Guild Wars 2

I play a D/D ele running primarily power / toughness / vit build, 0/10/0/30/30 at the moment with full cantrips as utils. Might change it up a bit, as I’m still in what I would consider my learning phase.

I feel confident with my 1v1 skills now, but 2v1’s in sPvP I’m finding myself dead frequently. Anyone out there with a similar build, how do you typically handle this?

If you are fighting players that are as good as or better than you in 2v1…you’re probably gonna lose. Just the reality of the situation.

If you are fighting poorer players, then I would try to keep your CC’s going. We have 2 PBAoE knockdowns, and 2 players on their butts are just as uselss as one player on his butt lol. Shocking aura can also be a great help if one is melee. And keeping your prot up is a great idea as well.

Otherwise…just try to burn one down and turn the fight into a 1v1 as quickly as possible.

How I handle them, after the patch I completely changed my play style. I decided I have been bunker long enough… Now I am 100% offensive. IT is awesome when someone comes up to you thinking, “Yes, another bunker to kill” only to turn around and get hit for 4.5k (personal best atm) with a fire grab. Usually get jumped by 2 or more players, and manage to get one downed, but they usually revive other before my interrupts are off CD. This can be disheartening knowing I got 1 downed but fail to get the kill because of 2 v 1, but I still fight back. I have been having a blast on the Keep map with Lords. Had a few people trying to kill our Lord, so I held them both off long enough for a teammate to help back me up.
EDIT:: I have been playing in the 5 vs 5 sPvP matches now that we have them.

I guess I should also mention, I just hit rank 11, while the players I have been facing are ranks 20+ with more sPvP time than me and Champion Slayer titles. I do not know exactly how much time it takes to get this title, but it sure feels good knowing I am putting up a decent fight.

On the other hand, I kind of wish I had a little more damage boost, as I am specced for Offense, I do die fairly quickly to other Offense specced professions who do about 8k – 12k in 1 or 2 hits. Very upsetting to know I have Low Hp, Low Armor, and Mediocre damage. My 4.5k Was a crit on a Burning target with Fire Grab, nothing compared to BWE2 where I could average almost 10 – 15k with Fire Grab crit on Burning target. Major nerf I guess they put in BWE3 as I did not play my ele BWE3, but played a Ranger instead.

Best of luck, also, remember to time dodge, use utilities if needed.
I also play D/D

Thanks for the advice guys, I’ll definitely try to focus one guy down faster and be more offensive.

Another quick question, do you guys like to try to perform your rotation so that you stack might ie: fire → earth whenever possible? Or do you just play it by ear and open with whatever you can land?

I’m aware of the fire field combo with earthquake + churning earth, but the problem is so many people will dodge straight after the knockdown especially if they know a big telegraphed CE is coming their way..Not sure if it’s worth it.

Jericho.4521:

Thanks for the advice guys, I’ll definitely try to focus one guy down faster and be more offensive.

Another quick question, do you guys like to try to perform your rotation so that you stack might ie: fire -> earth whenever possible? Or do you just play it by ear and open with whatever you can land?

I’m aware of the fire field combo with earthquake + churning earth, but the problem is so many people will dodge straight after the knockdown especially if they know a big telegraphed CE is coming their way..Not sure if it’s worth it.

I run a Toughness Air D/D build. I mostly stick to Air, got natural speed buffs through traits with damage buff as well. My opening Combo ranges between:

- Arcane Power into Static Aura (for Swiftness, Protection and Fury) into RTL and then Updraft

Or

Static Aura (again for buffs) into RTL and then Updraft

Works well, get nice swiftness durations from it as well, so kinda like a magical Thief without the stealth lol

similar build but i went 10-10-0-30-20 now for the cantrips, basically in a 2 vs 1 if you have sustained fire, your only option is too escape, so if you was vs say a ranger and a necro and they are both keeping sustained dmg and conditions from afar, your only options are too escape, find a line of sight, surprise them with bursts and evasions or try to stall for time, or all of the above, if im against a bad situation like that i do an opening spike with classic fire combos, burning speed-ring of fire-fire grab, now you have 2 options, if your still kiting, drakes breath-cone of cold can be nice, if you need more control switch either air for updraft or earth for earthquake, you can always try to put some distance charge churning earth then teleport into them for massive dmg, or just use cantrips for escapes,

with a good team you can definately win things like 2vs3 or 3vs4 because you can keep up the point blank aoes, without getting targetted too heavily. this is just knowing how to dodge, and keep distance, spacing is super important in spvp much more so in gw2 then any other mmo i played

if you have a 2vs 1 with melees, use your speed as an advantage, short range dagger kiting one of them works well with earth auto, and you can get your aoe combos when they off cooldown, and aslong as you know what animations look like, guardians and warriors are pretty simple to dodge for the most part. that being said, actually winning a straight 2 vs 1 against equally skilled players is basically impossible since theres no way to kill one without the other just ressing him (most the time) you can always try to separate or wait for backup.

i have a few vids of me playing a similar cantrip build to you and i go at least 1/2 my games with 0 deaths heres an example. (its cos im awesome at being cowardly!)

p.s too the guy talking about firegrab earlier, i crit 5.7k on one guy here.. and im not even glass cannon (might stacking ftw)

What is sPVP? :P

sPvP is when a mummy and a daddy love each other very much. they hug in a special kind of way.

Here’s the blanket tactic if you get caught in a 2v1

Air Attunement
Select [No Target]
Point in escape direction
Ride the Lightning
Shocking Aura or Switch Attunements for the swiftness.

Find a teammate
Go back and kill some fools.

Otaur.9268:

On the other hand, I kind of wish I had a little more damage boost, as I am specced for Offense, I do die fairly quickly to other Offense specced professions who do about 8k – 12k in 1 or 2 hits. Very upsetting to know I have Low Hp, Low Armor, and Mediocre damage. My 4.5k Was a crit on a Burning target with Fire Grab, nothing compared to BWE2 where I could average almost 10 – 15k with Fire Grab crit on Burning target. Major nerf I guess they put in BWE3 as I did not play my ele BWE3, but played a Ranger instead.

Best of luck, also, remember to time dodge, use utilities if needed.
I also play D/D

If you want to go the big damage I would suggest Valkyrie S/D with 0/20/0/20/30 with arcane shield and blast with mist form. I’m pretty satisfied with the damage I do. While other classes like Warrior and Thief can do higher single target burst, ele AOE burst is pretty devastating.

As for 1v2, it all depends on the class composition and skills of your opponents. A lot of people slack or tunnel too much, leaving themselves open to counter burst once their cooldowns have been negated. They key for these types of battles is deciding your best strategy for the classes you’re facing. Facing burst classes is an uphill battle and you’ll be on the defensive until they run out of gas, but you can quickly down/kill them if they get too over-zealous.

I’m very satisfied with my build and thus far haven’t seen anyone else running it. It is a D/D build, but otherwise it’s all me it looks like. I’ve only ever won ONE 2v1, though, sadly. They were poor players, though, and I was on my game at the time. I nearly died and still probably would have as one was a warrior who could have Vengeanced on me while I was waiting to heal up out of LoS. I was around 1% hp or so after the fight so my teammates that finally showed up probably saved me. But I think I could have kited the warrior around and kept the Thief from healing until it was safe to stomp him.

Most of the time though, I usually RtL the hell out of dodge if I see more than one person coming. I’m not glass at all, I don’t think, either. Rocking 19k+ hp and around 1.7k toughness. Thieves are laughable on my Ele; have only lost a couple times to a very well played one in 1v1 but otherwise I eat them up. Goes for any other glass build.

So far my personal best is 6k on some poor guy with Churning Earth crit. Firegrab highest is around 5.3k. Love dem crits. Mesmers still eat me alive though; I do win occasionally but more often than not I lose to a well played Mesmer. I still fight them regardless—only way to learn is to accept defeat and try again.

I’ve sprinkled my build around the forums a couple times so if you’re curious just PM me. It’s a very defensive build imo, but still easily taken out by good focus fire and CC. But main thing, in a 2v1, like most have said RtL the hell out of there and come back when it’s a 2v2.

I turn around and Ride the Lightning away.

They usually give up pursuit immediately, cap the point, and leave. RtL back, flip the point behind them, gg.

I would start of by saying that no encounters shold be handled the same. It depends on the prof and builds of your foes. So rule number 1: you have to be adaptive on the fly. Don’t rely fully on the good but foreseable D/D combo /which I guess we all know). Use it, but use it wisely.

I have actually found that with my playstyle and build (0 10 0 30 30), I have a better chance of winning in a 2v1 scenario the more offensively I am specced. In hot join spvp I run full beskerker (but more defensively on my runes). Running with Val amulet provides a little more toughness but nothing I feel actually contributing to the fight, unless the foes are both melee and you can kite and heal more.

In a 2v1 scenario with both being melee I find the easiest win if you are able to use your cc and kite, dmg, heal until they go down. Movement and positioning is key. If you can move in a way that cluster them together, your aoe will help a lot. Also, learn the distance that allow your attacks to hit but not other melee, so you can stay just outside their circle of attack range.

If one melee is a d/d thief its becomes a lot more challenging because you cannot afford to make any mistakes. Also heartseeker spammers are more difficult to kite in a 2v1 scenario because of the leap. Go full burst on the thief (if he is d/d), he will go down quickly. Shocking aura is godsend here. Its the perfect defence.

If one is melee and one is ranged, I would go for the ranged first, while at the same time kiting the melee. If both are ranged, you have to use LOF to your advantage, heal early and dodge a lot (having renewing stamina is really good and can provide for up to 1 minute of vigor in a prolonged fight).

Finally, as one of the above posters said, always be ready to deleselect target and press air #4 to move away to safety. If anything, just for a brief time to get health back up, get your act together, and then go back in for a surprise attack. Consider this an expanded form of hit’n & run tactics;-)

Also, I forgot to add, you need to have cc breakers. If you get cc’ed in a 2v1 scenario you will likely go down unless you can escape. CC nullfies your kiting and being rather squishy (unless you are going full bunker) makes it a bad situation to be in.

My favorite is lightning flash. Its on a rather low cooldown, can get you out of a bad spot asap and it can also be used offensively together with churning earth. Nothing more fun to see your foe walk outside the circle and just stands there waiting thinking he is safe, and then, BAM!, you teleport right next to him critting for perhaps 6,5k (my higesth crit I think) + the minor dmg from the teleport.

I appreciate the feedback everyone! Last night I had a successful 2v1 encounter, although they probably weren’t the best players in the world but still, it was a rush.

I’ve taken everyone’s advice into account, but I think the most important tip for me was “be aggressive.” The quicker I can turn those situations into a 1v1 the better off I am. I just pick what I believe is the squishiest target and go to town.

Focus on the one you can down in mist form first.

Frost bow 5 one, blow up the other .. oh wait.
Scratch that
Do this instead:
Frost bow 5 one then frost bow 4 him, and frost bow 3 at point blank
Drop that now useless thing and fight as you normally would.
Above works when starting a fight, don’t do it during, you will die before you finish casting frost bow, unless you cover with shocking aura.

Try to hold onto you interrupts so you can smash down the first guy and interrupt his heal. When downed they are little threat unless glass cannon, thief or warrior. You need to mf down a warrior, start flagging a thief so he teles away then just fight the 2nd guy out of range of the thief’s attacks. RTL to anyone try to heal up when downed. Updraft anyone trying to res their buddies. Or if they are low on health fire 2 until they are on fire then fire 5.

Stability + churning earth near the start is a good way to put your foes on the defensive, coupled with an unexpected teleport, or changing your 30 arcane for 1sec imob on arcane in earth and using arcane wave to imob both, stops them from dodging your attack and holds them in the field a bit longer.

Dodge like a pro but make sure to leave yourself with options, like instead of burning endurance to create distance, save it to dodge CCs or high damage attacks, and instead use terrain to LOS and split the enemies. In regards to endurance, make sure you take traits that give vigor and take utilities with stun breaks and survival utility. If you DO have vigor, do not have a full bar of endurance ever, since those are free dodges you are wasting. Having a moderate amount of toughness and healing power will allow you to survive much longer. Getting your heal off is crucial, do not let it get interrupted no matter what.

Well those are some ramblings off the top of my head, hope someone finds something useful.

If you’re playing bunker ele then killing 2vs1 isn’t really a problem, I’d say try to put them into as much conditions as possible and mistform away if things get VERY ugly.