Guild Wars 2

Ill only talk about a PvE/Dungeon-Perspective here:
To the Fire-Field: u got burning speed(fire 3) on both sets, with 15 Seconds Cooldown anyway, so CD alone is not important.
The relevant parts here are: Shape and Duration of the Field. Dagger Offhand field has only 5 seconds duration, but pretty large round shape and even pugs can see it and u can abuse it for bad warriors.(cast ist when u see their banner cast coming, so u can get their blast).
Focus Offhand has a 8 seconds Field(plenty of time for u to use the FA buffroation if u cant do the quick rotation yet), with a wallshape(from m Experience PuGs do less Finishers here than in Focus field).
So for the Team Focusfield is a bit harder to hit and has a bit higher CD, but has longer duration, while Dagger can use it more with less duration (if ur Rota is quick it doesnt matter), but is better to hit for PuGs.

Now for the Blasts:
Both weponsets have 2 Blasts with the Offhand:
Dagger has Earth 4/5 and Focus Water 5 and Earth 4.
Focus Finishers have 25 Seconds CD and u can use both.
For Dagger they have 40 and 30 seconds CD, but can use only 1.
Cause Churning Earth (Earth 5) has long Casttime. So u should only use it at certain bosses, which get Vulnerable after like 2 seconds u being there(Alpha 2/3 e.g), where u can precast it in a FireField from somebody else, cause else the mightstacks u do yourself will be gone pretty soon and casting it in Fight is a DPS-loss.

So for Blasts Focus is better.
Exceptions here are: Team is able to stack 25 stacks might without that additional blasfinisher and can maintain them over the 25 more seconds, that earth 4(40 Secs cd) needs to be up again in comparision to the Focus one(if Team can get to 25 with 1 Blast u can vary and use 1 of ur 2 blasts every 15 secs for better mightuptime) .
OR: 25 Stacks are blasted at start and fight is finished, before u need to blast again.

Overall: if u wanna stack Might alone u should go D/F and only with the right Team u should go D/D.

PS: Sry for my bad English ^^

1.): change ur settings and reduce the effects and u wont have that problem, or get used to the effects. And yes u rely on BS till boss is at 25% then heartseeker spam.

2.): s/p has worse singletarget dps than dagger. Pistol in offhand is for blinds, which are useless at bosses(only 10%cahnce). Since most encounters where u need singletarget are bosses this set is no good there. Its good for Trashmobs though.

3.) Depends on how many Stacks u can maintain. If u maintain not enough stacks, night/force sigils could be better. Same for Food. u gotta test there though.

Btw: Ur build will probably lack A LOT DPS compared to a usual 6 6 0 0 2 D/D setup.
U miss traits like Executioneer in Critical Strikes(20% if enemy <50%hp).

Here a Link to a D/D build, if u wanna try:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQRAoY8alsMp4pNOxwJsPNRLRtdHEdfgXnh2XQAEiA-TRSBwAFV+FRJ419Hup+DK9DLOIAIM/l/JAA4EAIKgIC-e
switch Haste/Assassins Sgnet for SR/Smoke Screen for Rushs. Switch the daggers for SB(for Blasts) and back when u dont need it anymore.

either use a x/Focus build for the amazing utils of focus or if u wanna play staff(u actually shouldnt as only ele in a group) try something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhUMqc2zwzBd0AEACtkhDEZh0SjA-TBBXgAA7PK/C1B0r+zjSQA-e

the DpS is not really good but u cant die with it either and kite most Fractalenemys.
Use it to learn to play better. When u get better try to get closer to a normal staffbuild with better party-utilitys/DpS.

ahhh Sorry i misread there.
hounds got 240 secs CD if i remember right.
Im using Elementals since Patch cause i wanna have it at nearly every boss(little DpS boost passively and sometimes they tank for u which is nice for staying above 90% HP + fire ele with his little mightbuff is nice too for the now longer fights).

Try something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJArYnMISZD2yAGQAdEGQAICPEcM6WcaWHA-ThBBwAYV+B4EAgT9na7PE4BAcWJIA-e

And Ele isn’t awful after patch. We still have really good DPS for PvE/Dungeons^^
Just FGS got aweful.

tried the elites vs some reefriders and counted hits: Mistfirewolf did ~400 dps while fire ele did ~470 dps. Best would be sylvari turrets(if all survive though what like never happens in dungs).
I didnt consider other class elites cause: sylvari wolf does less dps than mistfire(wiki said), and most others have too much CD for me.
So as ele ill stick with the Glyph of Elementals (mine survives nearly all fights in dungs cause he like never has aggro)

Bluefox: the Water Ele DOES take 1 Condition from u wtih the active heal. Try it if u dont belive me.

Mikau: I thought u used the Glyph before the patch, if u dont use the 2nd abilities, isnt it same as back then? or are the new activable skills, attacks which the elementals used on their own before patch? didnt use it before FGS nerf so i dont know it ^^

In PvE and Dungeons the Glyph is good instead of the nerfed FGS.
I looked at the Elementals the last few days and as long as u target something they attack 95% of the times.
Its not much but at least a little DPS-Increase.

And: The Fire Ele uses the Flame Burst Skill of The Lesser Elemental meaning: 3 might which is nice for Might-Uptime especially when PUGing.
Also the WaterEles active is nice for some Bosses who stack many Bleeds(Mai Trin and SE p3 first boss).
Air and Earth are useless, but u wanna use Fire Ele at most Bosses anyway(not the active though).

Only thing im missing is a “To Me” and “Attack” Command like with Rangers Pet for some encounters (sometimes they kitten up the pull).

Btw Mikau: what did they change except giving an Active effect which u dont have to use?