Guild Wars 2

background: PvE

I’ve been raiding the end-game content for a few weeks, and I’m noticing an issue with survivability. At first glance it would be the obvious lack of toughness and vitality. But after a little research through the forums, I’ve noticed my stats aren’t really that different, or (imo) worse than anyone elses. In fact, some of the recommended builds feature useless additions for PVP I’m not interested in.

I’ve raided some of the most challenging endgame content in WoW, playing and downing (if some know the content) Hardmode Lich King before cataclysm, and even achieving server-firsts downing new content. Raiding, group play, and theorycrafting is not new to me. I know my way around “dodge” at this point.

I’ve attached a calculator of my build, and an image of my stat allocation. As follows is my logic:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mVsMz9Mz0oaTnkoaTnkxax9MocbMmka8kiH7kiO7070V7kIv

My rotation, is almost a dump from Earth, to Fire, Ice Bow, and repeat.
keeping Signet of fire up at all times (as it adds 5% dmg via Burning Rage, and accounts for my Longest, hardest burn at 6,500 dmg over 12s)

I use Ice Bow to account for the loss of rotation time due to the low skill recharge rate. It adds vulnerability to the next cycle, and offers a wide range of spell types, from AOE, no splash, and CC, and improves condition duration to help retain bleed/burn as a shift from different skills.

All gear is “Rampager” (Pwr/Prec/Con dmg)
All armor and accessories contain “Crest of the Rabid” (Con dmg/Prec/Tough)
*Chest has fully activated “Rune of the Elementalist” as seen below.
Weapons contain “Sup Sigil of Bloodlust/Corruption” (10 Pwr/10 Con dmg stack per kill)
3 Ascended pieces contain +5 agony rating.

The damage is fantastic, controllable burst damage thru fire on weaker mobs, but the bulk of my DPS is in long term controlled bleed/burns. My average bleed is approx 104-108 per tick, at 20 stacks accounts for nearly 2000 dps.

My issue is survivability. My toughness seems to be fine, but I notice that if I miss a single dodge on a 2-5minute fight, I’m often one-shot by boss moves. With no control, or understanding of boss aggro tables, I struggle to understand the haphazard targeting system for advanced mobs. It leaves me vulnerable. I don’t like to idea of watching heavy class professions get pounded on by dragons, when I can barely sustain mobs for a moment.

So I’m looking for advice. The dodging isn’t enough to guarantee great dps.

As my old raid leaders used to say “Doesn’t matter how much damage you do, if you’re dead, you’re doing zero. Your best stat—is breathing.”

mmm your traits..you can’t survive with that traits for now..the only way for an ele to stay alive come from self healing, you need at least 30 in arcane (for get evasive arcana) and 15 in water, plus i suggest equip with some healing power, i have atm

1262 healing power
(about) 2600 armor
(about) 2900 attack
(about) 17k health
(without any buff)
i don’t do very high damage but i can survive almost forever..

btw i have 3 complete set

berserker
soldier
cleric

i switch often my traits and mix my gear..

depend what i have to do..dungeon, open pve, wvw

i use a mix of soldier+cleric in wvw with 0/10/0/30/30 build
in open pve for farming event i go with a full zerker with a 30/30/0/0/10
for dungeon depend in which team i am, and which dungeon i do..

Though I personally don’t like condition builds on eles, I’m not going to make your eyes bleed trying to convince you to play something else, so here’s where I think you should change some things up.

Bosses generally like things with more toughness, but they always have random aggro phases

You have toughness everywhere because of the crests and 30 in earth, but no vitality unless there’s some in your runes, and base life just won’t cut it, especially if you’re missing dodges. I’d honestly change some of your gear to distributions like:

Carrion: Cond Dmg/Power/Vit
Valkyrie: Power/Vit/Crit Dmg

I’ll also note that you have precision on EVERY piece of armor/jewelry/socket, but no crit damage. All those stats points put towards upping your crit chance, but you’re focusing on condition damage, and you have next to no crit chance. So i’d either drop some of that precision and go with some carrion pieces, or just toss beryl orbs around to make the precision more worth it. Even swapping in some Carrion/Beryl jewelry might be nice. Be sure to look up stat tradeoffs for taking crit damage though, so you get the most out of your gear.

I’d probably start by changing my accessories to Carrion, the sockets in them to Beryl, and seeing where that gets you.

Cantrips. 30 in water. Cantrips grant regen+vigor, cantrips recharge 20% faster, regen removes a condition as traits.
You can be full glass cannon and still have decent survivability with this setup.
Dodge.

Whether you’re going for full DPS or bunker/support, a necessary choice for elementalist traits will always be 30 in water and 10 arcane. The synergy within the water trait line is too good to ignore and the elemental attunement major trait should be a built in part of the ele imo.