Guild Wars 2

Been struggling against d/d ele’s 1v1 in WvW . My spec is very much that of the Juggermancer (invaders gear with d/d) spec posted on this forums earlier, minus some exotic pieces.

Anyone have any tips or suggestions ?

Dont chase them. Chances are they are luring you. Nothing you can really do against d/d eles my man. you timing has to be perfect with your fears, dazes everything to take out a good d/d ele their mobility is just to beast mode. they are like thieves, they decide when to fight. They usually run away from tho after awhile

I’d suggest reading the Ele forum’s D/D elementalist guide and becoming familiar with what they do. I focus on attacking their boons and their movement, dodging RTL+UD at the start, interrupting Churning Earth, using DS#2 to catch them after Vapor Form and saving Corrupt Boon for Stability. I rarely run into problems with them.

they are getting nerfed.. So just wait till 4 days

My advice would be to ignore them.

D/D Eles have insane mobility no one can match, so even if you think you can kill them, you cant catch them. And like Dylninja said, they’re likely luring you, much like the modus operandi of The Medicat – they just pull people off the main fight (esp. those with tunnel vision) to disperse the enemy numbers. If no one catches the bait, they’re essentially useless.

D/D Eles in a zerg.. well, they’re usually line breakers. Your own side should have it’s own line breakers too to counter. Furthermore, it doesnt really matter what profession you are in a zerg. Whichever side has the bigger numbers usually wins.

Edit: My apologies my reply doesnt answer your question directly, but from a strategy/long-term POV.

i played cond/power/minion/hybrid , no jugger yet though.

0. if hes good, u cant win. his mobility alows him to run away if needed. if u are equaly good, prepare for a hard fight which u will more often lose.

1. know your enemy. u probably heard this but: avoid fire and earth damage spikes, dont waste ur best attacks when hes invuln/blocking, he heals in water so burst right after.

my personal tips
2. IMO the reason for d/d succes is that they have many attack which, do NOT need line of sight. like we can put aoe marks behind us, they have damage around them in circle or in front of them in cone. So dont let them get behind ur back, cz they can still hit u. they can even hit through object, as long as u are in range (like our DS4).

3. ur best counter. outrange them. they have 300 range. force them to waste their dodge/gap closer to come to u. WvW u say? great, no need to stay on the point.

4. heres the secret…………………………..wait for it…………………….wait…………………… its CHILL !! its their worst enemie. they get super slow for kiting AND -66% skill recharge rate.
It messes up their combos, rotations , MUSCLE MEMORY.
ok so how to keep up with their condition removal:

-DS2 – all necros have it 5sec on 15s CD. just pop DS for #2, add a fear first for interrupt + secure hit. try to go into ds everytime ds2 is ready. use DS4 to keep LF up and DS1 max 2-3x when over 50% life force ( unless its an emergency

-spectral grasp…it hits more often recently so i start to love it…i almost cant play main hand dagger without it. a pull = interrupt + 10% LF + chill on 30s CD (24 trait). His stun breaks have long CD. Remember it will be a long fight, so u will use this skill 2-3 times.

- (when i play main hand dagger, i also almst always have the hydromancy sigil on, so i can start slashing right away)

-focus. 900 range chill + 3 boon removal. try to remove stability/protection/regenration from water. the #4 on focus is nice to give them another condition to chew on + life force

-staff3 chill + poison. longer CD but gives poison for less healing. save ur staff 4 for when u have some burn + 1-2 other conditions, send them over, and the combo gives weakness!!!!! they have like 4% crit, but will mostly have 24% cz of fury. And less enudrance = less dodging = less evasive arcana. very effective

5. obvious, when they finaly get to u, dagger 3 and start slashing from behind

6. Utility…Consumbe condition is the best heal in game. Pop it early so u can use it again, or IMMEDIATELY after u get hit from earth to remove bleeding. just keep ur distance so u dont get interrupted.

wells are strong against them sine they are almost melee. if nothing else, it helps u create distance when they jump out of it.

spectral walk for stun break. Bonus is 30sec swiftness, life force, juke
currupt boon is harder to time right + it isnt as strong since u dont have cond dmg

Elite use lich ikittennow he wont run away. start with 3 for knocback, then spam 1 to melt his hp away. otherwise use flesh golem (knockback, constant cripple, dps)
Side note. i found that dd eles have troubles with minion masters cz of golems cripple , big dps, u are svery tough + the traited poison explosion realy hurts their healing

7. a good way to train using DS is experiment with glass canon power builds in the mists. the daggers and axe are the best life force builders, so u can get more used to it.

8. killing their elemental if they ran away for a timeout.

Thats it. Hope to hear about your upcomming victories!

They’re comparatively similar to Guards in that Necro’s are the bane of high self-buff classes.

Timing- lot of them use a blow-out with a long knockdown and as a Necro, that’s a real weakspot because you don’t have a lot of Stability and you must be combat aware of their own Stability running.
Time your dodges
Time your chills
Time your fears

I run staff, sceptre + focus as the more ideal take-down, use your staff for the bleeds, chills, condition transfer and fear and the Focus with its 3-buff strip, is a good intermediary for keeping the outrageous enhancements to something you can deal with.
Remember, the majority of these guys are fotm players, they aren’t really very good in most cases and more than a couple of them macro or religiously practice the same set of moves. Because that’s what the guide on the internet said works.

Corrupt Boon… yes, sometimes its not a 100% hit and can be inadvertently dodged, but when it hits “HAHA! WHO THE MAN ON TOP NOW?” is something so funny, you cant help but stop laughing as they go ‘oh Im down, better mist form’ and ‘oh, Im dead… this class sucks’
Any remaining buffs, rip em off with the Focus
Don’t muck around even long enough to leave your phone number, pump-n-dump and heap as much damage in as you can. Sure, they’ll clear some of it, but… if youre like me and run as fast a cyclic timer as you can on my favoured weapons and abilites, just keep loading them up with BIP, bleeds, chills and poisons to the point- you will overwhelm them.

In my experience, immobilize, cripple, chill, and knockdown. Using the elite pet actually helps a good bit. I use dagger/focus /staff. Chillbians can help with CC but not a huge amount, it’s better saved for when they are about to heal. Dagger #3 is awesome if timed correctly and once your pet gets on them and keeps reapplying cripple you have your shot at killing them. If they start getting away then use pet knockdown(if it’s is still alive). Don’t forget your fears either! Messing up most elementalists rotation causes a snowball effect that gives you a good moment to kill them. If they do land some heavy conditions, transfer them back with Staff #4 or any skill/utility you might like using.

I guess the whole thing boils down to continually using CC’s to limit their mobility space out with damage inbetween. Oh and staying the heck away from them because all their damage comes from a small radius around them. Once you’ve forced them into a tight spot they are either going to run away and reset the fight or you have a chance to burst them down.

Yes it’s all about timing and your timing has to be far more perfect than the elementalist’s. You’ll have to work more for your win but it’ll feel good when you do beat them.

A problem for necro is all the knockdowns and knockbacks that can be spammed by elementalists, but once you get accustomed to it dodging shouldn’t be a problem. Have some stunbreaks at hand though while facing elementalists.

For the finisher once I corner them I use Dark Pact, Wail of Doom and a couple of wells (Suffering and Corruption should do). After that they’ll go down from a couple of slashes with the dagger.

I play a dd ele. Necros are actually a pretty scary class for us. One of the things to realize is that bunker DD ele build rely on boons. That being said, a decent counter to a dd ele would be along the lines of:

1. Cast corrupt boon. Will completely disable the ele if he is booned up
2. He will probably switch to water attunement to try to get rid of all his conditions, thats okay
3. As soon as he switches (theres an animation), use dagger 3 to immobilize
4. Again, he will probably somewhat freak out and use water 5 to get out, if he already hasnt
5. As soon as that happens, use fleshy’s knockdown and go to town

how to effectively fight against d/d eles on your necro: try to put a freeze on him after he gets out of water, corrupt boon if hes going to use armor of earth. furthermore try to avoid his initiation (rtl) with a Terror or dodge roll.

further it kind of depends what you are using scepter/dagger + staff id say wait with unloading your conditions after he gets out of water he will have most likely used his #5 to clean your 3-4bleed 1poison and whatnot but the most important thing is to safe CHILL CONDITION for when he gets out of water making his water cds really long now pressure him with wells , dagger immob. staff marks, axe channel you name it

death shroud and lich form/plague form are your most important skills , death shroud in particular ALSO a nice thing to do is, if the ele starts channeling churning earth , just let him hit your DS it wont do super much damage, if you time it right dagger #4 can give him the bleeds back and the ele doesnt know what to do and will most likely try to flee or heal in water

As other people have said, corrupting their boons does slow them down an awful lot. If they’re busy getting rid of conditions for a moment then they’re probably no longer on the offensive while they do so.

A little trick I stumbled across, if they use frost armour and you use an off hand dagger, attack them like crazy. Stack up as much chilled on yourself as possible and then send it back to them using Deathly Swarm. Works best if done after they have recently used a condition remove skill.

It’s very difficult, but it can be done. The trick is to keep them at range, realizing that their hardest hitting attacks are earth 5 (which has a 2.5 sec cast and 600 range I think) and fire 3 into 5 (300 range I believe). Negating these two by being mobile is key. I’ve also found conditions to be the way to go, despite the ridiculous cleansing they can pull off. Conditions can overwhelm them much more easily than direct damage (which is negated by protection). Timing is key and you need to be able to apply constant pressure while staying alive. Also, many D/D eles rely on burning and bleed to apply a big portion of their damage, use dagger 4 and staff 4 to send these back on them whenever possible. Dance in and out of death shroud to negate big hits, buy heal time, apply chill, and apply fear.

Like I said, it’s difficult to do, but it can be done.

All of these are good ideas and will work, but honestly, the time required to pull this off is ridiculous at best, you’re better served elsewhere doing something more constructive. leave the little ele to dance around and go help cap points or help bust up some zergs if you’re in wvw. Their goal, if they can’t separate and eliminate you, is waste as much time of yours as possible, because the more time you waste on them, the less time you’re helping your team. And if they decide to try to chase you down, well you’re now effectively wasting their time by making them chase you around rather than contributing to their team. it’s a win-win situation.

Elementalists are similar to necros in that there is a mix of condition and straight damage, they have higher numbers, but we have more control. Keep sending stuff back on a regular basis, corrupt their boons, and chill/immob them often.

Dodge their first ride the lighting / knock back combo and you are well on your way. Chill/cripple them in fire attunement (usually next up) and keep out of 600 range will frustrate them greatly, they’ll have to switch right to water to cure. Now you have them on the defensive, lay in with corrupts, conditions, return their burns. Try to save an immobolise for when they are in bad shape to keep them from running. If they get up close and you cant get away you ‘re probably better off shrouding and lifedrain/fear/jump to absorb it, but if you can save it until you’ve dodged/avoided their first air and fire spike.

Above advice is good, chills and distance mean you are winning, except if too far they can run easy. Dont bother with blind/weakness as much since they are 90% aoe, but immobilization is really harsh on them since they need to be in your face and rely on the confusion of dancing all over the place.

Sepreh.5924:

I play a dd ele. Necros are actually a pretty scary class for us. One of the things to realize is that bunker DD ele build rely on boons. That being said, a decent counter to a dd ele would be along the lines of:

1. Cast corrupt boon. Will completely disable the ele if he is booned up
2. He will probably switch to water attunement to try to get rid of all his conditions, thats okay
3. As soon as he switches (theres an animation), use dagger 3 to immobilize
4. Again, he will probably somewhat freak out and use water 5 to get out, if he already hasnt
5. As soon as that happens, use fleshy’s knockdown and go to town

I also play a d/d ele and necro, and yeah, well-played necros are hard. necros have ready access to all the key conditions that d/d ele’s struggle with: cripple (sc#2, flesh golem), chill (sc#5, grasp), poison (sc#1), immobilise (d#3, ranged pet), knockdown (golem).

The real key is just dodging their key skills: ride the lightning, burning speed, and churning earth and just generally trying to kite them in a circle. Save fear circle/ds#2 for either churning earth or when they’re on top of you.