Guild Wars 2

I’m currently getting new gear for my Ele and I also got back into playing D/D after trying out many variations and other weapons (Build is 10/10/0/20/30).
My focus would be WvW and dungeons and the main problem I have is deciding how much defense is enough. My equip plan was initially to get 4 Rampager armor pieces + 2 Valkyrie (Chest, Legs) with weapons both Berserker, Accessories Valkyrie and the rest Rampager again. This setup allows me a crit rate of 45%~ with good power and decent condition damage, though I use Rampager mostly because its stat distribution gives the most precision.

Long story short, I’m still only a bit above 15k health with this, neglecting Toughness altogether, and I’m wondering if I should ditch going for precision completely and instead use lots of Soldier stuff (Power, Toughness, Vit), because I tried sth like this in sPvP and it worked quite well… OR ditch either crit bonus dmg or condition damage.

Right now, I’m leaning more towards somehow getting rid of condition dmg, because it’s imo the most expendable stat, but I’d very much appreciate other competent input before spending gold again.

I use 0 10 0 30 30
1)healing 2)toughness 3)power and a little bit of vit to get over 15k
air minor zephyr to get buffed crit and speed when using aura
regen plus vigor when using cantrip, soothing water and aura speading for water
buff bonus when attuning, staff aoe range increase , Aracane evasion for arcane.

spread static aura vs mellee, heal group using water attunement (around 2500 hp) and AE (around 2500 hp) when under water attunement. keep endurance up with vigor using cantrip.

Switch to staff for long range fights

Try it out and decide if you like it better? You can try it out for free in the mists to get a sense before you actually buy real gear for pve and Wv3.

I would highly, HIGHLY recommend all Soldier’s gear with Cleric’s jewelry. 4 Rampager’s and 2 Valkrie is a death sentence, especially at melee range. Without Toughness, you’re going to have a bad time.

D/D is essentially a melee weapon set, you really need to have some degree of tank considering you have such low natural toughness/vital. I run Knights gear stacking power, precision, toughness, with Power, Precision, Vital Jewels/Accessories. I use 3 Earth Runes, 3 Runes of Speed and do just fine in dungeons and WvW. All my gear/accessories/weapons are exotic and honestly if I didn’t have toughness I would just melt in WvW. I run a 10 Air, 10 Earth, 20 Water, 30 Arcana setup, which I think most people run now in WvW on their Ele’s.

The other option I am considering is a full P,V,T setup which I am slowly gearing up for this will give me even more (hopefully) survivability, however I am worried about missing crit, will just have to see how it works out.

Loco, Don’t forget about Zephyr’s Boon. Thats another 20% crit when you need it most. I use runes of Divinity to boost it a little more, as well as the fact that we benefit from every single stat the set grants.

I would not recommend using D/D for the things you mention, D/D is much better suited to general environment PVE. You will lose some of the nice damage capability attempting builds that opt for survivability needed to support up close play in WvW & Dungeons at the cost of vital crowd control. D/D does provide the best alpha style damage of the weapon sets though, and in support of that 30/30/0/10/0 works best for me.

If used the way I am explaining there is no need to get tanky armor or jewelry in support of heath or toughness. Instead everything is in power, precision, crit damage. With optimum gear you will have around 60% crit chance, 80%+ crit damage and over 3100 attack. Burning speed, dragons claw, fire grab and arcane burst and wave will finish most mobs very quickly, especially since dragons claw attacks fast and has 3 hits per attack.

16k-17k health is a good number to shoot for with D/D

D/D is fine in WvW and Dungeons, you just can’t go full glass cannon or you will get owned

Also an aura build was basically made for D/D since you swap attunements so much

As far as PvE is concerned, yes you can use d/d for pretty much anything (including high level instances) and no, you don’t need the slighest bit of tankyness, not even defensive traits, especially since you want all the damage you can get to eat through mobs as fast as possible. I would recommend switching between D/D and Staff depending on the situation though, because it’s worked for me. Just remember not to use D/D if you don’t know what those mobs/bosses do, when in doubt switch to staff.

PvP/Wv3 imo you should get a different build/set entirely, and that part is personal preference and playstyle.

How much crit is recomended for D/D? I feel I have my defensive traits/stats set up quite nicely, but I am sitting on 23% crit I’m wondering if I should aim higher, I use the trait which gives Fury/Swift with aura’s as well.

Brownies.2901:

I would not recommend using D/D for the things you mention, D/D is much better suited to general environment PVE. You will lose some of the nice damage capability attempting builds that opt for survivability needed to support up close play in WvW & Dungeons at the cost of vital crowd control.

This statement could not be more wrong. I use D/D Exclusively in WvW and in Dungeons, I rarely die in either. I still retain enough damage and survivability to win ANY 1v1 in WvW even most 2v1’s and sometimes more. As for dungeons, again no problems whatsoever.

And if your saying that D/D has no crowd control, then you don’t understand the weaponset at all.