Recently I’ve been tweaking around with the traits and equips within PVP on my ele and I believe I have come up with a possible build that could allow us to compete with other classes. This is by no means a complete build and is subject to change and displays what I myself have been doing to compete within pvp. If this overlaps or is covered by any other builds, then it is unintentional and I apologise for my ignorance. I encourage everyone to try this build out and to tell me how you went with it, whether it worked or didn’t, any fixes that could be made to improve it.
Overview:
This build neglects fresh air builds for a more earth orientated trait build
Reasons behind this:
The main gist is instead of going for current meta trait builds such as fresh air or other builds focused around air we focus upon 30 in earth.
The reason behind this change is mainly due to the statless armor pieces in PVP which don’t allow for precision/crit dmg which most ele’s in PvE and WvW build around, rendering actual dmg from crit dmg a smaller factor for ele dps. In this case the 30 in air can be swapped for 30 in toughness (an exchange of 30% Crit Dmg/300 Precision for 300 Toughness/300 Condition Dmg) hence solving the problem of low surivability for ele’s. Another problem that is countered is the high susceptibility of ele’s to be nuked down by high condition damage builds through the use of the grandmaster trait “diamond skin”.
In my time using this build, I have found great success in surviving while dealing great amounts of damage. My playstyle is like that off standard elementalists, zipping in and doing large amounts of burst damage and moving out periodically to heal up before going back in. With the increased toughness gained, I feel that I can sometimes outstay my welcome and also tank initial hits while charging for churning earth.
Traits: 0/0/30/10/30
Earth Options: Vi (Stone Splinters), iX (Geomancer Freedom), Xi (Diamond Skin)
Water Options: i (Arcane Abatement)
Arcane Options: Vi (Windborne Dagger) , Viii (Elemental Attunment) , Xi (Evasive arcana)
Reasons behind these Options:
Earth:
Stone Splitters:10% extra damage within 600 units (all dagger spells occur within 600 units)
Geomancer Freedom: Reduces the effects of knockdowns and immoblises which very often can cause an elementalist to killed as it stops it’s mobile playstyle
Diamond Skin: Necromancer’s have been the biggest pain to deal with, at least when entering a fight you won’t get killed in 2 seconds
Earthen Blast: I personally think this is better than lightning strike because it does it to multiple enemies and cripples them for 3 seconds
Water: Water is taken for it’s passive heal which is very important for elementalists who rely on sustain to keep going
Arcane Abatement: Very useful skill in a lot of maps, especially skyhammer where there are many elevated platforms
Arcane:
Windborne Dagger: synergises with fast playstyle of elementalist
Elemental Attunement: the boons provided are all useful (water provides another passive heal)
Evasive Arcana: Provides extra damage and also extra heal when attuned to water)
Item Build:
As crit damage is neglected, we rely on power for damage which is a much more reliable dps source.
Runes: 6 Superior Rune’s of the Ogre (Provides the highest Damage increase)
(+4% Dmg, +165 power)(Rock Dog summon is also quite useful)
Soldiers Amulet with Soldier’s Jewel: provides power/toughness/vitality
Sigil of Force (+5% Dmg)/Sigil of Geomancy (inflict bleeding for 7 seconds, also synergises with extra 300 condition damage from 30 in earth)
Stats:
Attack: 2985
Armor: 2780
Health: 18245
Condition Dmg: 300
Healing Power: 100
Boon Duration: 30%
Thanks for reading!