Guild Wars 2

Like most here I was having major survivability problems when I picked up the elementalist. The off-hand dagger is very flashy and fun but the focus really is a game changer.

Knockdowns, ranged single target slow, invulnerability, 2 invulnerability to arrows; one a reflect, the other an AOE that protects your whole team. We can still do nice damage with a zerker amulet and a good chunk of points in water stance. Glass cannon specs with focus can work very well in my experience.

Also throw on a 6 set of the mesmer rune for an increase in duration on daze of 33 percent. The water daze AoE really becomes interesting.

Question is, how effective is the survivability in WvW or PvP, and can you still stack enough DPS to do decent damage

I haven’t relly done alot of WvW. It mainly feels like a zerg so I would just hang with the staff but in spvp, it really shines. I run a 10 arcane, 30 water, 30 air build with zerker amulet I have about 17k hp. I have nice power and my crits hit hard. I use the 20 percent damage to vulnerable foes and 20 reduction in water skills talents. When I have to kite a melee in water stance, my little vapor blades hit hard. it’s funny watching cone of cold hit for 5 to 6k over the channel with 15 stacks of vulnerability. The 25 point water talent is also a nice bonus when in a group.

In my experience, I can kill any class one on one.

I use scepter and focus and after getting out of the ranger mindset where all CDs are special and should rarely be used I started wrecking everything with my heavy earth and water oriented build!!

Oh and reflect will reflect anything that’s ranged, so fireballs, blinding surge etc shoots back at enemy, however beams like greatsword 1 on Mesmer and air attune 1 on scepter go straight through reflects, so use that with caution!!