Guild Wars 2

i posted this in spvp forum, but didnt get much response there. i thought to pick your mind about ele build. i’m still struggling with ele build im comfy with. i’ve been hotjoining with this build recently. its all about signet, which proc fire-IX fire aura, which proc protection+swiftness+fury. these three boons (with help from runes, fire#5 and air#3) can be maintained nearly full uptime.

doesnt have much damage, but burning is popping from every button of this build. it has some survival given toughness, protection and all the focus survival skills. burning ticks around 600 and can add bleeding sustain from earth. there is also water#2. with dagger fire#2 can pressure teamfight with burning. this guy can run well, and has a lot of chills.

any thoughts? do you think this is worth pursuing in sPvp?

I really want this build to work. I really want to make use of that unlimited protection from the sigil/fire shield pops.

The sad, sad truth is it just can’t work. You have good protection here, but you have no regen (which is really important for a bunkery build like this). You’re also missing any reliable condi-cleanse.

And even if you can get the regen, you’re still a condi-build at the end of the day. Elementalists don’t do well with condi in their current state because:

A) We can only apply damage through burning + Bleeding (No poison, torment or confusion)
B) We don’t have a wide enough range of condis to ‘cover’ the damage-dealing condis.
C) We can’t apply conditions fast enough to overcome many passive-condi cleanse setups.

I mean… if you really like the build, then run with it. But it will be very difficult to be competitive.

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

I really want this build to work. I really want to make use of that unlimited protection from the sigil/fire shield pops.

The sad, sad truth is it just can’t work. You have good protection here, but you have no regen (which is really important for a bunkery build like this). You’re also missing any reliable condi-cleanse.

And even if you can get the regen, you’re still a condi-build at the end of the day. Elementalists don’t do well with condi in their current state because:

A) We can only apply damage through burning + Bleeding (No poison, torment or confusion)
B) We don’t have a wide enough range of condis to ‘cover’ the damage-dealing condis.
C) We can’t apply conditions fast enough to overcome many passive-condi cleanse setups.

I mean… if you really like the build, then run with it. But it will be very difficult to be competitive.

i agree this is behind condi necro or engi, but which ele build isnt?

im more into ele comparative mode: can this build be on par with s/? , d/d builds, fresh air trait?

I don’t think so.

Fresh air s/? and Boon duration D/D are viable because its catering to the elementalist’s strong points. Burst/Range damage, and boons. (Note I say viable. They’re barely viable at that…)

Eles can get more protection/regen than most classes, so Boon duration D/D makes sense.

Eles have good damage at long range, so S/? has a niche at long-range DPS burst where thieves have to get close, and rangers don’t burst.

But conditions are not our strong point, which is why this build will have difficulty.

I have actually been playing around looking at what sort of condi build i could make.

For SPvP this is what i have so far, might need tweaks here and there though:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmQbkRzwjDAEFw0yQhIaUeQzM1A-ToAgyCpIaS1krJTTymsNN6YWA

What do you guys think?
Its glaring problems are 2:

No space for Armor of Earth or Mist Form, you could drop Arcane Blast to slot it in but then that might make Shard of Ice rather pointless. The main damage would come from Burning. Currently it would have:

Cripple (Attune to Earth, Ring of Earth, Churning Earth)
Bleeding (Ring of Earth, Earth Auto, Churning Earth)
Vul (Water Auto, Arcane skills)
Chilled (Frozen Burst)
Burning (Drakes Breath, Burning Speed, Ring of Fire)
Poison(weapon swap)
Immobilize (Magnetic Grasp)

Arcane Skills would cause:
Fire – Burning
Water – Chill
Air – Blindness
Earth – Immobilize

Glyph of Elemental Power Gives 25% chance for:
Fire – Burning
Water – Chilled
Air – Weakness
Earth – Crippled

Now this one would stay the same, so if you used in say Air and then moved to fire if it procced it would give weakness and not burning. That can be quite helpful to gain more conditions but the proc chance is rather low, so it could be switched out for something else.

The good thing with Arcane Power, it crits 5 times so you would get five applications of what ever you use in. Earth is rather weak in this, due to the immobilize only being one second and you having to spam auto attack just to keep them there, but it could have its uses.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYnEE1ZYmBCHwjYAgooFTGK04jyjYmpGA-ToAgyCpIaS1krJTTymsNN6YWA

This has been the build i used tonight, did quite well with it. Toughness is rather insanely low but as they dont have a Dire PvP amulet not much can be done about it. Armor of Earth i swap in for Skyhammer, before that i was using Arcane Wave. Might give Arcane Blast a try and see what it is like.

It is difficult to survive in spvp without 15 water or 30 arcane. I use a powerful aura Defensive support(protection)20-0-20-30-0 with pvt amulet and 2 runes sets that increase protection duration. Build with D/D or D/F, 3 signets and ether renewal/glyph of healing. The teams gets upto 3stack of might and kitten of protection every signet us while the enemy takes around 5s of burns.

I agree that burning is the best condition ele can do since it is easy enough to perm-burn someone with signet of fire alone. But for a condition build to work ele need to be able to stack bleeds faster or have more damage conditions. Since cleanse are very abundance in spvp.

Just a thought: have you guys thought about using a Sigil of Geomancy? It adds an AoE 3 stacks of bleed fairly often enough and I think can be a good cover condition. I find that with this, Ring of Earth and the occasional Earth auto I can apply bleeds fairly constantly. The trouble is staying alive while the conditions tick…I also hate having to pick between Sigil of Geomancy/Agony and Doom/Venom…

You should ignore the condition duration sigils in spvp.