Guild Wars 2

Scepter rotations are not nearly as fluid as D/D, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work. Here’s what I do: start in earth and load up your rock barrier. Then, get into combat using earth 1 (5 can be used if you switch out mist form with lf otherwise it won’t land or you’ll take too much damage being so close).

Now, you burst. Switch to air, start channeling 1, and use 2 for the double lightning strike and burn your arcanes. After 1 finishes, RTL (and possibly updraft) followed by another air 1 as you switch to fire. Don’t use DT; let your air 1 complete its channel and then try to finish them with rof, phoenix, and fire grab.

Then, I swap to water/earth to heal and reload rock barrier. Water 1 does decent damage if you still haven’t killed your target.

Main point: don’t try to work DT into your rotation, it just isn’t reliable in pvp. Most of your damage comes from air and your arcanes.

Some build suggestions in case you’d consider a change. I don’t use EA in my build. I go 30 air and pick up the reduced air cooldowns so you can reload your burst rotation faster. Also, I’ve never found vital striking to be that useful. Finally, I think that renewing stamina is almost a necessity in pvp; consider replacing your arcane cooldowns for the near-unlimited dodges.

I heard that Sharp mentioned that it uses Glicko 2 (it’s similar to Elo).

I’m mainly a s/tpvp player and mix in some wvw. Here are my experiences using exclusively scepter for the past couple of months (by attunement).

Fire: DT is almost never worth casting. The only time I cast it is if I’m locked in fire attunement and have already used my other useful skills (phoenix and rof/fire grab with a dagger; focus fire skills are worthless but the topic is scepter). The autoattack is the only skill in fire that I cast even less than DT. I like phoenix, but it flies too slow making it basically a melee-range attack.

Water: Shatterstone is in a similar place with DT. Even the water auto is a better use of my time than locking myself up casting shatterstone. Trident is good and the auto is my most frequently used auto outside of air.

Air: No complaints aside from the switching target while channeling issue mentioned.

Earth: No complaints here.

Overall, every skill in fire attunement + shatterstone need help.

I tend not to use shatterstone AT ALL. It locks you up for way too long when you could 1) be swapping to another attunement and doing something useful or 2) use a different water skill. All of them are more useful than #2 (even autoattack – does more damage since its faster).

Mesmers are always tough. It depends on the type of mesmer you’re fighting. GC mesmer: the burst combo I mentioned in my last post has a good chance of downing them if you have any offensive stats; make sure not to waste any burst to their stealth or blurred frenzy. Mesmers that like to kite and play defensively while shooting you with their greatsword: just make sure you stay on the right mesmer; you should be able to outlast them with water heals and dodging their iBerserker.

For any mesmer, make sure you are fighting them and not their clones. Tips: any time a mesmer dodges, strafes, moves backwards, or uses any skill other than 1, THAT IS THE REAL MESMER – get ’em (this is key)! If you have trouble relocating them after they stealth, their health bar when they appear is usually similar to what it was when they entered stealth.

First, don’t listen to people who tell you not to use scepter or focus. Most who say that haven’t legitimately tried them. This is especially true for focus. I really really like it because it has counters for almost every class. Range: swirling winds and magnetic wave destroy them. Melee: most are pretty kite-able using freezing gust to create distance after they burn their gap closers. Stealth: two words “obsidian flesh.” Anyone who doubts focus simply needs to equip one and use this skill as frequently as possible; they will surely be convinced otherwise.

Second, I’ll tell you my experience with DT. Most of the time in 1v1, it simply isn’t worth casting. When I find it worth casting (1v1): 1) you’re locked in fire attunement (fire aa is bad) or 2) you’ve casted it under scenario 1) and you know your opponent doesn’t dodge/stunbreak out of it. It is, like other people said, pretty good for area denial and in team fights.

Third, how I burst using S/F (requires at least 15 in lightning). Start in water or earth; I like earth so I can get my rock barrier up before the fight. Open with an autoattack just to put yourself in combat. Swap to lightning for the electric discharge and immediately cast lightning strike, then gale, then arc lightning. Switch to fire and land a phoenix (not DT); you have to be pretty close to the enemy because the phoenix is slow. At this point, I usually switch to water so I can interrupt their heal with ice comet, heal myself with water trident, and/or use ice shards until lightning opens back up so I can finish them off. Other than this rotation, don’t rely on rotations! Due to the defensive/counter nature of the focus, swap attunements based on the class/build you’re facing to abuse your defensive skills and burst when the time is right.

Apologies for the long post. I hope I helped a little. Have fun with my favorite weapon set on the ele!

I’ve been playing SPVP since I heard about the nerf. I still have good success. I’m sticking with my condition build on my PVP/WVW mesmer. Is there anyone else who plans on sticking to their condition build?

Hi Ilthel. I love the build, though I use it a bit differently. I’ve got one question for ya. Have you tried a focus with your offensive scepter build? It seems to have more natural synergy with scepter (due to similar ranges), but lacks in the offensive skills that dagger has. However, earth 5 is really really fun/borderline abusable.

Awesome. Please post a build update if you find a revision that you like. I’m always looking to improve mine.

I’m also working on a WvW version where traits can easily be swapped out for staff traits when I need to hole up in a keep. I’ve got 10/20/0/20/20 because I like blasting staff, but I’d like to work in 25 water somehow.

I dunno how much WvW you do, but if you have any advice I’m open to suggestions. I suppose the easiest is just to learn to live without blasting staff and go with the same build that I posted earlier.

Nice video!

I’ve been trying to do the exact same thing with my build – something with a little less survival than a bunker making up for that loss with damage.

I’m currently at 10/20/0/25/15. I think the 2% damage per boon might be better than the 5 more fire and minor trait. Also, I picked VI in the fire line (10 % more damage in fire) because I find that I’m usually in fire when trying to dish out some hurt or finish someone off.

Still working on the gear to go with it, aside from the obvious choices for weapon sigils. Your choices are interesting, maybe I’ll give them a go. Thanks again for sharing.

Good response! I love the 25 water minor. Only thing i disagree with is the 30 arcana. I think if you’re willing to forego some utility/survivability, speccing 15-20 air and/or 10 fire helps out alot with damage. Bolt to the heart and 10% inc damage in fire are good.

By the way, if anyone has suggestions on improvements to my build, let me know!

I’ve been having the same problem. A 10/20/0/25/15 build has been pretty good for me without regearing. Keys to more burst in this build are bolt to the heart and 10% extra damage in fire plus the 2% dmg per boon. Probably not an optimum build because i hate the 15 point arcane trait, but i think the attunement cooldown is worth it.

I’ve been running with 20 air and the newly improved bolt to the heart (mainly in pvp and wvw). It seems to be on par with the nerfed EA. Going for more damage and less utility (what EA is now used for).

Signed. Love both attacks, would love to see them a little bit more lenient on the misses.

I actually prefer my racial elites to the ele class elites. Probably not worth switching at this point, but try out your racials. As an asura, the 7 series golem does a ton more (single target) damage than the elite fire elemental.

I kind of like the new build. I can live without 9 sec attunement swaps and EA. The extra damage from bolt and the 15 point minor are a welcome change. Now I need to test whether vigor on crit or arcane power at 75% hp is better. What do you guys think? Note: playing mainly WvW solo/small group.

Any other 0/10/0/30/30 d/d eles switch to a spec with bolt to the heart? I think I’ll test an 0/20/0/30/20 build since I’ve never really gotten into post-nerf EA and would like to add more firepower.

Strange that elemental surge doesn’t work on the blast from Arcane Shield. Might be a decent combo with Retribution (replacing renewing stamina since EA’s not so great anymore). I know I at least seem to hover around about 50-100 % HP in most fights, so you might be able to trigger quite a few more control/burn conditions with procs from Retribution.

Does elemental surge work with Arcane Retribution and Final Shielding? Or is it only for arcane skills on your utility bar?

Cool post with an interesting thesis.