Guild Wars 2

Look, all this whining is worthless when your whining about something that has not yet happened. Its simple enough. If they nerf Ele AoE, stop playing the game and warn your friends away from GW2. Boycott the game itself. This will create a downward spiril that the game will be unlikely to rebound from and ultimately create its downfall as with so many other MMO’s before it.

Stop putting up with out of control Devs that feel they are not accountable to the player base. Take a stand and boycott. Heck, I think that even if you play another class or have alts that your only feeding the beast if you choose to play them instead of your Ele due to nerfs. Shame on you. You should know better than to do that because its only a matter of time before the nerf bat swings its way around to every class and by sticking with a company that already has such a scandalous history when it comes to overnerfs, your just part of the problem.

Ridiculous speculation post, but here goes:

1. They will replace RTL with UYB. Instead of the Elementalist zipping off willy nilly into glitchy buggy land, he or she will instead zip off right UYB.

2. Staff will be removed and replaced by a giant candy cane. This fearsome weapon will produce rainbows and candy sprinkles instead of the normal skills. They do no damage but who cares. They will be pretty.

3. Conjured weapons will be removed and replaced with giant sugar cubes which can be conjured instantly to produce the fearsome spell, “Sugar High”. A favorite for the more ADHD inclined amongst us.

4. Anyone who has ever played an Elementalist on any server will immediately and irrevocably have their forum posting rights removed for life.

mjharrison.3209:

boozer.7815:

Reveaux.5720:

4) Conjure Weapons – Currently not viable in pvp, however, some eles have been successful in creating builds with Earth Shield and Frost bow. I would not advise using unless you absolutely know what you are doing!

Wrong again. WTH are you posting for?

Please. Just because you may be able to faceroll up-levelled noobs wearing greens in WVW with conjures does not make conjures viable in PVP. Good players don’t use conjures. I wouldn’t use conjures even if they didn’t take up a utility slot. Locking out 20 skills so you can use 5 otherwise unremarkable skills is a stupid, stupid design.

I do not dissagree with you on the design aspect. Conjures need some love, but not so much on their abilities as the awkwardness of usage. There have been a few threads on this already so I wont rehash that. Conjures do not lock you out of anything, so your mistaken on that point. There have been a few posted builds that are highly effective in PvP with LH and I think I remember one with IB. They are definitely viable on their own merits, but using them is extremely awkward, and this is why you don’t see a lot of people using them, not because the weapons themselves are sub par.

Sorry if that post came off as trolling instead of a disagreement as was intended. Wrong choice of wording on that, I admit.

I did not realize you were talking specifically about sPvP/tPvP. I do agree with you in that case, but like JCorcoran, I do not agree that 30 Arcana is necessary to be effective with it. There is plenty of wiggle room with an Aura build. If your dead set on 30 water, then try dropping to 15 arcana and test. If you can get 20 fire for the aura trait, its definitely worth it if you run sigils.

Reveaux.5720:

3) *Signets – besides restoration are currently not viable in pvp for eles.*

You know, I was actually reading your posts with interest until I saw this. Now I know your just plain wrong about almost everything.

4) Conjure Weapons – Currently not viable in pvp, however, some eles have been successful in creating builds with Earth Shield and Frost bow. I would not advise using unless you absolutely know what you are doing!

Wrong again. WTH are you posting for?

5) Not going a full 30 into Arcana not only risks survivability but damage as well! At this point in time 30 in this tree is required no matter what your build or weapon set. Fast attunement swaps is the most important thing for a versatile ele!

Wrong, wrong, and oh my gawd so wrong!

Reveaux.5720:

7) Going into fire or all the way into air for Grounded (XII in Air Magic) is overrated. Going into fire tree or really far into air will take away from survivability and your damage. Fire is just not worth it at all at the moment and grounded is too far into the air tree to make it good to use.

Jeezus. WTH are you saying here? Aside from you telling folks that increasing their Power and Precision is a bad thing do you really take yourself seriously? The fire traits are absolutely worth speccing for and increased Power and Condition Damage is ALWAYS worth it! Same can be said of the Air line with increased Precision.

You have no clue of what your talking about. Try playing full on glass cannon for a minimum of 3 months day in and day out with every conceivable build and then you ~might~ have a clue.

Who is it that is giving you a hard time about playing Ele as glass cannon?.. I have never seen nor heard from anyone that they don’t like glass cannon Ele’s that use Fire attunement a lot. I don’t think anyone even cares, TBH.

Play how you like. Find what works best for you and that which you have the most fun playing in the game and have at. I can verify that the glass cannon Ele is extremely viable in all weapon sets, because I have been running that for many months now with zero issues and still extremely good survivability relative to the environment I’m in. For PvE, glass cannon is definitely the way to. For Wv3, glass cannon is definitely the way to go. For sPvP or tPvP, I would not personally go glass cannon, but to each his or her own.

Crunchy Gremlin.5798:

boozer.7815:

Strang.8170:

Correct me if i´m wrong, but powerful auras atleast used to work only on auras that you actualy cast. In other words it dind´t work with combo auras or those gained from traits.

Your wrong.

there are some auras that did not trigger PAs.
i think the auras generated from runes and the combo auras generated from conjures.
this may have changed.

powerful auras is indeed a group satisfying trait and people have said more than once that its really really great when used well.

The fire aura’s generated from fire 20 proc PA.

Strang.8170:

Correct me if i´m wrong, but powerful auras atleast used to work only on auras that you actualy cast. In other words it dind´t work with combo auras or those gained from traits.

Your wrong.

DiogoSilva.7089:

For those who enjoy damage-oriented builds, what are the most solid choices for pvp? I’m bored of the cantrip bunker, and although auramancers are cool, I feel trying something different.

The answer to that question lies within your grasp. Go to Heart of the Mists and test, test, test!

If you spec 20 into fire you get a lot of Aura’s.

My testing does not bear this out. Battle in both hands will not proc separately because of the CD. You will only get one to proc at a time. Your best off going with a stat increaser or something like that in off hand.

Firstly, there is no such thing as a single element Ele. because you have to use ALL of them effectively regardless of what weapon your using.

Secondly, the D/D FoTM Water/Arcana build is exactly that. Its a solid build that works for some people really well, and many others have learned to ape it because they are mostly not capable of coming up with their own build and must be spoon fed. Simple as that.

Thirdly, all the weapon sets have viable builds that are based in Power/Precision. There are many threads about this and just because they don’t post reams of videos to boast about it does not make it less true.

Lastly, go to Heart of the Mists and spend many hours there swapping out gear and trying various trait specs. Learn what works best for you. Don’t listen to the mindless sheeples. Trust me when I tell you that there are plenty of viable builds.

TheGuy.3568:

DXIEdge.2789:

I’m a D/D Ele, but a lot of people are beginning to use Staff/Bunker styles or are switching to Thief for w/e reason.

shrugs I still like D/D, A lot of people are still posting in Daphoenix’s thread…The less there is the more likely we wont get nerfed for QQ’rs so…

I’m happy as is

I second this. I like D/D as is. FOTM can ruin a good build. I still find it funny we got nerfed before the wave came over to D/D ele.

Maybe they nerfed it to stop the wave.

With Focus you lose RTL, Updraft, EQ, CE, FG, RoF, FA, and CW…

Nuff said there. Not worth the tradeoff.

SuiRyuJin.4615:

arcane shield is a near must for a zerker gear staff if u want to fight off a thief.

Yea that certainly puts things on easy mode for a Staff Ele. I don’t slot it mostly because I enjoy the benefits of using Sigils and Aura’s too much and all that extra power you get from using um. But, I can certainly swap out SoF for AS if needs be and swap in a Cantrip trait like Water 3 without sacrificing much in Power/Precision.

I think a lot of the misconceptions about glass cannon is that it is not optimal for a D/D setup, but it works very well for Staff and even S/D. Staff Ele survival is exceptionally good in general and you have a large variety of escape options. More, in fact, than you do in D/D if your on CD with RTL, which does not always assure your escape anyway, especially when it bugs out.

Thunderbrew.7034:

For the last part, Gust is an AOE cone isnt it, or is it all around you? If its
the former, I have to imagine that can be easy to miss. Also, with Lighting
Surge, you have to have a target right? Might be a problem vs stealth.

I do know what you mean though, MOST players trying to kill you stay
on your path and walk right into Static Field/Unsteady Ground.

As far as I know, Gust is a small cone that affects a single target and yea it can miss if your casting it at something that is longer than melee range. I cast it when a Theif pops on me and in that case, it is right up in my face so has never missed. I usually dodge immediately then Gust then Static Field to stun. That allows me plenty of time to do anything I like. Cast the Static Field right on top of yourself and your guaranteed a free escape even vs. a good Theif, who will most likely be running away at that point to avoid any AoE.

Lightning Surge is a crap shoot vs. a good Thief and if they beat feat right after their initial burst fails, and the good ones will do exactly that, then LS is obviously out the window and instead you will switch to Frozen Ground > Arcane Wave > Eruption > Lava Font right on top of yourself. That will be a dead Theif if they choose to keep attacking you. If not, then you will have a good chunk of Might/Fury/Protection/Swiftness stacked up to turn around and launch a fresh Meteor Swarm right on top of the now advancing zerg. :P

Samous.1974:

Boozer what is an aura/sigil build? I have done a bit of looking but cannot find an example, but I maybe missing the forest for the trees.

There is more than a few posts linking the build(s)…

Basically, you run sigils and fire 20 or 30. Here is one build that has killed a whole lotta folks in an incredibly short time period..

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhMmKbsx2gjEAhHEgQCjCiIK8QRxM8A;TsAg0ynEOJdS9kyJKvMdJ6y51QEA

There is also a VERY strong Water/Fire build thats just as good if not better.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhMmKbsx2gjEAkHtgSJBFEgwogIiCPA;TsAg0ynEOJdS9kyJKvMdJ6y51QEA

And there are more..

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhMmKbsx2gjEABFEgw4hIeQiowDlCzA;TsAg0ynEOJdS9kyJKvMdJ6y51QEA

And

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhMmKbsx2gjEABFEgwogIiCPUeMDP2A;TsAg0ynEOJdS9kyJKvMdJ6y51QEA

For you guys that went lock, stock, and barrel into the bunker build, that last build should work quite nicely.

@Thunderbrew. Yea, if a good thief catches you, your going to have a hard time of it, but I have escaped more thief’s than not simply by popping Gust > SoR > Static Field > Lightning Surge > Shockwave. Its situational and you have few stun breakers like this, but you have a lot in your bag of tricks to get by with. If you get run down by the zerg though while your dealing with that errant thief, your pretty much toasty oasty.

Thunderbrew.7034:

The main problem with the Staff in open WvW is the lack of escape
compared to Ride the Lightning.

Try running an aura/sigil build. You get tons of escape in Staff. While its true that RTL/Updraft gives you a lot of escape options, in Staff you have to use AoE CC – Static Field, Frozen Ground + Arcane Blast, Unsteady Ground, Magnetic Aura, Burning Retreat (make sure your facing the bad guys first). All of these can be cast on the run and in an Aura/Sigil build, you will always have Swiftness up. The key is to stay at as max range as possible and use your CC to stay that way. The very instant you see baddies running your way you must immediately retreat or seek advantageous ground.

I have no trouble staying alive in a full on zerker glass cannon to the hilt setup with 10k Vitality and an Attack and Precision rating that approaches god-mode levels. My FB auto attacks most people for near 2k a pop. I have seen Meteor Swarm hit people for 8k and more regularly.

If you want to take on whole zergs you first need a good team to keep the baddies busy while you move to as hidden and advantageous ground as is possible at max range and then stack as much Might as possible via Eruption/Lava Font/Arcane Wave. You can do all of that while moving into position so you’ll be ready when you arrive at your kill and kitten spot. Once you get there you setup your kitten zone with Static Field > Frozen Ground > Eruption > Lava Font > Meteor Swarm > Cackle in glee as you witness massive levels of destruction. The damage numbers that will pop up on your screen can only be described as shockingly impressive, and most of that all hitting at once with the Meteor Swarm basically finishing people off and also creating a control field. You will kill a lot of people with that and then watch as the rest of the zerg hangs back in abject terror because they realize that they wont be getting through that area without going to downed state. Those few that do will be welcomed by your team and go to downed state in very short order by them, after of course they run through your kill field and have most of their Vitality whittled down.

The Staff Ele is the absolute best class this game has to area control. Pair up with an Engy that actually knows how to play the class (have met one so far, and only one), and you can hold an area virtually indefinitely.

Had several friends report that this ability is currently able to block Siege weapons. Is this a bug or “working as intended”?

IceTenacious.4126:

I hate how people on the forums get a say on class balancing when they can’t play their own class.

Agree. I think what’s important here is that Anet needs to sift through these whines/complaints at face value. Lots of people whining and complaining about something does not necessarily mean there is a problem, like with the case of the EA fix.

It is true though that Staff needs a lot of love, particularly in the Air line. Staff is also lacking in the trait lines. Cast speed/build times are definitely too slow. Flight times on our skills that have flight paths are also slow, like all our auto attacks save CL. I get that Staff is supposed to be AoE, and it is, kind of… Not really.. Huh?.. Exactly!

Staff is woefully short of finishers, and particularly blast finishers. All of our combo rotations begin with Eruption because of its build time and it is our only blast finisher aside from AW. It is simply too difficult to maintain Might/Fury without an Auramancer/Sigil setup. The only other way to do it is to start out with S/D, build might, then swap to staff to attack. Its rediculous and makes no sense in light of the fact that building Might/Fury and keeping it at high levels is so easy on all our other weapon sets. Its really far out of whack!

Auto Attacks – Very confused line. CL is OK for an auto attack and it could be our best, but Earth auto eclipses it by a longshot. FB is also not what it should be. For example, I have to stack up 18+ might just to get it to hit for 1k+ on a glass cannon build and that is just wrong for what is supposed to be our best DPS attunement. Water auto is what it is and I am fine with it.

Air Attunement – for staff this line is just lacking and makes no sense whatsoever.
1. CL is its best ability but only because its the only skill that actually makes sense.
2. Air 5 is a nice ability (when it works, which is rare) but beyond using it to get speed and chain off whirl and leap finishers, its not worth the time it takes to cast it.
3. Air 2 and 3 = worthless. Absolutely. Worthless!!

Water Attunement –
1. Water 2, Ice Spike. Does really nice damage. Stacks Vulnerability. Should be a finisher too. Don’t care what kind, but probably makes the most sense to be a blast finisher, kind of like DT.
2. Water 3, Geyser – What is the purpose of this? Seriously, what is the point of this tiny radius, short duration, small heal? Sure, its a Water field, but the radius and duration are so small that its near impossible to use it effectively. This one seriously needs some work. Something like increasing its radius by 150%, or increasing its duration to 15s in line with the Ranger healing field. Something…
3. Frozen Ground. This is, by far, the best combo field we have – Ice. Its also our ONLY Ice field!!! Why?!!.. A 40s CD… Why? Help me make some sense out of this mess Anet. Please!

Earth – No complaints. IMO, Earth is our best Staff line. Very well thought out and ever ability synergizes very well with pretty much everything else. My only complaint here is that Earth is the ONLY attunement that has an Aura!.. WHY!!!! I run Aura builds and this seriously hurts any auramancer build that runs Staff. I get a large variety of Aura’s in Daggers, so why do I only have access to a single Aura in Staff?

So there you go. Staff is hurting in at least 2 of its skill lines, and really has very few traits for specializing Staff other than blasting staff.

Ultimately, Anet should work to build the Fire and Air lines to be our true DPS lines via the buildup and sustainment of boons which are unique to those lines – Might for Fire, and Fury for Air. This was the correct fix for Puissant and I think its obvious that was the intent with Fire all along. They did the same thing with Air but when the Vulnerability route instead and less of the Fury route. The problem with Vulnerability stacking is that its a condition and can be quickly and easily removed, AND you have to spend far too much time applying it to start being effective. In the end, its all about boon stacking and always will be.

Water and Earth need to go back to being support lines. Remove any/all offensive traits from those lines and move them into Fire/Air. Once you do that, you will then, finally, have a balance and create the possibility for some truly interesting build possibilities. Players will be forced to choose survivability over dps or vica versa, which is currently not the case because right now, survivability trumps all things in PvP, and right now, there really are no builds where that would not be the case in a head to head situation or even a small team vs. small team setup, and this is even true in Wv3.

Sure.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/

Play around with that tool for a bit. One build I have been toying with lately is this one:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImkbxxygjDAhHKQQCiHW4QElCzA;T4AA2yoEQJhSFlCKKcMBJCy2lDHZXDROiA

Very cannon, with the punch to back it up. Nearly perma 25 stacks of Might if you work it right. Your AoE dps on that spec will be both eye popping and you have some survivability built in to boot. Key to glass cannon staff for zerg serfing is to work the fringes and not become a target. That build will work for running with the unorganized zerg as well since nobody really expects anything from anyone anyway.. Its just a mass of toons running together like Lemmings. Just try not to be the lead Lemming and its all good.

The change to MG is/will have MUCH more of an impact than a passive speed increase from SoA, which wont help you much when you get into combat. Also, the increased duration on Might from Puissant is going to have a massive impact with cannon builds. Just.. Massive!

JuniorSB.7089:

I’d like to have a topic that compiles all the tips and tricks that they can do.

So post your builds, combos, strategies, etc. about the staff ele here.

Sorry. Not sure how I missed that part. Probably because that part about Blasting Staff drew my attention right away..

The key to playing Staff effectively depends on what your trying to accomplish with it. If your looking to build for group support in terms of your ability to enhance what they (and you) can do for dps and survivability, then there are a few paths to that. There are some who say that you must have 30 in Water to be effective at anything in Staff, to which I would say is complete hogwash. Its all in your personal playstyle preference and how that synergizes with your teams level of competence.

What I mean by all that is that if your running with an organized clan all of which are on some form of voice comms, then you will spec/build for the teams preferences and what they need you to be doing. That could be healing/combo field support. It could be maximum AoE dps support. It could be any one or more of a hundred different things..

If your mainly running with the unorganized zerg, then you will build differently to be sure.

If your mainly just zerg surfing or running solo, then you will again build in a completely different way.

In terms of traits though, blasting staff is not all what its cracked up to be. Waste of a trait slot in most use cases. It is very useful for a Combo Field support oriented organized team though.

In short, I disagree with most of the OP’s points, and the build posted is short 20 points. If its posted short of trait points because your just level 63, well, not sure why your coming on these forums and telling veteran Ele’s about how to play Staff…..

In fact, the only thing I do think is correct is the emphasis on Combo Fields. The Staff Ele that is not using Combo Fields should reroll to another class.

naphack.9346:

so all I have to do is tell you a build wich incorporates fire and works for pvp right?

There is no point to that. What the poster above you was saying is that the point of this thread (assumed) is solely about sPvP/tPvP. It is the incorrectly held belief currently that Ele can not function in that setting without 30 points in Water and 30 points in Arcana, leaving just 10 points to put elsewhere. This completely false belief also forces the incorrect assumption that Ele’s are “locked” into just one build set and that only D/D is effective. This belief mostly stems from conjecture by others and without any factual data to back it up. It also stems from some peoples play styles, where it synergizes very well with how they like to play.

So, given the above, it’s no wonder that people who play this class and who also have closed minds find the class pigeon holed into one or two effective builds, which for them, is true, but only because of their inability to try other builds and make them work. So, until some smart person comes on here and shares a different build that is effective, they will continue to believe that there are no other effective builds. So, do not share your build with them, IMO. Let them find it for themselves, as I and others have done already.

Aether McLoud.1975:

boozer.7815:

Otaur.9268:

a worthless duration increase to 30 fire trait

Mmmk. If you feel that buff was “worthless” then you have no clue about how to play an Ele to begin with, so there is no point in further discussion until you do so.

It seems you are the one without a clue. No tournament build has 30 fire. No tournament build even has 10 points into fire because it’s such a bad trait line.

Riiight. No Ele has or will ever spec into Fire for sPvP. See, this is the whole entire problem with people that play this class that actually think they know what they are doing. LTP this class and stop making bold assumptions about it.

After these changes you would be a total fool to not use Fire in some builds for sPvP.

Otaur.9268:

a worthless duration increase to 30 fire trait

Mmmk. If you feel that buff was “worthless” then you have no clue about how to play an Ele to begin with, so there is no point in further discussion until you do so.

A good batch of bug fixes and a few improvements. Thanks Anet. The SA thing is a fix, not a nerf to Auramancers the way I see it. SA lasting for 7+ seconds was a touch over the top, however the boons associated with popping aura’s must not be decreased, and if anything, they need to be buffed up some.

D/D is perhaps our most powerful weapon set with S/D very closely following. It has a very steep learning curve to play it right, so just keep on trying and learning. When it finally begins to make some sense to you it will be quite the rude awakening when you realize just how much carnage you can wreak with it.

I do agree about Staff needing some love because it is out of whack with D/D. Can’t really see the need for much more love with S/D as it is already extremely powerful. It has the most blast finishers of any of our weapon sets and you can stack up an ungodly amount of Might in very little time. Staff on the other hand… Yesh.. It is HORRIBLE!

Sure, it does have a lot of AoE, but it has just one blast finisher on its own and that is only if you stack everything on top of eruption. Also, as I have been saying for ages now, Air in Staff is just jacked up terrible and has no synergy in terms of dps.

Oh yea. Just confirmed this. I get to be punished just because I traited to 30 in Water!! How stupid a bug is this?

DivineBeing.2086:

Atomic Sharks.7250:

haven’t faced many good staff eles have you

Is it that obvious?

And I for sure would have thought WvW (the only thing I play now) would display the 2h staff proness.

A good Staff Ele is VERY effective so long as they can maintain constant range, which would never happen vs. a good D/D Ele, who can close the range so fast that the Staff Ele really has no good options to counter. Air 4, Air 5, Earth 4, Earth 5, and Water 4, but really none of those except for Air 5 and Earth 5 will stop RTL or MG. Either way, there is almost no way the D/D Ele can be shut down or prevented from closing range for long.

DivineBeing.2086:

I am honestly not convinenced that a 2h staff elementalist is a counter against a d/d elementalist. When I see a 2h staff elementalist, I immediately think “oooo, free kill”. :P

Agree. In fact the very idea of a Staff Ele countering a good D/D Ele is just laughable. Never happen.

Oliin.9581:

E Kay.9236:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

Creslin.1758:

Hell yah! Thanks so much devs.

And Methodic, seriously I can’t believe you’re still complaining about this…rejoice my brother!

Rejoice in what, exactly? What is there to rejoice in? I would gladly rejoice, if there was something worth rejoicing over.

Okay, so they should stop fixing issues… got it.

Personally, thank you Arena Net.

Ok, I’m going to throw this out there. Fixes should not be praised or rejoiced over, they should be expected. That includes fixes to things that are brokenly overpowerd as well as things that are underpowered.

Granted I’m well aware there’s a vast gulf between what should be and what is, but that’s my general stance on the matter of fixes.

I agree. Bug fixes are more of a, “do your #$#$ JOB!” kinda thing. Balancing is more of a, “I just don’t think I could get any more drunk than I am now, so I think I am ready to go ahead and balance the Elementalist!”

You mean RTL works for you guys??

It usually puts me waaaay past my target so I have to run back to get to it in Wv3. For me it is the most buggy ability the Ele has next to maybe Magnetic Grasp.

ATMAvatar.5749:

kostbabis.8791:

rtl i would guess strippes you off from your traits..cause i lose exactly 1.5k hp having put 15 points in water.Major nerf..again
I HATE PATCHES

I can confirm this issue. I have mostly zerker gear, so my vitality comes entirely from my 30 points in water.

Normal HP: 14405 (1276 vitality)
RTL HP: 11405 (976 vitality)

Additionally, I have 20 points in air. Air bonuses are stripped, too.

Normal precision: 1871
RTL precision: 1671

If that’s true its got to be a bug. Report it.

Hey, at least your not paying to beta test Anets buggy game for them like so many other games!!

Aura’s are aura’s. By definition they are not boons, so I am not upset about that, but I would be VERY upset if this affects the boons associated with popping aura’s!!!

Karl McLain.5604:

Shocking Aura was always 4 seconds, but was affected by Boon Duration (and had an incorrect tooltip). What we would usually see is that the aura lasted so long is because elementalists had put points into Arcana. On the other hand, it’s no longer able to be ripped off by boon removal abilities.

So your saying that SA is no longer affected by +boon duration?

Absolution.2851:

Now my dilemma is: Is running signets worth it for extra Aura Upkeep? Or is it much better to run 10 earth for Elemental Shielding, with an additional 10 (for a total of 20) in arcana for boon duration/CDR? I’m leaning towards the latter.

If you trait for aura’s then going 20 in fire is the way to go to pop a lot of aura’s, so that you can get the benefit of both the aura and the boons that go with popping them. For a Staff build, this is essential. For D/D, S/D or x/F then this is not needed so much because you have access to more aura’s, although because of their respective CD’s, the fire 20 trait is still very valuable.

What going higher in Arcana is useful for is the increased boon duration and faster attunement swaps giving you that much more Fury every time you swap and lingering attunement bonuses on Arcana 15.

For Staff, you go fire 20. For anything else, I would probably go with more Arcana.

As above posters pointed out, it can remove 4 conditions AND apply a fairly powerful DoT on target as well. Its one of our most powerful cantrips.

Bean Muncher.5197:

@OP: if you want to go Auramentalist, I would defninetly go 10/10/10/30/20.

That build adds up to 80 points, which is not possible.

Perhaps you mean this build -

(copy/paste link)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhMmYbvxygjEAkHtYSJjCgIK8QRxM8A;TwAg0yoEQJhSFlCKquMeJ8y11Qk5HA

I really don’t get the point of that build. What are you trying to achieve with it? Arcana 2 is interesting but the time it takes to activate the aura plus the down time while your reviving downed people really does not make sense to me on a D/D build, where mobility is absolutely critical. Also, EA was nerfed and no longer procs blast finishers, so its usefulness is questionable and it does not synergize with Arcana 2 at all.

The water traits are fine for a D/D build except I would probably swap out water 1 for water 2, and water 4 for water 5 or 10 so that you actually synergize with the use of signets more or at least get some condition removal and water 2 will give you the vulnerability on target.

1900 attack and 9% crit… egads!!

Here is my build. Last two runes are Major Rune of the Water.

(copy/paste link)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhMmYbvxygjFA0DtEUIACjCgIK8Q9wMA;TwAg0yoEQJhSFlCKquMeJ8y11Qk5HA

As you can see, this has quite a bit of punch built in. I will let your imagination take over what the damages look like with 18 stacks of Might, and 3-4 stacks of Fury built up.

What this build lacks is passive condition removal and I swap in SoW whenever I go into Wv3. Endurance recharge is np with the Sigil of Energy. I do get +75% boon duration, and this would go up to +105% at 30 arcana.

My current spec is 20/10/10/15/15 and it works very well. Those 15 points in Arcana plus the 45% extra boon duration make a massive difference. I was thinking to test out a 30 arcana build, which would give me a lot of extra boon duration plus the rapid fire attunement swaps give me that much extra fury every time. Its absolutely amazing how much of a difference that extra boon duration makes.

Its very difficult to achieve a well rounded build with PA and 30 in water though. You get a nice build in D/D or S/D but you only get one aura that way on staff without pumping 20 into fire. That wont work for me because I need to have all weapon sets as efficient as possible for Wv3.

What I find interesting is that Anet I think did an excellent job of balancing signets vs. aura’s, and I think the possibility remote that they will nerf this because of it. You really cant have a full signet and aura build at the same time because you have to go 30 in earth to get the signet trait and you have to go 30 in water to get PA if you really want to maximize both, but then whats the point of that? You nerf your damage output badly that way. I find that you really do need to balance power and precision into your build via fire and air to be really effective… Well.. I suppose you could go for a condition build and spec that way… hmmmmmmmm….

You got the runes right, but add 2x major water and I would go a tad higher in Arcana for the extra boon duration, which is very important in this setup. 30 in water is not necessary unless your intent on sharing out your aura’s.

Blaine Tog.8304:

boozer.7815:

Could not agree more. Just FYI, but this is how it works in all MMO’s.

It’s not how things work in GW1. Not remotely. Max-stat gear is also way, way easier to procure.

So your saying that Anet never nerfed classes in GW1 resulting in people being forced to alter their gear/build/setup?

Ill tell you strait up that your wrong.

ThiBash.5634:

~Air: next 5 Chain Lightning casts activate AP but each hit procs, resulting in a grand total of 15 activations per AP.
~When using both Arcane Precision AND Arcane Wave, in water they cause the DOUBLE amount of chill

Well that’s interesting…

Cab.6142:

This is my first post and I’m new to Anet games, but I’ve played since launch as Ele main. I must say I’m disappointed with these changes and the way they played out. I saved my gold, my tokens, etc and looked into what build I wanted… did research and put in time farming to get things the way I wanted before I decked myself out in exotics. Not to mention I was playing a build I finally found fun + effective. Not long afterwards, this happens.

I’m now broke… no dungeon tokens left, half my gold gone on items/sigils/upgrades I’ll probably end up changing. I hate when the rules are changed on me in the middle of a game, so to say the least I’m frustrated. Where is my option to turn back in these dungeon pieces I just bought? Or to remove these expensive sigils without destroying my expensive weapons? Right… I have no recourse, I just have to suck it up, accept the losses I’ve taken, and work 2x as hard to get my character back where I want him again.

Or I can play an alt… or another game.

Could not agree more. Just FYI, but this is how it works in all MMO’s. This is the modus operendi for all gaming companies across the industry, and this is the end result of how it affects the gaming community. In the end, its the paying customer that loses. Its a failed system for the consumers, but most of them love it like that, so don’t complain.

The truly sad part about all of this is that when you get enough experience in getting burnt by greedy and thoughtless companies like Anet, you actually get good at predicting their horrible game design patterns and avoid such things because you begin to recognize game mechanics flaws before even they do. Thusly, I did not get burnt by this because I (AND MANY OTHERS) realized early that EA was destined for the nerf axe long before it actually happened.

Oh and btw, your build is still plenty viable. Its just not as outrageously OP as it used to be.

jaif.3518:

The problem is signet of earth – I easily get 50% of kills because I root someone in range of the zerg, or root them with dragon’s tooth and phoenix incoming.

What can I replace it with? I don’t want to go staff – I use that in keep defenses, but I’ve never really been comfortable with staff in the open field.

I fail to see why SoE is a problem for you. You describe yourself demolishing people through using it then you go on to say that’s a problem…

I guess since you say being effective is a problem for you that you should drop SoE and go with SoA instead. That way you will be less effective.