Guild Wars 2

I run a S/D build. I will admit that currently I cannot solo certain vets and do not stand a chance against most champions; however, that might be due to the low vitality and healing power which I am now starting to fully understand is crucial to pve solo.

I wanted to simply highlight the system I use which has proven effective.

I use Fire Sig, Dragons Tooth, Fire Ring and Phoenix then pop over to Earth for Earthquake and Churning Earth to get my might stacks. During churning I use Air Sig to help finish the casting. During the casting of churn I determine if I need heals or not. If I do then I will cast Earth Glyph of Storms then pop over to Water and fire off my heals and induce some vulnerability (though not right now because Shatterstone is fubared). If I do not need heals or I am finished healing I will go into Air for some CC to position for another round of Fire Burst Damage but this time when I go back into Earth it is only for the Dust Devil and Rock Barrier. Then hop around through Air and Water until Fire is off CD and then start the whole process over again if needed which t usually isnt.

Now, I know this seems like it would leave me super vulnerable but I have traited to compensate for that: 0/20/0/30/20

There you will see that I have condition reducing and healing system with a touch of defense. The gear is what I intend to get which should correct my low health and further improve my healing abilities which I think is all I need to get in order to take on champions solo.

After some testing I realize that the sweet spot for health should be 19000 and armor 2100 thought until I get the funds to give this a whirl I wont know for sure.

I just want to reinforce the fact that precise dodging and LoS are a key for playing this build well.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/GUIDE-Scepter-Focus-Build/first#post1092985

Scepter And dagger build here with focus on reduced cool downs on cantrips and glyphs as well as conditioncondition removal and healing. Kinda like an evasion tank/support stetup. However i also posted a guide for scepter/focus which got me through a lot of levels.

I am going to change my assessment, I went through and played with every combination and found that if traited effectively all have high sirvivability given you pay attention to the fight and use the appropriate skills at the right time. Currently i am annoyed that almost all champions cannot be knocked down, but i am still managing. Also. I am currently favoring a scepter/dagger build which stacks might and aoe supports. High mobility is fun.

Xolo.3580:

Obsidian Flesh has no “field effect”, also the skill is called Magnetic WAVE and it cures three conditions, not one, and it has no AoE cripple

Ah thanks for the corrections, that is what I get for trying to “focus” with lack of sleep.
It does have an AoE cripple though, lasts 5 seconds, check it out, they just never put it in the tooltip for some reason. I have submitted it to the bug forums already.

Leuca.5732:

This is all nice I guess, but saying it has just the right amount of survivability is rather misleading because the survivability it provides is practically redundant with the current state of Elementalists as a whole profession. I have never needed it to have people accuse me of hacking for being too survivable. If anything, you’re just adding survivability you shouldn’t need and gimping your damage. I guess it’s alright for people who are new to the profession but it doesn’t really offer much at a higher skill level.

I prefer to view it as you have your way of surviving and I have mine, neither is wrong and both can be extremely powerful depending on how much skill we develop. This game is highly skill based and you may not perceive it being a higher skill level weapon because you have not developed your skill set around it. I think that all weapon combinations are generally balanced at most stages of the game, even if the community as a whole has not discovered the winning strategies. There are simply too many variables for each weapon set to say “it doesn’t really offer much” when in reality it is just that you do not see what it has to offer yet. The community is still in a phase of learning and discovery, this is an attempt to contribute the knowledge I have gained to bring another perspective and hopefully help others branch out in their skill sets

urinfamousr.7631:

Alexixiv.8125:

Only thing I would like changed about scepter is to have Dragon’s Tooth drop faster but I would like some creative changes to Focuses fire skills. But I am not having a tough time with survival in PvE and I have soloed 90% areas 3 levels above me most of the time. I have a guide here on how I am managing my tankish scepter/focus build

i meant for pvp

Your probably right, I haven’t done much pvp yet but I think if I were fighting an intelligent opponent I would get burned down pretty quickly because I rely probably too much on the ignorance of the AI for my tactics to work. I am considering putting together a video to show the speed and timing needed to use the scepter and focus

Magnetic Wave causes cripple to nearby enemies for what looks like three seconds but it is not stated in the skill tooltip.

Only thing I would like changed about scepter is to have Dragon’s Tooth drop faster but I would like some creative changes to Focuses fire skills. But I am not having a tough time with survival in PvE and I have soloed 90% areas 3 levels above me most of the time. I have a guide here on how I am managing my tankish scepter/focus build

np, any questions let me know

So many people are unsure what to grab as an offhand and rarely is focus considered because of how few offensive capabilities it has. With Ele’s low HP I find that it provides just the right amount survivability power to keep the fight going. I think the best way to highlight this is to explain the application of each skill.

Obsidian Flesh
Near invulnerability HELL YEAH. It will not protect you from already applied DoTs but it will prevent any and I mean ANYTHING from having a negative impact on you. Many people think that it just cancels damage but it also prevents condition and disabling effects. This can be used to walk through flames, prevent that incoming hard to dodge attack and provides a decent buffer to cast slotted skills especially when being zergged. Not to mention the field effect which works best when in a group.

Magnetic Wave
My favorite skill. Deflects any non-cone based(Fire Breath etc) projectiles back at the target. Also removes three conditions which is very welcome due to our low HP conditions can end us quickly. And what most people do not know is that it is an AoE cripple which provides a huge escape window. If used skillfully you can deflect snares and condition projectiles back to their source, not only negating the damage it would have done but adding to your output damage.

Gale
Few things are more fun then seeing your opponent charge up a powerful skill then slamming them into submission. Doesn’t work on champions, does not do any damage and only a single target which only kinda sucks for such a long CD but still a fun utility ability when used skillfully.

Swirling Winds
Another ranged damage nullifier. Many say that this skill us useless against melee but that is only partially true. When I am fighting a ranged enemy and a melee enemy, I have the speed to outrun the melee enemy most of the time and just need to stop the incoming projectiles from the nearby ranged attacker so that I can DoT one of them. This does the trick. In a group this skill is definitely what I consider “The Winds of Change” as you basically put a hard stop on all enemy ranged damage, no matter how much which in most cases is more than half.

Comet
Typically this cannot be run out of, only dodged because it comes down so fast. Does a little damage but the big thing is it inturrupts and dazes for a moment, but this one is an AoE. While kiting a melee attacker and being popped by ranged I like to charge the ranged attacker and drop the comet right as they both intersect dazing them both and giving me the distance I need to use my next skill. Only complaint is that the daze is very short but the CD is reasonably short

Freezing Gust
Slows enemies down which provides the perfect opportunity to drop fields around them. I use this almost exclusively for this. Occasionally I will use this to slow down a vet when too many adds have jumped into the fight so that I can bail.

Flame Wall
Not the best field but still a field that I put down when I have an opening before I change off Fire Attunement.

Fire Shield
Decent aura that does damage which works well close range builds.

Ok; honestly, focus fire is weak, but still has some advantages.

Focus skills should never be mindlessly fired off but calculated and timed. If using the right skills in a strategic order they can not only give you an edge but can completely change the outcome of a fight.
I think I might need to create a video tutorial for my Scepter/Focus build to really show how it shines.

I do not do much PvP but what I have found is that you have 4 choices
-Dag/Dag – High burst output, low support, close range makes survivability difficult, steep learning curve
-Scep/Dag- Moderate condition and burst dps, low support, more range gives better survivability
-Staff- Support role with some crowd control and lots of fields, moderate survivability but slow and difficult to level
-Sce/Focus- High support, High survivability, low burst damage, moderate conditional, moderatly difficult to level and steep learning curve

Keep in mind that there are obscure ways to use/spec these combinations that may be effective, changing the above synopsis.

Asura = smallest target with fastest animation. Also running with a small character always feels like they are really booking it which makes all the running more entertaining and the flipping dodges give a sensation of an acrobat which is entertaining to watch. Camera problems are mitigated also due to size. I do wish there were more customizations for asuras though.

It is hard to resist the urge to pick up damage boosters, but I have not found (for me) a damage booster worth exchanging for more damage reduction. It works well for me to play as a damage nullifying tank.

This is how I use scepter and focus in general PvE:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/GUIDE-Scepter-Focus-Build/first#post1091403

I initially started off as d/d but wanted to give each combination a chance with the thought in mind that it was intended to be used in an effective way by the designers so because I was struggling for so long to understand the scepter and focus practicality I wound up at level 65 before realizing i was actually proficient even though it still takes a great deal of effort. I may have stumbled upon one of the few ways to use this combination by stubbornly giving it the benefit of the doubt. I will check out glyph of storms as i had not considered its use as a damage mitigator.

Reserved for future expansion

Multiple Enemy Assorted:
-I am able to juggle about 5 enemies at a time using a merged strategy of the above two systems. Melee enemies are easy to keep away from so I like to keep the Ranged enemies on lock down while kiting and doting the melee attackers. Remember the goal is to outlast the enemies, not burn them down quickly. If things get out of hand, (which happened a lot until I got the hang of juggling and kiting) I will use a Rock Elemental to tank while I burn them down with Shatterstone’s vulnerability and Dragons Tooth, but damage mitigation is still important because they will take the tank down quick without some protection. If I get a veteran add that I don’t think I can handle with the group I am already fighting I will usually pull out a Rock Elemental and run.

There are too many circumstantial tricks to highlight them all but if something doesn’t work simply take a moment to consider what you are fighting and make adjustments accordingly and eventually it will come naturally.

Skill Rotation
This is more of a philosophy system with my main focus being mitigate damage and at least keep a burning DoT on the

enemy. If you have a choice between taking damage to deal damage or preventing damage you want to always prevent the damage. I find most of my attacks are performed after a SUCCESSFUL evasion. You want to retain and regain as much health as possible because you never know when there might be an add or a back to back fight.
Also, do not concern yourself with interrupting auto attacks as they will only contribute a small amount to dps.

Single Ranged Enemy Fight:
I like to spend the first half of the fight in defense mode and slowly get defense and DoTs applied giving the enemy a chance to waste their hard hitting skills.

-Air Attunement- I typically start off in Air attunement as this provides the most damage mitigation options
-Blinding Flash- I pop them with “Blinding Flash” to give me a chance to cast the first…
-Signet of Fire- This is your main damage dealer, keep it up
-Swirling Winds- then follow up with “Swirling winds” and switch over to…
-Earth Attunement-
-Magnetic Wave- Put up “Magnetic Wave” and let fly a full set of…
-Stone Shards- for bleed
-Obsidian Flesh- then “Obsidian Flesh” giving time to cast…
-Rock Barrier- which will mitigate some damage in the coming phase
-Dust Devil- to provide a blind needed switch to…
-Water Attunement- which will give a burst of health needed to lay down the first…
-ShatterStone- which most ranged enemies will just stand in, follow up with…
-Comet- and then another…
-Shatterstone- normal enemies will be down to about 20% HP and can be dodged and auto atked, but if not change to…
-Fire Attunement- and cast…
-Dragon’s Tooth- quickly followed up with…
-Phoenix- to take advantage of the vulnerability stacks from shatterstone then switch over to…
-Air Attunement- to start the cycle over…
-it is important to use your damage mitigators maximum effect time to allow your skills as much time to finish their

cooldowns and keep Signet of Fire up as much as possible even if they are immune to burn because signets cause vulnerability. I typically use air and earth signets when I run out of endurance and need to prevent some incoming damage.

Single Melee Enemy Fight:
Same thing as before with being in defense mode to get DoTs up.
-Air Attunement-
-Gale- I love starting with this ability because it SLAMS them into the ground
-Signet of Fire- Again keep this burning even if it is only for the vulnerability
-Blinding Flash- immediately follow with…
-Lightning Strike- and change to…
-Water Attunement- which is where it gets tricky, I like to hit them with…
-Freezing Gust- then follow up with a strategically placed…
-Shatterstone- then dodge once or twice to get off…
-Signet of Earth- in order to get off another…
-Shatterstone- then quickly switch over to…
-Fire Attunement- and put up a…
-Dragon’s Tooth- and before it drops pop on a…
-Fire Shield- to get the might buff, then I usually pop the
-Signet of Air- so that while they are blind I can get off the…
-Phoenix- and usually a…
-Flamewall- and quickly change to…
-Earth Attunement- then, to cripple them in order to get on the other side of the flamewall pop…
-Magnetic Barrier- and try to get at least one volley of…
-Stone Shards- which will put on bleed and burn DoTs…
-Obsidian Flesh- will provide the time needed to get up…
-Rock Barrier- and follow up with…
-Dust Devil- then back to…
-Air Attunement- to start over again
-Melee attackers like to come on strong and hard so they will land plenty of attacks but if you keep moving they will be nothing more than a drop in a bucket.

I want to stress that the above two strategies are a general flow, you will be spending a lot of time dodging or line of sighting if able. If another player joins into the fight I like to go into tank mode picking up their buffs and taking advantage of their fields. Other players buffs to a LOT to power up the elementalist.

I am a PvE Ele using a scepter/focus build. I have not seen a single elementalist on my server using this weapon combo so I thought I would provide some insight into how I am managing.

I am currently level 65 and I have not played other weapons since level 20 so I do not know how the difficulty really compares, but I know that I have fun playing with my current setup because it challenges me and I know that if I loose I can change up my strategy slightly to get a different result.
I would like to point out first off that the only enemy type I cannot solo within 3 levels of me is champions, but I don’t think they were intended to be soloed anyways. Hats off to eles that can solo champions.

My Primary strategy is a priority of these concepts:
1. crowd control (mitigating/minimizing damage)
2. Regenerate health (through constant casting or switching to water attunement)
2. DoTs (overlap and stack constantly)
3. burst damage (primarily for multi target fights)
More on this later…

Gear
I purchase every piece of gear that has more armor and conditional damage. I slot for magic find, burn and bleed duration increase and if available more conditional damage.
Magic find is important to get those one or two rare drops which put you ahead of the gear rush and save karma in the long run. Karma runs out pretty quickly so I tend to help out friends with their lower level stuff and encourage them to do every dynamic event we come across which also contributes significantly to leveling.

Slot Skills
I run a signet build as I found the 30 point in earth gives “Written in Stone” providing the passive bonuses of signets even after they have been activated.

Signet of Restoration: Passive heals each time you use any skill which is further encouragement to pop off all abilities before changing attunements. Activate for on the fly healing, keeping in mind there is a small cast time so it will reduce dps but outlasting your enemy is the name of the game with this system anyways.

Signet of Fire: Not fantastic passive but definitely a bread and butter active effect. This lets me keep burn on an enemy at all times (unless dispelled of course)

Signet of Earth: Passive gives much needed toughness and activate gives another snare which I use as a just in case ability when I pick up an add or loose flow and need a reset.

Signet of Air: Passive gives crucial speed increase to help stay away from enemies and helps run out of damage fields, saving dodges.

Glyph of Elementals: When I get too many adds or need a tactic change I whip out an earth elemental and start dropping fire bombs with phoenix and dragons tooth while still mitigating damage to keep the elemental alive as long as possible. Also a good thing to keep on hand for escaping a hopeless fight

Traits
30 Earth
-Signet Mastery (faster signet CD = more skills per fight)
-Serrated Stones (longer bleed = more condition damage)
-Written in Stone (turns signets into a major asset)
15 Water
-Shard of Ice (coupled with Sig Mastery = dps booster)
30 Arcane
-Elemental Attunement (healing and damage mitigation)
-Vigorous Scepter (more endurance = more mobility)
-Arcane Energy (signets pump in more endurance = more mobility)

While leveling I selected traits that provided more mobility or damage output.

anything is “possible” I suppose… especially in reference to video games…

I am with you on this, I am hoping that they are of the mindset “We will get all the bugs resolved then address the balance of the elementalists” I hope it isnt just wishful thinking…

Last night I geared back up on my elementalist because I felt that playing a guardian (sword/focus/staff) was still a tad to easy for me because I know that unless I feel challenged I will get bored. I was playing dagger/dagger and only level 17 and decided to do my level 11 story mission in which portals open up and a few trash mobs come out (easily burned down) then a veteran. For a couple of minutes I was fine, got it down to 1/4 health, had already popped all my CC skills to pin him down and then was making my escape when WHAM I get hit with a stun, a stun that lasted long enough for him to hit me twice and down me. I am wearing level 14-17 greens, and I am no stranger to dodge and avoidance tactics. Sig of air and an attempted LoS were not enough against this airborn vet. Took me 2 more tries (from checkpoint) to FINALLY get him down. I don’t think of myself as a pro, but I am no novice when it comes to action oriented mechanics, I am hotkeyed up and fine tuned my sensitivities and have great frame rate. But no matter what, as soon as I got through my CC skills I was squished into elemental paste in a matter of seconds. On my guardian I could have stood and poked that vet with a sword with comparable gear, not saying that I should be able to do the same as an ele but putting forth my best effort using a single target focused weapon set should have rendered much better results. Frustrated with my results my friend told me that he would dual me (empty spvp room) on his warrior just to see how it looks speced out, to see if it would be worth it all in the end. Got my twin daggers, set my traits and chose my skills, I was going to spank him, I knew it. Right before the match started (as the timer was counting down) I asked him “Did you set up your traits the way you wanted?” He replied “No, I didn’t even get the weapons I like to use, but lets give it a go”. My friend is just now getting familiar with dodging and has no idea about how mechanics behind combos work, and was using weapons he is not familiar with. lasted about 15 minutes of pinning him down and blasting him with all I had (specced for air and arcane), managing to put enough time between each lucky blow he landed that dropped me down to 65% health each time to heal up before the next. Keep in mind I use all of the disciplines to combo where possible and take advantage of the CC in each to hold him back. In the end I had but scratched him, all my efforts to get him down to 50% health each time were healed away with the push of a button. We went 2 more rounds just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, and the second time (first round was mainly to size him up) I really REALLY put forth all the skills I had developed as a gamer since I began at an early age of 5, but once again was subdued by my friends skill spamming and lucky hits…

I told him to let me get my guardian (sword, focus, staff) and told him how to get his weapons and spec out the way he wants. I stomped him in 3 minutes flat without getting below 25% health, and I made a point NOT to dodge. He refused to go another round against my guardian because he said it was WAY OP even though I tried to explain that warriors when played well are one of the most powerful in the game at this point, but had a hard time believing me.

I am now playing around with scepter/dagger to try and keep more distance between me and my enemy to hopefully achieve more LoS since blocking kinda sucks as an ele. I am also toying around with conjured weapons, but the future isn’t bright. I hate to think that I am “not good enough” to play as a dagger/dagger elementalist, and definitely don’t want to subject myself to being just support as an ele…

I am not here to scream that eles are bad, I REALLY enjoy the complexity of their skills but something has got to give here… I also have a warrior and mesmer and have no issues at all with ANY of the story missions, and fair realllly well in sPVP. But elementalists I think just need a little more love. I will answer any questions about how I was speced and even what my main rotation focus is, but the reality is that I am no noob and I fail as an ele, I know how to promote synergy between my abilities and maintain a balance of damage mitigation, damage recovery and output, but I just cannot get a winning build/strategy with air/arcane dagger/dagger and I find that a little unreasonable… just my 2 cents.

I do not agree or disagree with your request to change the staff, but I do want to point out the tactics that I use and how difficult it is to play well with the staff.
I only PVE right now and I can see how this process would be difficult to maintain practically in PVP. If I am using the staff in a way that developers intended then so be it, but if this is not the amount of effort they intended then maybe a change is in order:

I use Sword/Focus and alt Staff
Utilities = Sig-Dmg, Sig+Heal, Sig+Power, Traited for burning blocks and sig improvements

-I usually start the fight with flashing blade and auto attack until one flame Dot is applied past my aegis sheild dropping.
- I then evade away from the enemy and put on my shield of wrath and change to my staff, running away from the enemy (if ranged mob I usually LOS them with pre-planned escape route lol)
-Drop Line of Warding.
- Symbol of swiftness to stand in (so that my SoW will combo when it detonates)
-Cast Empower and cross fingers
-Fire off orb of light, detonate after I see the first dmg number pop off
-Use Virtue of Justice
(wall usually drops by now)
-Change to sword, use Zealot’s Def. (usually still have 9 might stacks plus the burning from VoJ)
-Flashing blade
-Virtue of Courage
-Virtue of Resolve (if health is down 25%)
-Renewed Focus
(Heal using SigResolveRayofJudge when needed)
-Then start again with running away and casting Shield of Wrath.

Of course this is a very tangible rotation and circumstances change frequently and I have to make conditional judgement calls. If my process fails then it catastrophically fails and my tactic becomes dodge, heal, and swing(in priority) until CDs are off and I can try again.
Typically I just use the staff as block/buff weapon then back to the real damage. I once wanted to use the staff as my primary weapon against champions but almost never got a gold that way. With the sword I can move in, deal my damage, back off, aoe(weakly), heal up, then move in again.

If this is the way the developers intended me to use it then I consider it a pro-only combo as I have yet to see anyone else with this setup in game. I refuse to use the GS or Hammer builds as it is very common and due to long cast times and close range typically end badly against a champion and sometimes even against a veteran. I know I am often among the last guardians standing at the end of a fight if I pull it off right, which is most of the time.

A new serial key was applied to my pre-purchased account and the mis-created account has been disabled. I am back in business. Thanks everyone for keeping me company. And thank you Gaile for drawing attention to my ticket.