Guild Wars 2

This is what I’ve been using for my play-style, I’m mostly playing PvE and WvWvW.

All suggestions on increasing the effectiveness of the build are welcome.

Theory crafting for the build here:
10 (V) / 10 (IV) / 10 (VI) / 10 (IV) / 30 (V) (IX) (XI)

fire, 30%chance burning on crits, 20% chance burning when struck;
air, 35% movement increase;
earth, toughness, 5% damage at melee range;
water, 20% damage to vulnerable foes, health regeneration for self and allies;
arcane, fast attunement swapping, 15% movement increase (with daggers), boons on attunement, aoe on evades.

TLDR:

1. 50% movement speed
2. most talents synergize across elements
3. designed for damage even while using water to heal.
4. utilities:
   - signet of healing(small heal every cast)
   - arcane shield (in close and personal, so sometimes you need to block damage for an escape)
   - signet of fire (increased crit chance)
   - signet of air (10% movement brings total speed to 60%)
   - Tornado (not really a fan of any of the elites, dislike this one the least)

Spec other stats based on personal play-style, I try to balance between toughness vitality and precision.

Any thoughts on how to improve the build?
And how would you develop the build as you level?

None of those movement speed buffs stack.

Well, now I feel silly. And why would the air talent for 25% moment increase not stack with the air adept auto-talent? That just seems to waste the first 20seconds of air attunement in terms of speed increase.

kschmidt is correct. Reference the Miscellaneous section of the following wiki article: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Movement_speed. Only the highest movement speed buff actually applies, which means at best you’d have 25% at any given time.

Furthermore, keep in mind that the IV on Air stacks at a rate of 5% every 10 seconds. Calling it a flat out 25% movement speed buff is pretty disingenuous, as you’d have to be in that form for 50 seconds for it to ever reach that point. Personally, I find this really weak for elementalist because I think if you aren’t attunement swapping you are losing a lot of potential.

Also keep in mind the 5 pointers for each attunement only apply while you are actually in that attunement, thus making the IV on Air that much weaker to rely on.

kschmidt.5901:

None of those movement speed buffs stack.

Swiftness will stack with them, but they won’t stack with each other. :<

Grundnir.3852:

Also keep in mind the 5 pointers for each attunement only apply while you are actually in that attunement, thus making the IV on Air that much weaker to rely on.

They also last for an extra 5 seconds if you have the 15-point minor in Arcane.

More OT: I feel this build is what the OP is looking for. Emphasizes attunement swapping, applying boons to yourself, and also still gives plenty of condition removal, mobility, and stun-breaking. (and having a pet you can summon doesn’t hurt, but honestly ANY of the elites would work)
It’s not too difficult to swap out other utilities/traits and still maintain that basic playstyle, of course, but I feel that if the core of your build is “I’m going to swap attunements a lot!” (which is exactly the playstyle full Arcane supports), then you don’t want to pick traits that only benefit specific attunements.

You can do so, and it would work, I just think, personally, that it would be less effective.

Thanks! Yes that was what I was thinking, I misunderstood the conditions for how the various talents interacted.

Pyrite.9641:

Thanks! Yes that was what I was thinking, I misunderstood the conditions for how the various talents interacted.

Well, your build wouldn’t be “bad” necessarily, it’s just a build that makes each individual attunement stronger, so the traits you picked only work at certain times.

It’s not a bad method at all, it’s just probably one that would be difficult to master. You also have to gauge: Is being able to run 10% faster (or 25% faster, in the case of that certain air trait) for an extra 5 seconds after you switch to a different attunement THAT valuable? What about an extra 80 Toughness? Or having that “burn people who attack you” thing?

It can be. Maybe. Situationally. I think your build is more along the lines of “I switch to this attunement for a specific purpose.” rather than a build that switches constantly and rapidly. So, for example, you switch to Earth because you need the AoE knockdown and/or the aoe-cripple-blast. I figure that means you need to knockdown and run away, or chase somebody (more likely the case, considering that you can’t move during #5, and considering how the #3 is a ranged immob + gap closer).

So to make the build viable, I should reconsider several things.

Perhaps switching my earth 10 talent to salt stones for more damage to bleeding foes, and changing out signet of air for something else, perhaps arcane power? I think I would want to keep the air talents if only for getting to the fight in WvWvW.
I would rely on the windborne dagger arcane talent for movement in battle I think.

Any suggestions on a revision of the utility skills?

Also, how does burning on every third crit, compare to a 10% damage increase across the board for fire?