Guild Wars 2

Cheers!

As a point of this topic I’d like to discuss with you just how viable do you believe my experimental build is and perhaps how it could be improved. I have it on my elementalist already and it’s been test-proved in WwW conditions, but first the link to the build -

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmibwx3wjDAEFucy4hGe8RRBNzA-jwBBIhBkWAgkGMTtIasVTFRjVZDT9iIqOIgeB-e

As far as I’m concerned, my Attack is modestly fine for any additional damage I need to get done to my Conditions (Which goes as far as 1.4k in stats). The main output of this build are Conditions and they can tick well; in 1on1 situations they give me pretty much a 50/50 chance against any profession I’ve met so far, in group fights I manage to grab enough attention to let my server-mates do their job, manage to survive through it and eventually kill off a few. In zerg fights there was no problem whatsoever – with 3.1k armor and 21k HP + all the healing from Water & Traits, I run through enemy zerg back and forth with relative ease, hitting whoever I can for a lootbag later.
Respecting the stats focus of this build, I’d call it a “Bulldozer”, for it persists a lot and it does hurt with quite an overwhelming force (Heck, everybody in WwW, who got hit by my condition combinations, started panicking and running away / trying to buy time for condition debuffs).
That’s as far as it goes from my side in general for now. What is your opinion?

Best regards,
Wolferion

I’ve always found that condition duration was what made our condition builds bad. I mean, this is probably wrong, but when I read each time on each skill, it appears that way. You’ve got decent all-around stats. If you add in guild killer for more attack and cond. dam. then everything looks really good. If I had all that gear I would definitely try out that build.

Without lightning flash, you’re banking on churning earth/ signet of earth combo to work every time, I take it.

You still have 2 ways to cleanse, and a stun breaker. One of the cleanses can also be used as a burst.

I originally thought you were asking if it were viable, but then re-read and noticed you are telling us about it. I’m going to wait to see what the difference with ferocity is before deciding between cav and dire as my next ascended 6 pc. The only condition set I’ve ever used was carrion for staff. And it ended up being something I used with siege after, as I hated it. It’s been sitting in my bank for months. They said they’re going to change the 5 and 6 on rune sets, too. So maybe your build will be even better after.

The problem with Ele and conditions isn’t the duration – its the lack of conditions. While Burning will do a lot of damage, it will be easily removed thanks to the fact you have no other conditions covering it. You have TWO damaging conditions and that is it.

Curious to see some gameplay though if you get any in WvW that is.

I run full dire condi.
With food/crystal + condi stacks from sigil of corruption I have 2220 condition damage (this is with undead runes and the trait strength of stone)

Scepter earth auto bleeds @ 25 stacks will tick for 3284 or something. Its nearly impossible to get 25 stacks as they will drop off around 7-9 stacks.

The burn always does about 900. No matter the weapon set.

Ive tried to make scepter/dagger & scepter focus work quite a kittenurning earth is too long of a cast to make it worthwhile.

Ive settled on using staff for its utility.
In wvw though as asuran staff condi, I run radiation field with elemental surge + arcane wave for aoe burn.

This leaves open one utility for either a stunbreaker or if you wanted signet of water for a chill. Which gives me 3 condis I can keep up with the poison not being optimal.

Still though, its no condi necro but fun to watch 280 poison ticks, 1100 bleed ticks, 900 burn ticks followed with lava font/meteor storm – tornado on a supply camp.

all that while having 18k health and nearly 3k armor

Eles need to survive. Hence -50% condi is the norm.

And the direct damage as being a dnd is main damage with Condi damage as a nice bonus damage. This is why power is very important for any ele build.

It is strange how little condition damage actually affects us. I mean:

You: 1,464 Condition damage – Drakes Breath – 8,328 Damage Damage
me: 245 Condition Damage – Drakes Breath 4, 671 Burning Damage

For a build that has 1,219 more Condition damage, i would have thought it would have done more burning for some reason. I would defo be interested in seeing some gameplay footage. Personally for Burning i find Damage > Duration.

You thought about taking Elemental Power? As the Burning from that would be just over 2,000damage. 25% chance with 30second duration seems pretty good.

I could make some footage, though the very reason I started this topic was to see what people think and if it’s mainly (!) viable. I’ve never played an Elementalist before, so I studied it a bit through Abilities/Traits, devised a build that gave me great survivability to survive through many circumstances in WwW, but when fully testing it in miniature fights (from 1on1 to 3 on 3), aside from presence that has others lock on you and waste time/effort, the damage output to the enemy was less than optimal in comparison to f.e. my Thief’s DPS on Shortbow. I tried looking up various D/D builds on internet, but they all went around Celestial gear + critical focus in Traits, which as you can imagine do noticeably lack sustain. Going for sustain on Elementalist would negate critical focus absurd, so the only option out of it seemed to be Condition Damage, which you can boost through Trait/Rune based on your Toughness.

If i were to make any changes I personally would go 0/20/0/20/30. Take I and VIII in Air, V and X in Water and II, VIII and XI in Arcane. This would drop your Condition damage and your Toughness a bit.

I would then swap Signet of Earth and Cleansing Fire out for Glyph of Elemental Power used in Fire gives 25% chance to inflict 3 seconds of burning for 1,661 damage for 30seconds with a 45 second cool down. Take Signet of Fire as well for another 4,964 Burning every 20 seconds as well

Though i would wonder just how well you would be able to keep yourself alive with 200 healing Power and a Heal that is easily interrupted. You could swap it out for Glyph of Elemental Harmony that would be a 5k heal and either 4 stacks of Might, 26 seconds of regen (4k healing) 26seconds of Swiftness or nearly 8 seconds of Protection you would also get a boon based on your attunement from Glyph of Elemental Power Might(Fire), Regen(water), Swiftness(Air), Protection(earth)

If you run conditions and want to do some dmg on your ele you need something to give you more conditions.
– Sigil of Doom, Sigil of Torment and Perplexity runes will give you 3 more dmg conditions (conf + torment + poison) to cover your bleeds and burns and add some dmg to your attacks.
SoEP will help keep an opponent perma burning or weakened (good against power builds) or even add tons of chill or cripple to help keep a moving opponent close.

I use this with when I run conditions… Its really fun:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmmbuR0wjDI0Dww4hIMCdYlROMDA-jgCBYNBkWAh8Gg6AMTqIasl1FRjVLTQW3ATtKpeFKrSBAx0I-e

This is what I’m running with great success roaming in WvW.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhImgbxx5wjDIkCww4hG8BdY5ROMD2AA-jQDBodIogBkWAh8Gk6AIvrIasl1FRjVJjIqW3AzgLRmeAW0p2zDTKAIWWB-e

Once the sigil changes come, I’ll probably start running geomancy/ doom.

Also, I use a sigil of life and get full stacks before switching to torment. It gives you around 650 healing power with WvW bloodlust.

I use the glyph heal simply for perma swiftness. If I think I’ll have a tough fight coming up, I’ll switch it to ether renewal or signet. If it’s a warrior or thief though, I’ll just keep the glyph heal on for the long lasting protection.

Thank you all for your comments Have fun in your WwW hunting no matter the changes they’re going to roll on us soon!