Guild Wars 2

Sometimes in wvw I just get floored by these guys, depending on the build I’m using. What are the builds and tactics you guys find effective against D/D ele’s? I’m sure they are a pretty hard counter to some of our builds.

just a standard mesmer shatter who can ripp his boons and stay on range to him

Most are playing celestial (or hybrid) and as such have a lot of sustain, condition management and hit really hard if all their might is allowed to stick. And that’s the kicker – you can pretty much hamstring a d/d ele if you can consistently strip boons. This means your typical options for that, which would vary depending on the build you’re running. If their consistent 20-25 might is allowed to stay, it’s going to be a hard time trying to burst them down while backpedaling/biding time for your next cooldown.

Skcamow – So you’d def suggest Shattered Concentration for the traits (running 44006)? I believe Sword #1 strips a boon on one of the attacks as does GS #3. You mentioned range – would you suggest GS/Staff? RE: utils – would you suggest Null Field or Arcane Thievery or something else? Haha, sorry for so many questions. I’m currently trying to figure out how to last/beat a cele d/d ele (in PvP, if that matters). TY!

I like Arcane Thievery, but it has a fairly high cooldown. You also have to hope you can get lucky with Null Field. A lot of people just step out of it and lose one, maybe two, boons. You could try the Disenchanter + shattering. You still have to get lucky with the first rips from the enchanter though.

I run a standard shatter build with gs/staff, sometimes gs & sw/sw for fun. Shattered concentration definitely helps. I also usually run arcane thievery so that’s a good way to steal some might stacks from them as well as other boons. I always try to avoid their initial burst either through interrupting them, or using distortion shatter, or phase retreating/blink when i see them begin their attack. Other than that I just try to look for openings for mind wrack to hit and try to put them on their heels. I play tpvp though, so help is usually never that far away.

Calypso.2578:

Skcamow – So you’d def suggest Shattered Concentration for the traits (running 44006)? I believe Sword #1 strips a boon on one of the attacks as does GS #3. You mentioned range – would you suggest GS/Staff? RE: utils – would you suggest Null Field or Arcane Thievery or something else? Haha, sorry for so many questions. I’m currently trying to figure out how to last/beat a cele d/d ele (in PvP, if that matters). TY!

The amount of pbaoes they can throw out makes it tough to stay on them with sword aa chain – sure can get the odd mind spike in, but not enough to mess up their game.

Shattered concentration is lovely against them – very satisfying to demolish those boon stacks.

@calypso – yes shattered concentration is one of the best traits you could run vs a d/d ele. The other tips here are good, all similar advice. One additional would be to try not to burst when they’re in water. Hit them hard as they come out of it and they’ll start playing more defensively, much to your advantage playing shatter.

Shatter boon stripping to remove their damage, sustain (protection/regen), and stability. Then interrupt interrupt interrupt. Doesn’t have to be a full shatter setup.

Hmm, basically you need shattered concentration to win, makes sense. I tend not to run that :-/

I might mess around with traited mimic. With a 24 sec cd and 30 into chaos (playing CI for example) I wonder if the boon duration would work out so that you had just about everything they had and could even out the fight?

To me you don’t necessarily need shattered concentration to win. The ele’s burst is all telegraphed and especially as a mesmer it isn’t difficult to dodge.

I find GS/Staff shatter to be the best set up. D/D needs to get up close and personal to deal damage. GS/Staff allows you to do exactly that. GS is so bursty that it may take a while for an Ele to recover from the burst. Staff is very good defensively through protection, blind, dazes, weakness, chill, as well as good mobility, etc. Shattered Concentration almost makes it unfair because you can just rip might stacks and stability from the ele and their damage isn’t that good and they can’t close the gap without getting CC’ed.

Basicallly if you can keep the Ele CC’ed and at range, he can’t really touch you.

Phantasm builds also work fine I find

I like to have my extended range duellists spread around, if the D/D ele is daft enough to stay on you instead of killing the duellists, by the time the third duellist pops, he is toast, boons or not.

Easiest way if of course to be shatter specced with boon strip on shatter. That just rips them to pieces.