due to the fact we have to fully spec to counter condi so its either Burst them down which wont be happening in a condi build, lose or draw.

So i see after a few posts of mine about Condition builds we seem to have a few more people mentioning and even posting theres

Well, this question is more for you though would help anyone else thinking about a Conditionalist build:

Do you go with Condition Damage or Condition Duration?

My build that i normally run with is 0/0/20/20/30. This build gives me 1,600 Condition damage when i get Corruption stacks. Most of my threat comes from Burning as i run D/D and we have so much access to it Currently i have:

Drakes Breath: 8,736 Potential Burning Damage
Churning Earth: 7,840 Potential Bleeding Damage

Now i was thinking of moving 10 points from Earth and losing Strength of Stone and putting it into Fire and grabbing Ember’s Might – this would be a Condition damage loss of 275 (100 from Trait line and 175 from the Trait) and gaining 10% Condition duration but more importantly (maybe?) 35% increase to Burning Duration

With this change the above skills would look like

Drakes Breath: 10,548 Potential Damage
Churning Earth: 6,960 Potential Bleeding Damage

Churning Earth would be a 880 total damage loss. Which would be like 100 damage per a second or something

But

Drakes Breath would be an increase of 1,812 damage. It would mean 2,637 Potential burning damage from one tick of Drakes Breath Vs 2,184 potential Burning damage per a tick without Burning Embers or any points in Fire.

So what do you guys concentrate on?
Duration or Damage?

This is done with NO food, just 25 stacks of Corruption

Not worth. I do 0 0 10 30 30 to counter condis

Duration is almost always better. But only up to a certain point. If you can run 1,000 cond damage but have +50% duration to it compared to 1,500 cond damage with 0% duration, you’re going to be much more effective with 1k +50%.

This is why. It’s not so much about the damaging conditions to where this benefits, but to all conditions to which the duration is benefited. The more cover conditions you can apply and the longer they last means much more of a chance that they’ll get cleansed over your damaging conditions. You really want that chill, vuln, weakness, immob, and whatever have you to be cleansed over your burning/bleeding. If they all last longer(as well as your damaging conditions,) then you become much more effective.