Guild Wars 2

Killyox.3950:

Prefer it as is due to heal on pass through.

Also allies should also try to use the tablet. Like with combo fields they try to use them, they should also try to work with you and tablet and not just have you chase them.

This would not change at all though.

You could always ground target to get the heal pass through as well, but you could also attach it to an ally to help with landing the other skills if desired.

With my suggestion you are still free to send the tablet where ever you wish, but it would be able to attach to an ally if desired by targeting on top of them. Also, the heal on pass through would apply to the ally targeted, so you wouldn’t lose that

Coupled with the change to instant cast time, it would let you actually move the tablet far easier, especially while using weapon skills and other utilities.

Roy, if you are out there listening, is it mechanically possible to change Ventari’s Will to have the tablet to “attach” itself to an ally if we use on a grouped ally targeted in the small area? For people who have played League of Legends, this would function similar to using Oriana’s Ball to target it on an ally, and would allow our shielding/healing/condi removal to move with them.

This would make it infinitely more usable in both PvP and PvE, allowing the tablet to move with the ally you are attempting to support. Right now, it is literally impossible to keep up with an allied thief/ranger/mesmer with their extreme movement and positional based combat. The only PvP application I’ve found is to support a transformed ally, since they are far less mobile.

Ventari’s Will could still maintain its current stationary ground target functioning if no ally is in the immediate aoe of where you target. This, along with an instant cast time for Ventari’s Will, would solve at least half of my issues with using Ventari as a Legend.

Yea, I’d almost suggest perhaps creating 3 new weapon skills for 1-3, while keeping the final 4 and 5 skills based on your off hand or the last two Staff skills, but that would take a lot of effort at this point to create them.

The only reason fireball is such high damage is the combined damage from it plus Lava Font.

Here is a thought that crossed my mind after the BWE1:

I think one reason the Tempest really does not feel like it brings a new play style is that, in order to really change how we play the elementalist, its going to need things that actually give us a reason to stick to a single attunement rather than swapping as frequently as possible.

I think one the biggest issues with remaining in a single attunement is that the elementalist’s power on every weapon set is heavily shifted toward the 2-5 skills, while their auto-attacks are generally quite poor. Couple this with the generally quite high cool downs on the 2-5 skills, and there is little wonder why regular swapping, particularly in PvP, is considered the most optimal strategy.

Here is an idea that would provide an incentive to staying in a single attunement, and maybe creating even more builds outside of Fire/staff that have some merit in camping a single attunement.

Channeling the Overcharge would create a new Auto-Attack Sword chain for every weapon’s 1 skill. This chain would be slightly overtuned, but would only last for a set duration that is based on how long you channeled the Overcharge.

Imagine if all of the Overcharges were normalized to a 4 second Channel, with each second of the channel giving you 5 seconds access to the conjured Sword auto attack. This would allow, on a full channel, for the Tempest to attack with their enhanced auto-attack chain for up to 20 seconds. Switching attunements or using weapon swap would cancel these early, if for example you need to switch back to a ranger auto attack for some content.

Further more, the final strike of each Auto-attack chain could reduce the recharge timers for the 2-5 skills of their attunement. This means that, for example, if you are a supportive Healing themed elementalist, you could camp water and attempt to get as many Water Blade attack chains completed to refresh your other Water attunement skills that you’ve already used.

The combination of taking, for example, the “Aquamancer’s Training” trait plus using Overcharge Water, a staff elementalist could quickly recover the cool down of Healing Rain from a base of 45 seconds down to a potential 30 seconds that is reduced by 2 seconds further each time they complete the auto chain. If the chains finish similar to the Warrior/Mesmer sword chains, it would happen roughly once per 1.5 seconds, if the Tempest can maintain constant melee combat and full 20s uptime on their Water Blade, this could allow faster access to Healing Rain.

Similarly, Meteor Shower would also go from a base of 30s down to 20s, which could be made available very quickly with the auto chain. There would likely need to be some stipulation for Lava Font to only allow one in play at a given time, as the chain could potentially result in double lava fonts.

Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling. They are intentionally over-tuned due to the time-limited nature of the overcharge mechanic, so they should appear stronger than traditional auto attacks by a large margin:

Sunflowers.1729:

Well, I tried to make a build based around healing with auras. Using the trait that says “auras heal” (tempest grandmaster), it can theoretically put out a ton of healing, significantly more than the warrior healing signet’s passive anyway. Link is below.

http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgACeAW0Bvw~

Basically, what you will do is swap to an attunement, say fire for example. Cast whatever skills you want to and then channel the overload. Completing this channel gives an aura, which heals people through the trait (the trait doesn’t have a cooldown on the healing part, only on the frost aura proc).

Conveniently, it takes 5 seconds (wait for overload to become available) + 5 seconds (channel overload) to rotate through an attunement. This coincides with the base cooldown on attuning. Thus, you can do this:

Fire>Water>Air>Water>Earth>Water>Fire.etc (don’t overload water)

Combined with the healing shout which heals all allies, as well as the fire and water shouts (both of which apply auras) you can put out a good amount of sustained healing.

Of course the traditional sources of healing like attuning to water and evasive arcana are still there. That’s why you don’t overload water, so you don’t get locked out of it for too long (but obviously use the water overload if you really need to)

Also, I used trooper runes to help with condition clearing, since it is a supportive build.

For weapons use whatever you want, maybe warhorn for the boon sharing.

Edit: math. With 400 healing power, applying an aura heals for 680 health.
From overloading, you apply aura once per 10s, which is 68 hp/s
From “Feel the Burn”, you heal for 680 hp every 20s, which is 34 hp/s
From “Flash Freeze”, 680 hp per 25s, this is 27.2 hp/s
“Wash the Pain Away” is 3680 hp per 25s, that’s 147.2 hp/s
Attuning to water once per 10s is 1699 hp = 169 hp/s
Evasive Arcana is another 169 hp/s

Ignoring other healing effects from weapon auras, auras on proc, combo-field auras, regeneration, weapon skills, that’s ~600 hp/second to your entire group, which is not bad. It also removes lots of conditions and obviously gives people auras, which are great.

Admittedly the aura heal just doesn’t do that much in comparison to the last 3 sources of healing.

In PVP in Clerics gear with the Water line and the grandmaster to improve Soothing Mist, it provides an outstanding 400 heal per second personal and even higher for allies just by itself.

The shouts were healing for over 1k on self and more on allies. Water horn 5 + dagger 3 while running forward is a free blast heal + the orbs normal healing, and a little over 2k healing burst from water 4 + its knockback if like right on the foe and ally.

I did an Earth + Water + Tempest healing build and it worked wonders. Monk runes for more healing output or Trooper for condi cleanse on each shout, taking the protection on auras.

If even though Powerful Auras is tempting to run, the massive healing per second of soothing mist is imo worth it. The shouts all provide auras anyway, and the build has few personal auras to apply. You can take the Auras on overload as well, in which case it might be worth running Powerful Auras.

It was a super sustainable, strong build for me in PvP. Amazing support options to keep an ally alive, cleansed, and has a good uptime on protection/25 might. You could always swap a shout out for earthen shield to boonshare the protection and stability to your whole group as well

I also did a build variant with staff and the above set up with water blast healing for loads.

People don’t seem to realize how CRAZY strong Wash the Pain Away is by the way. It heals you for each pulse, healing allies as well, which in a high healing power build is easily over 8k total healing I believe, and can heal that in an AOE to all allies. It is insanely effective for healing a half health ally to full in conjunction with some other quick aura shouts.

I do really hope that each shout gains an aura though I’d love a Light aura on WTPA and changing the Rebound elite to apply Arcane Shield to all allies, and reclassify Arcane Shield as an aura

I’d love to see Arcane Shield become an Aura in addition to Arcane, and to have the “Rebound!” Elite apply Arcane Aura and Arcane Power to yourself and 5 allies in range.

Giving Arcane Power + Arcane Shield to allies is quite potent, as well as benefiting from the synergistic effect of the Arcane grand master trait! Recharge would likely need to be shifted to 90 seconds, but this would be a shout truly worthy of an elite, and would work with Arcane/Tempest builds or Aura builds

By the way, you can actually see sword hilts in the art for both the new reveal and the data-mined elite spec art.

Im hyped … I’m going to laugh with glee if they pull something over on us … here is my guess:

“Elemental Singularity” will be a channel that deals aoe damage/effects based on our attement after being in the attunement for a while and pressing the attunement’s key. The animation would be us conjuring an elemental blade of the appropriate attunement while whirling around, doing a whirl finisher and such.

THEN our mainhand abilities shift into their elemental sword version alternatives as long as we remain in the same attunement, changing our 1 skills into auto chains.

Staff would give us elemental twohanded swords :P

A man can dream!

I think it would be amazing to utilize some of the new skill tech we’ve seen to imagine how the Warhorn could be used at melee AND 1200 range simultaneously, allowing it to fit into multiple builds and provide the range flexibility that D/X and S/X genuinely lack.

I imagine the main skill type would be a long range “cone” with a generous arc, that has an effect on foes within 600 range, and then a different effect for foes between 600 to 1200 range, obviously fanning outward and covering more total area.

Here is an example of some abilities that could be super thematic and fun with the above design:

Call of Lightning – Warhorn – Air 4
3 second Channel, full Mobility, 10 second Recharge

Call forth clouds rain down 5 lightning bolts per pulse (1 second pulse) that cascade outward. (think the three-hit mace ability for Revenant but with lightning bolts on each of the three hits that cascade forward). These bolts deal decreased damage to foes under 600 range, but apply 1 stack of Vulnerability for 10 seconds. To foes beyond 600 to 1200 range, the damage per bolt is significantly increased and they instead apply a 3 second Blind.

Storm’s Embrace / Storm Cry – Warhorn – Air 5
3/4 second Cast, Immobile cast, 20 second Recharge.

Damage and pull up to 5 foes from 600 range, Knocking them down for 1 second. Second skill it links to deals damage and Knocks Down ranged foes in the 600-1200 range wide arc for 2 seconds.

Basically, these two abilities combo well with each other depending on the range at which you are fighting your foes. Storm’s Embrace can pull foes together into melee range of you, giving you time to channel Call of Lightning for maximum close range potential of hitting all 6 bolts, which will stack Vulnerability quickly due to all 6 bolts hitting (which only happens on foes directly in melee range of you due to them spreading out along the arch as the distance increases).

Additionally, if fighting a ranged foe, you can use the secondary skill Storm Cry to damage and knockdown distant foes, either if chasing them down or trying to win a ranged war. Call of Lightning deals increased damage per bolt at longer ranges, but hitting a foe with more than 2 bolts would be almost impossible, certainly at the max 1200 range, so their increased damage would help offset this without making it complete comparable to the close range melee overlap, while the Blind would help win the ranged poking war.

I think if they make really interesting skills like this for each attunement, with low enough cool downs so that you actually want to stay in an attunement depending on your combat situation, then Warhorn might actually have a decent place as the “consistent aoe damage, wide area control” offhand weapon, giving it a unique place among the off-hands that isn’t completely filled.

Each attunement could employ a similar scheme as the air abilities listed above, with things like:

Each 5 skill being some unique type of control that works well with a channeled 4th skill.

Each 4 skill offering “something” that that attunement is really supposed to provide, on a low cool-down, with a channel.

Maybe there could even be a Warhorn trait in the Tempest line that provides 3s of Stability at the start of a Warhorn channel, causing foes in PVP to have to blow a boonstrip to interrupt your channels.

I could see water’s Warhorn being:

4- Channel to deal damage and send out 5 frost whirlwinds that apply Chill to distant foes and Weakness to nearby foes, and heal up to 5 allies within the cone while removing 1 condition per hit.

5- Cast to Immobile nearby foes for 3 seconds, and create a projectile reflecting wall of ice in an arc at 600 range that also stuns foe’s who pass through it for 1 second with the “frozen” visual effect.

Earth could be:

4- (similar to air) Channel to send out waves of 5 sandstorm whirlwinds to apply Protection and Stability for 2 seconds per pulse to allies they pass through while applying 2 Bleeds for 8 seconds to enemies. Close enemies are Blinded and distant enemies are Crippled for 5 seconds per hit and receive 4 stacks of Bleeding.

5- Applies 3 bleeds for 10 seconds and knocks down nearby foes in the cone, distant foes are Immobilized for 2 seconds.

Fire could be:

4- Channel to send out 5 firestorm whirlwinds that apply 2 seconds of Burning per hit to close foes and 4 stacks per hit to distant foes (so 15 stacks against any melee target that literally sits right in front of you for the 3 second channel and is hit by all 6.)

5- Backdraft – Knocks back close foes and extends duration of burns by 1 second (max of 25), distant foes are sucked inward 600 range toward you.

Azel.4786:

Oh man…. no offense but I am going to bed as things get worst by the minute.

But not to just bad mouth, the biggest problem with your suggestion IMO is that you are suggesting mantras for in combat use…. the biggest advantage of mantras for mesmer is that they are instant cast once you have them ready and resetting them during a fight is something you shouldn’t have to because you are basically defenseless and dead weight during that time – not to mention easily interrupted.

Now I get that you want to make something that doesn’t make you dead weight during the channeling time, but what you offer is not enough to offset what we can already do with weapon skills while doing good damage to our foes and, most importantly, without needing to run around with someone else to be useful.

Perhaps just not the Song of the Tempest which would be the most insane thing ever – imagine someone casts a fire field and in you come and blast that fire field 10+ times…. or even worse, someone casts a water field and you blast it 10+ times.

Again, numbers and effects can and should be altered, this is mostly just for the proof of concept.

Similar to how “Wells” for Mesmer are very distinct and different in use than Necromancer’s Wells, I went for a similar approach here, in that you actually want to gain a benefit for channeling the Mantras in combat to produce a beneficial / deterrent effect while still putting out some moderate damage / healing in the case of the heal.

Additionally, while not fully melee range, they do generally reward the elementalist for at least being closer to foes to gain the full effect, but can still be used to good effect from a distance, particularly if allies are present.

The heal combos well for the Water Mastery line since it gives us a method of applying Regeneration stacks to trigger condi cleanse in an AOE outside of Staff. Storm of Thunder would be the ultimate “ally assisting” spike tool, helping our allies do some rapid damage in a short window of opportunity, while still having a low enough up-time to not step on Guardian / Mesmer toes I hope. Song of Sand would be very good even if solo to help counter Thieves with the Blind, while not stepping on Glyph of Storm’s Sandstorm as a real persistent blind field. Song of Ice / Storm of Hoarfrost would work great in an aurashare build, which really do need more support, and lastly but certainly not least, Song of Fire / Storm of Incineration would really help support Burn eles and their allies in a group.

The elite is still an Elite, with a decent cool down for a Mantra. I think a crazy blast finisher elite would be quite interesting, and unless my math is wrong, it certainly cannot maintain full might stacks by itself, but perhaps it could pulse the blast every 2 seconds instead, for 5 total potential blasts.

I made an entire thread about my prediction: Mantras.

Although my idea may be too complex, in a nut shell it is:

Mantras are “Songs of (Insert Name)” that produce a beneficial effect on allies while damaging foes and producing some negative effect while channeled.

They become “Storm of (Insert Name)” that create ground targeted, persistent Storms that act as Combo Fields. Their duration is based on 1 second for each ally or foe the Song ability triggered on during its channel, maxing at 10 seconds.

So if you channeled a full Song on a single ally (yourself that is) and a single foe, for all 3 seconds, it would create a 6 second Storm on activation.

If interrupted or canceled early, the Song still becomes a Storm, but the duration will likely be quite low.

Here me out folks. I’d love some feedback on this idea … even if the numbers are likely not remotely balanced, just some feedback on the concept would be awesome.

“Song” Mantras that summon “Storms” on activation, with each Storm creating their own persistent Fields.

Imagine if, like some suspect, we may get Mantras as utility/heal/elite skills, but what if they were themed around being Songs that produce an effect on allies and foes while being channeled, and then their active effects are one use only but are stronger based on the total number of allies + foes effected by the song during the wind up, leaving longer lasting fields as “storms” in the target area?

There could even be a trait in the Tempest line that grants Stability and Protection while you begin channeling a Mantra, calling it something like “Stormcaller’s Focus”. It would allow boon-stripping to remove the stability to let other players interrupt you to make it more balanced for PVP without letting interrupt spam completely screw over the concept of the skills.

Here are examples of how they could function:

Song of Soothing – Heal Mantra
3 second Channel, 1 second pulses, 15 second Reuse

Heal allies in a 600 range around you while pulsing 3s of Regeneration and moderately damaging foes while removing either Might, Retaliation, or Fury each pulse.

Charges up to become – Storm of Rejuvenation, creates a water field at the targeted location that periodically heals each second and lasts for 1 second for each ally or foe hit by Song of Soothing, up to a maximum of 10 seconds.

The above heal would give elementalists a weapon-neutral method of creating a long duration water field that rewards them for successfully healing allies and hampering the offensive boon potential of foes.

Song of Fire – Utility Mantra
3 second Channel, 1 second pulses, 15 second Reuse

Damage foes in a 600 range around you while extending the duration of Burning effects on foes by 1 second each pulse (max of 25) and granting allies Might x 2 for 15 seconds to allies each pulse.

Charges up to become – Storm of Incineration, creates a fire field at the targeted location that periodically damages foes and applies 4 seconds of Burning each second and lasts for 1 second for each ally or foe hit by Song of Fire, up to a maximum of 10 seconds.

Song of Ice – Utility Mantra
3 second Channel, 1 second pulses, 15 second Reuse

Damage foes in a 600 range around you while Chilling foes for 3 seconds each pulse and granting allies Frost Aura for 2 seconds each pulse.

Charges up to become – Storm of Hoarfrost, creates an ice field at the targeted location that periodically damages foes and applies 3 seconds of Weakness and Chill each second and lasts for 1 second for each ally or foe hit by Song of Ice, up to a maximum of 10 seconds.

Song of Sands- Utility Mantra
3 second Channel, 1 second pulses, 15 second Reuse

Damage foes in a 600 range around you while applying 2 stacks of Bleeding for 8 seconds and Blinding foes for 3 seconds each pulse and granting allies Resistance for 3 seconds each pulse.

Charges up to become – Storm of Weathering, creates an earth field at the targeted location that periodically damages foes and applies 4 seconds of Cripple and 2 stacks of Bleeding for 8 seconds each second and lasts for 1 second for each ally or foe hit by Song of Sand, up to a maximum of 10 seconds.

(earth fields would be a new field, that grants protection on Blast, Bleeds on projectiles, Magnetic Aura on leaps, and Cripple on Whirl.)

Song of Thunder – Utility Mantra
3 second Channel, 1 second pulses, 15 second Reuse

Damage foes in a 600 range around you while applying 1 second of Daze and 3 stacks of Vulnerability for 10 seconds each pulse and granting allies Superspeed and Quickness for 1 seconds each pulse.

Charges up to become – Storm of Lightning, creates a lightning field at the targeted location that periodically damages foes and applies 2 stacks of Vulnerability for 10 seconds and deals increased damage with each successful bolt, lasting for 1 second for each ally or foe hit by Song of Thunder, up to a maximum of 10 seconds.

Song of the Tempest – Utility Mantra
3 second Channel, 1 second pulses, 30 second Reuse

Damage foes in a 600 range around you, Immobilizing foes for 1 second and performing a Blast Finisher with each pulse and granting allies Stability, Resistance, and Protection for for 3 seconds each pulse.

Charges up to become – Storm of Elemental Chaos, creates a storm at the at the targeted location that periodically damages foes while applying random Boons to allies and Conditions to foes, and performs a Blast finisher every 2 seconds, lasting for 1 second for each ally or foe hit by Song of the Tempest, up to a maximum of 10 seconds.

haviz.1340:

We should perform dps test with 25 stacks of might/vuln and with perma fury for warriors/guardians/mesmers and unbuffed/undebuffed for rest classes. Sounds logical.

This would be an interesting test. I highly encourage people to attempt to make their highest possible damage builds with each profession to see how each can stack up in ideal circumstances

Glad several people seem enthusiastic about the build, anyone else have any feedback regarding it? New patch should actually significantly buff this build with the increased crit chance from Signet of Fire.

I haven’t played in a few weeks, but I’ll likely get back into it soon.

Hands down, the warrior is “easier” and “superior” in the world of the PUG.

But if you are talking about a guild group clearing Arah or Fractals, or heck even coordinated speed clears of dungeons… Elementalist-heavy group will hands down win in pure damage potential, and thus clear time.

Additionally, for what its worth, Fiery Great Sword’s insane levels of mobility outshine the warrior’s greatsword for the minute it’s active, making running through certain content even easier, even for other professions since they can pick it up. Giving an ally this weapon or the hammer can also improve total damage for the team as well, assuming they are using weaker alternatives (ranger/mesmer’s especially).

Fortus.6175:

ThiBash.5634:

Fortus.6175:

Please, give us greatsword, a long-range(1200-1500) , low control but strong single target CC, high single target with small collateral AoE damage!

a) We have a greatsword.
b) You could always roll a mesmer.

a) we dont, we have an elite
b) or not.

Revision to A

Our elite Fiery Great Sword is one of the most functional and useful elites in the game, and you can always pick up the second one. I almost never use the 25 charges fast enough before it fades due to 1 minute timer, so you pick up the second one once you get lower.

2 minutes of what is quite possibly the highest ranged damage in the game with a built in evade on a 5 second recharge is ridiculously good.

Elemental Forgemaster: The Maximum Potential Sustained DPS for Elementalist

TL:DR – highest possible damage you will see in game, in ideal conditions, of any profession Damage Amplification stacking, with the best or near best melee weapon in the game (conjure lightning) resulting in the highest damage if certain conditions can be met with your group composition.

Link to full build is here

Well fun fact, I’ve learned that if my crit chance could be a bit more stable (and if i had remebered to eat curry for crit chance and damage) that I could sustain 12k dps.

Here i hit for a 9.6 followed by a 17k… so that happened lol…

blutstein.2468:

would like to see a video with the build in action!

Ask and you shall receive!

http://youtu.be/Tpf2dT9roPs

Crossplay and I bumbled through CoF Path 1 thanks to a couple of random warriors who were a bit sloppy at best, but the boss fight on this run turned out quite nice to watch, so I uploaded it

We’re going to keep working at perfecting our builds’ synergy before we take it into harder content, but ideally his boon build alone could almost stack 25 might for the group with enough practice, so my extra blast finishers tossed in should easily round it out

Vennyhedgie.5369:

If you want to nitpick and boost your damage with sigils, you could also, if you want to spend your time in it, get an AC weapon skin and 2 sigils of the night. Equip them in an alternative set of weapons (double weapons, dagger scepter or focus, your call) and use them when you see the AC weapon is shining. That will mean the map is in nightime and therefore you’ll have a 20% damage increase.
If what the wiki says is true and you can’t stack permanent stat bonuses, you can still do this with just one weapon

That would be pretty darn beast mode and i DO have a ton of extra AC tokens lying about

Crossplay.2067:

If that’s not enough, I’m now salivating over theories that could easily make this symbiotic relationship godly. If the support is standing in an ice field and someone activates a blast finisher, will the triggered frost aura be transferred to the rest of the party? If it is, a party of 5 specialized elementalists could easily trivialize anything pve throws at them. Hell, they may be able to take on fortified forts by themselves and do it faster than a full zerg.

Dude we are sooo going to group if you are on NA servers!

I dont think someone ELSE triggering your frost fields will give your aura buffs, but if you trigger it you can.

Adding you as a friend in game, lets test it out!

For fun numbers:

6.6k dps if adjusting to account for damage without timewarp (added 5 seconds, for 23 seconds with 153.7k)

8.5k dps with Time Warp accounted (153.7k damage in a 18 second time frame)

This is without a few things:

I forgot my crit-food so my crits werent as high nor as reliable.

Our warrior forgot his Power boosting banner.

I didnt have maximum Might, Vulnerability, or all-boons, for absolute maximum damage.

Lastly, my accessories are not Ascended Beserker, and are in fact ascended celestial amulet and Cavalier with rubies in other slots (so i get more toughness but lose crit chance and a small amount of power).

I will be replacing these with ascended beserker eventually to see the absolute maximum damage potential.

Finally got around to editing a video of a fight that’s a “decent” display of the damage potential of the build. Although not perfectly optimized with 25 might stacks, 25 vulnerability, and full list of boons, this is quite a good display of an easy boss beat down.

Fortus.6175:

Swiftwynd.1685:

Fortus.6175:

Swiftwynd.1685:

Fortus.6175:

also, how the heck do you get 6k-7k with lighting?! I can never get past 1.5-2k with full zerker set(exotic) and all accesorys zerker (ascended and exotic) and 5 stacks of mights and a couple of vulnerability!

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/81706-ouch-my-everything-the-80-potential-amplified-damage-build-with-sustain-support-and-control/

Its a build focused on damage amplification.

Damage Increase effects are multiplicative, so they become stronger the more you mix together.

You mix Piercing Shards trait (20% while in Water Attunement, effects Conjured Weapons too!) Vital Strikes (10%) Ember’s Might (5%) Burning Rage (5%), Bolt to the Heart (20%) and Sup. Sigil of Force (5%) and Sup. Scholar Runes (10%) and Bountiful Power (2% per boon).

All of these combined with mostly berserker gear (i use cavalier’s for my accessories and the all-stats ascended amulet, with Ruby jewles slotted into the cavalier’s) results in some vicious damage.

For full damage, you need to be above 90% health, with vulnerability and burning on the foe from your allies, and you get 25 might from external sources. Never had a 25 vulnerability + 25 might spike damage set up yet but it would be vicious. Once foes go below 33% it increases even further thanks to bolt to the heart

Im well aware of all that and as matter of fact I do use all that, coupled with ascended gear and max stats armor/weapons, yet I have NEVER reached 6-7k of damage with lighting #1 so im calling shenanigans on it until proven otherwise. But of course, 25 might stacks and 25 vuln stacks it will hit ahrd, but i can guarantee you that even then it would not be optimal, because with that much damage added any profession would be almost insta destroying anything in its path…

Anyways, Staff needs help, no going around it, either fix it or give us an statement saying as to why not, so many cant be wrong, when staff is only good for WvW raids then you know you have done wrong somewhere….. and lack of suggestions isnt, because this forum is FULL of them (a couple of my own too)

25 Might Stacks is VERY common and painfully easy to maintain in coordinated groups and most PUG Arah / Fractal groups. 2 guardians, keeping up fire fields with your constant Blasts, or other various might-stacking options make this a VERY reasonable possibility.

I’ve never had the idea “25 might + 25 vulnerability” situation yet, but when that happens I’ll post the numbers.

But yea, 6 to 7k first hits and 12 to 13k third hits ARE a common thing for me in a decent Arah group!

EDIT:

OH I GET IT :O Did you think I meant lightning on the staff, not the lightning hammer?

Because those are Conjure Lightning’s autoattack damage, not staffs (which blows sadly even for a ranged weapon).

oh yah then sorry, but yeah, the hammer hurts, but once again, as a squishy, if you go into the front line melee, you will blow, and Im saying this because by having 25 might and 25 vuln stacks that means there is more than 5 people there, yu will blow faster than ou can say KABO-

Well, yes and no in Dungeons. Its one of those “once you get good enough, rarely should you ever get hit” kind of deals. I’m still not quite good enough, which is why i have a smidgen of toughness, but once I have fractals and arah completely down, I should be fine for full beserker in my accessories.

Really thrilled you guys are enjoying the build! It gets even better at level 40 when you unlock Conjurer trait in Fire to have 25 charges!

Certainly a fine option Zenith! I’m always toying around with that I want that last utility to be. Certainly some good merits to use Glyph of Power or Storms, as well as the Ice Bow being the obvious choice as you’ve stated. I generally start fights with Frozen Ground + Ice Spike then swap into the hammer, but going into ice bow for more chill vuln and the rain of pain before slapping out the hammer might also be a good idea.

Provost.6210:

Swiftwynd.1685:

Provost.6210:

That’s pretty impressive damage. When I run my berserker ele dungeon I can solo take down the elemental core at the end of p2 in COF. Just have all my allies help with coordinating Gaheron’s aggro and killing the acolytes, which I finish mine off by lava font + arcane wave for the might stack, then I just lay down Meteor Storm and #4 from Conjure Frost Bow. The core’s health drops faster than Lindsey Lohan’s skirt after a beer.

I’ll have to give this build a try. If I’m running p1 it would make things quicker.

Path 2 defending Magg, Lightning Hammer + staff’s CC and aoe + FGS = cleared waves, if the group is also contributing and pulling their weight.

I think you misunderstood me. I use lava font + arcane wave to finish off my acolyte so that I have might stacks when I drop meteor shower and bow #4 on the core. I don’t waste time running all the way down there to melee it.

As for defending Magg… pick-up groups are notorious for not being able to pull their weight. I usually have to CC the mobs, target fire the assassins, and run in pansy circles away from all the angry charr while half my party dies. I can kite and CC melee based champions until I whittle their health down to zero, but twenty or thirty charr I can’t take on myself.

Yea no joke, best we can do is hit 5 targets at a time with most skills, although Meteor Shower and the Fiery GS’s spin move hit far more with how their targeting works, and the cripple from the whirl on GS is ammmmaaazing, as is the Static Ring in Air staff / Conjure Lightning, Frozen Ground is good too

Stillwell.7308:

paleeshi.1924:

The problem with sticking to one attunement is preventing you to use a weapon set to its fullest potential. It’s not wrong, but it’s not very optimal and there has yet to be a good argument to WHY you only should use one attunement. Other than it’s an easier gameplay, I cannot come up with any real good argument.

I can make an argument. By constantly cycling attunements you are putting potentially useful skills on cooldown, not to mentioned the attunements themselves. There’s an argument in PVP situations for cycling attunements proactively to keep targets under control, but in a PVE situation the primary concern is going to be maintaining high DPS, which for most builds is going to involve keeping in fire attunement as much as possible.

This is crucial. If you DONT need to use a skill at a particular point in time, you want to have it, and the attuement it’s in, available. If you have already cycled through earth mindlessly tossing your skills around, and suddenly you need to Reflect, well you are SoL

Rather harsh, but I have run all three builds in explorable Arah and to a lesser extent in fractals (not high level as I’m not too interested in running them with my guildies yet). So havent going beyond level 15 in fractals on my ele yet.

Not to sound like an egotist, but I do have over 600 hours on my elementalist, and I mainly play with coordinated groups, PvE, or tourny PvP (which none of the listed builds were, are, or should be designed for!).

In WvW, the condition build is absolutely devistatingly effective, the Hotfoot build does result in the strongest Meteor Showers we can dish out, as well as our ranged burst potential, but the Lightning Hammer build is only good in small skirmishes, and even then only with at least one coordinated person with you (especially if you are running the dungeon pve version which does not supply its own burning or vulnerability, thus sees more than a 35% drop of in effectiveness if you dont adjust the traits).

So, honestly its not my builds, but there appropriate use in the proper content they were designed for, in the context of working with other people (gasp!!!) in a coordinated group environment. If you want your self-stacking 25 might Warrior builds, look else where (my Lightning Hammer leaves those soundly in the dust!).

Dub.1273:

With 30/30/0/10/0 i have:

5% to burning foes
10% attuned to fire
5% to burning foes again
(30% chance to cause burning on hit)
same air traits plus vuln&one of choice (20% to disabled foes)
10% while health is above 90% (mostlikely always)

So a total of 30% + ~5% through vuln and in quick fights (like silvermobs) extra 20% -> 55% in best case.
But only 35% in most situations.

So overall 20/25/0/25/0 would turn out with some slightly better results, but not a difference of 4k on AA’s.

As i said, whatever it is, it just didn’t work for me.

Sorry if i didnt say it earlier, but the 8k + 8k + 13k hits are in a group setting with 25 might stacks, if i didnt make that clear earlier! That could explain a lot of the discrepancy.

Dub.1273:

I want the elementalist to be a viable replacement for a warrior in dungeons. That can ne achieved by a good melee autoattack chain with some damage and probably an extra evade.
Therefore +1 for the idea.

While it does lack the evade, the lighnting hammer already fits the bill for the “best auto-attack chain” for dps in the entire game, and honestly its probably the best for its utility effects too. Blast finisher + aoe blind + 5 target (!!) limit on third hit AND the best dps?

Sure, you do have to deal with the limitations of the charges, but its a small price to pay for having the best damage in the game :/

Maybe I should just start shutting up about this thing before it gets nerfed >.<

My ranger gets very close to 100% crit chance in full berserker exotics + ascended amulet + oil + curry + Spotter trait, and if a warrior is in the group I’m pretty sure I’m 100% with Fury on.

We get Fury very easily from our Elite, Warhorn, and weapon swapping, and with a party memeber suppling it (Ele, another Ranger, or Warrior elite banner) then we’re golden.

The question remains if this IS higher consistent dps or not though, where as Scholar Runes are probably just “better” in general though since they have the health requirement.

Build 1: Krakatoa: Earth-Staff 3 “Eruption” Bleed Stack Condition Build

Simply put, you sit in Earth attunement, enjoying the free toughness, while constantly providing Blast finishers and stacking Bleeding on up to 5 foes in a generous AoE, dropping Glyph of Storms: Earth to Blind grouped foes, and maybe switching out your Conjure Frost bow and using its third and fourth skills to aoe Chill and AoE damage and Bleed your foes for a significant amount.

Additionally, only while you have your bow out you can use Signet of Fire (you use this WHILE using the frost bow to get an additional 20% condition duration in order to hit 100% duration, which is still maintained even when you unequip the frostbow!.)

This gives you a strong up time on Chill, a permanent Burn single target, and 25 Bleed stack or nearly maintaining potential on up to 5 targets, while able to Immobilize and Cripple, and reflect projectiles at self. Though I havent used this in Fractals, this is likely one of our safest and most reliable fractal builds I could imagine, possibly swapping out staff for Focus when projectile defense is super important.

Importantly, this build still has plenty of POWER, but no crit or crit damage, so its ideal for demolishing STRUCTURES that cannot be crit but still take increased damage from power. This is the only time you should swap to fire to benefit from 10% damage bonus while in Fire, drop meteor shower + ice bow’s 4 skill to demolish anything that is immune to conditions.

Air is useless outside of swiftness or for some minor CC as you fly through it dropping Static Field or Gust while moving back into Earth. Water is useful for condition removal, Chill from Frozen Ground, and Ice Spike Vulnerability stacking if that would help your team more during that moment if you cant get back into earth yet.

Build 2: Ouch My Everything: Conjured Lightning Hammer maximum potential DPS Build for Coordinated Dungeon Groups

Just going to link this forum post for this one, but ironically the (until someone proves me otherwise) highest potential dps build in the entire game is an elementalist sitting in water attunement in melee range with a conjured weapon. Weird, isn’t it? Really throws it into the faces of the “conjures suck” and “elementalists do no damage” and “never sit in one attunement” crowd

Build 3: Hotfoot – Ranged Staff Raw DPS Build

30/30/0/10/0 taking VI, VII, and XI traits in fire, VI, VII, and XII in Air (last one being optional completely ), and Vital Strikes. Same rune and armor build as the lightning hammer build listed above, with more capability to go full berserker with no toughness in accessories due to range.

I haven’t made a formal build for this but this is what I ran in dungeons for a long while before creating Ouch My Everything. Its a simple concept of taking 30 points in Fire, taking the 33% extended duration on Fire Fields, and spamming Lava Font + Fireball for an easy to sustain 4 to 8k dps from range without any or few might stacks.

You basically sit in fire attunement and use Arcane utilities on cooldown, only deviating from it when you absolutely need the control skills or healing from water attunement if the heal from Ether Renewal isnt sufficient to top you off.

Knowing how to use Burning Retreat as a pro-dodge for free is crucial to making this build work, as its such a good free dodge on low recharge, the rest is simply taking advantage of stationary targets with Lava Font to reach maximum damage potential.

For maximum efficiency, NEVER interrupt a mid-cast Fireball to use Flame Burst or Lava Font, but time it for in between. Cast meteor even on single targets, using arcane power at this time to maximize MS’s damage potential. Jury is out still on weather or not using Flame Burst to keep some burning going actually improves damage over lobbing a fireball, otherwise always maintain lava font at all times, even if it causes you to wait 1 or 2 seconds before casting meteor shower.

I hope you guys who like playing single-elements for what ever themed reason enjoy these builds. There are other builds that work well for single attunements, but I think this is a good start to a potential compilation if people can contribute their own builds.

There seems to be a bias on this forum that all elementalists in every build should “swap attunements frequently or you are bad.”

I’m making this post to inform people that, in fact, there are at least a minimum of three Elementalist builds that I personally switch between that are increadibly effective, in fact they are among our most potent non-support builds for PvE / WvW.

To start off, yes, swapping attunements at the proper time for the proper purpose is exceptionally important and unique to our class, but the key is all in the timing and what goal you are currently trying to achieve.

That is the point many players seem to not quite focus on when discussing builds. While a Staff elementalists, for example, has a load of control options, you do not need them all blown at once and not all fights require them, and very often it is simply better for your team for you to keep tossing out the damage in Fire or maintaining Weakness and your Bleed stacks in Earth (if condition build).

In fact, as a condition build Staff elementalist, unless you are fighting structures, you should never be in Fire attunement unless you need either multi-target Burning, or a free Evade with Burning Retreat (I’ve used this a lot when my Endurance has run out, swap fire and Burning Retreat prododge!).

In dagger dagger specifically, there are plenty of offensive benefits for swapping attunents to gain access to your bigger recharge skills on the separate attunements, but this is not really as true of the Staff or Scepter or Focus. For the other weapons, attunement swapping should be surgical, with purpose, to access specific control/support/defensive utilities.

With all that being said, here are three build ideas that work exceptionally well spending well over 80% of the time in a single attunement.

(see post bellow)

Dirame.8521:

The perfect Lightning hammer build; Give it to a Warrior.

I kid. :P

Actually, to a Mesmer or Ranger. A Mesmer with 3 phantasm out, with a Lightning hammer, is the highest potential damage in the entire game bar-none.

Warriors only get a very mild damage increase with the hammer over their Axe, moreso over their Greatsword too, but warriors actually have quite poor Damage Amplification traits, so a warrior will never approach the damage capabilities of an elementalist, which is ironic given everyone’s notion of warrior damage potential.

Rune of the Ranger is very powerful for the potential of reaching 100% crit chance, AT WHICH POINT crit damage DOES become nearly a raw damage increase.

The problem is that crit damage is added to the 150% base increase. So 100% crit damage means that crits will effectively be 2.5 base damage.

The nice thing is reaching 100% crit gives you amazingly reliable damage out put, and immunity to the damage halving potential of Weakness AND the “grazing” blows against foes that are level 81+. So, there is plenty of positive value for getting crit chance and damage very high over raw power, but power effects everything, including things that cant be crit at all, so it too has its benefits.

emikochan.8504:

True about conjures, though they do have their uses if you think of them as just a bunch of utilities rather than an actual weapon. In pve I always use the lightning hammer for the aoe stun, blast finishers/aoe blind and leap. Though I’m a bunkery healy spec so it does more damage than any of my attunements too :p

and Conjure Lightning is the highest dps weapon in the entire game, so, yea know, it does have that going for it too :P

Fortus.6175:

Swiftwynd.1685:

Fortus.6175:

also, how the heck do you get 6k-7k with lighting?! I can never get past 1.5-2k with full zerker set(exotic) and all accesorys zerker (ascended and exotic) and 5 stacks of mights and a couple of vulnerability!

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/81706-ouch-my-everything-the-80-potential-amplified-damage-build-with-sustain-support-and-control/

Its a build focused on damage amplification.

Damage Increase effects are multiplicative, so they become stronger the more you mix together.

You mix Piercing Shards trait (20% while in Water Attunement, effects Conjured Weapons too!) Vital Strikes (10%) Ember’s Might (5%) Burning Rage (5%), Bolt to the Heart (20%) and Sup. Sigil of Force (5%) and Sup. Scholar Runes (10%) and Bountiful Power (2% per boon).

All of these combined with mostly berserker gear (i use cavalier’s for my accessories and the all-stats ascended amulet, with Ruby jewles slotted into the cavalier’s) results in some vicious damage.

For full damage, you need to be above 90% health, with vulnerability and burning on the foe from your allies, and you get 25 might from external sources. Never had a 25 vulnerability + 25 might spike damage set up yet but it would be vicious. Once foes go below 33% it increases even further thanks to bolt to the heart

Im well aware of all that and as matter of fact I do use all that, coupled with ascended gear and max stats armor/weapons, yet I have NEVER reached 6-7k of damage with lighting #1 so im calling shenanigans on it until proven otherwise. But of course, 25 might stacks and 25 vuln stacks it will hit ahrd, but i can guarantee you that even then it would not be optimal, because with that much damage added any profession would be almost insta destroying anything in its path…

Anyways, Staff needs help, no going around it, either fix it or give us an statement saying as to why not, so many cant be wrong, when staff is only good for WvW raids then you know you have done wrong somewhere….. and lack of suggestions isnt, because this forum is FULL of them (a couple of my own too)

25 Might Stacks is VERY common and painfully easy to maintain in coordinated groups and most PUG Arah / Fractal groups. 2 guardians, keeping up fire fields with your constant Blasts, or other various might-stacking options make this a VERY reasonable possibility.

I’ve never had the idea “25 might + 25 vulnerability” situation yet, but when that happens I’ll post the numbers.

But yea, 6 to 7k first hits and 12 to 13k third hits ARE a common thing for me in a decent Arah group!

EDIT:

OH I GET IT :O Did you think I meant lightning on the staff, not the lightning hammer?

Because those are Conjure Lightning’s autoattack damage, not staffs (which blows sadly even for a ranged weapon).

Additionally, nothing is wrong about blowing your “big skills” pre-hammer during a fight then slipping into the hammer’s damage rotation. Its a bit more work preping your Attunement cooldowns before a fight (ie start in Fire, make sure not to be in water when a fight engages so you arent accedentally locked out of it for 15 seconds), which can greatly add to your utility and overall damage.

Casting Meteor Shower + Flame Burst + Waterswap + Ice Spike + Frozen Ground + Hammertimeagogo = a LOT of damage.

Dub.1273:

No, i’m not using traits or even spend skillpoints.

Jokes aside: always using berserker equip with scholar runes, 30/30/0/10/0 focusing on damage (sometimes for bosses 30/20/0/0/20 for vigor). Im somehow dealing more damage with staff autoattacks than with lightning hammer.

The most important thing is to be IN water attunement while wielding the hammer, AND to have Vulnerability on the foe, AND to be over 90% health, and have burning on it if you can.

A quick Flame Burst > swap water > Frozen Ground > Ice Spike > Conjure Hammer and melee combo will give a very accurate idea of the damage potential of the build, though you are missing the group Might, Fury, and Vulnerability stacking potential boosts

Provost.6210:

That’s pretty impressive damage. When I run my berserker ele dungeon I can solo take down the elemental core at the end of p2 in COF. Just have all my allies help with coordinating Gaheron’s aggro and killing the acolytes, which I finish mine off by lava font + arcane wave for the might stack, then I just lay down Meteor Storm and #4 from Conjure Frost Bow. The core’s health drops faster than Lindsey Lohan’s skirt after a beer.

I’ll have to give this build a try. If I’m running p1 it would make things quicker.

It works excellently in Path 1 and 2, though you wouldn’t melee the crystal in p2 just meteor-shower and icebow 4 and Signet of Stroms: Air and Conjure Lightning’s 4 if really frisky and want to one-shot it.

Path 1 though, the first bosses, if not taken down super rapidly, will actually rack up some decent damage on you if you arent careful. I often have to break out my FGS if my group mate’s damage isnt up to par with my own, otherwise we would kill it fast enough to not have to bother.

Path 2 defending Magg, Lightning Hammer + staff’s CC and aoe + FGS = cleared waves, if the group is also contributing and pulling their weight.

Sabull, thats absolutely what I would run, or only 20 in water, if it was the normal “self sustained” version.

You really need 25 in Air IF you are trying to make a wvw/pvp/solo version of my build, since you want reliable sources of Vulnerability while hammer-smashing.

Alternatively, and something I’m really thinking of trying on my own, is using scepter+focus as my weapon set so that I can place a Vulnerability on crit sigil along side the 5% damage sigil. This would allow the same vulnerability application without needing the air trait, or to stack with the air trait just to squeek in some more group damage.

Scepter + Focus might be the ideal “secondary” weapon set if you dont need staff’s control set up. Focus provides the much needed “projectile defense” in Air and Invulnerability and condition removal in earth, and some chill and stun from water for fun. Fire could produce a decently long fire field to get some extra might when you first use the hammer (swapping to water of course).

Additionally, Shatter Stone is one of the longest vulnerabilities in the game, and would be easy to toss in right as a fight begins before swapping to hammer.

Going to go pick up a beserker scepter and give that a go today

Anyone have a chance to try out the build in some dungeons groups yet? Love to get more feedback on it!

For the Air autoattack, it would look rather thematically cool if:

1 Conduct Lightning

First portion of animation sword is held skyward, a bolt hits the blade, then the elementalist throws it forward. I could be a long animation wind up, with a really fast, 1200 range single target projectile that deals very good damage. Easy to dodge if you’re timing against the ele, but hard to avoid if not watching. If hit, a second bolt will ground target the area, forcing the player/creature hit to take additional damage if they remained stationary.

I’d chance the second skill in Air to:

2 Gale Blades

Project 5 whirling blades of air that charge forward to your foe with slight homing capability (ala Necro staff’s 1 skill) that Cripple and Damage your foe on impact.

3 Tempest

Elementalist charges similar to Meteor Storm with the blade raised high, but instead unleashes a violent thundercloud in the area that strikes random, single foes that remain inside. Against an isolated, single target it would be fantastic single target damage potential (like Smite is for guardian scepter) but it would be suboptimal to our AOE options against multi targets, but the sword wouldnt be an aoe weapon at all, so thats fine.

This would make the Air – Sword play style one of forcing your opponent to stay mobile while forcing them to dodge, or in PvE, strategically used over other options if a foe can be forced to remain stationary a lot. The Cripple stacking from the second skill, synergises with the “delayed” aoe second hit of the first skill and massive potential spike damage of the third skill.

Earth Signet and Focus’s Gale would work well with this kit to insure immobility for foes in pvp.

Sadly Obsidian Focus isnt that good because “channeled” skills do not exist on staff, but its great for the “breath” dagger channels and Churning Earth’s channel.

You are entirely WRONG about conjures not being “good enough” to warrant the 10 charges trait. The Lightning Hammer allows the elementalist to achieve the highest potential sustained dps in the game while its equipped with the right group and trait build.

Frost bow is devistatingly powerful for condition builds as well as for demolishing structures. If you ran AC explorable over 100 times like I have, you learn to LOVE its potential to obliterate burrows.

Fiery Greatsword is one of THE best mobility elites in the entire game for WvW, and deals fantastic ranged damage compared to many other options, while maintaining mobility and absolutely amazing aoe potential.

The Earth Shield REALLY needs some help on its absolutely worthless autoattack, and a few skills could be better, but its amazing for defense in absolute survival situations.

The Fiery Axe I’m still trying to find a reasonable “use” for at this point.

On crit is a terrible mechanic for a utility skill activation, as not all builds rely on critical hits. A smaller chance but simply on-hit would be preferable so that they have universal benefit.

If people are using your hammer in a coordinated group, and they aren’t mesmers or rangers who actually could benefit from its increased sustained DPS, then just ask them to kindly stop doing so. If they refuse, the build isn’t at fault, but you might want to trade in for better allies

25 Charges are more than enough for most fights, and you DO have the FGS if range is needed or if someone else is using your spare hammer.

A berserker gear mesmer or ranger using your hammer will vastly increase the groups damage potential, but if other berserker professions are using your hammer, their damage will improve but not by nearly as much.

As such, its fine to be “selfish” in those scenarios and please ask that they not use your hammer. If no one uses your hammer, the down time on it is insanely short, IF you have been able to spam auto-attack during the entire duration. Even then, if you pre-cast it a little before a fight, you rarely run up against the reuse timer. I estimate that I’m not using a hammer around 5 to 10% of the time when I’m in random groups, less so when in coordinated groups.

Chokolata.1870:

I always thought it would be better if spirits were Wisp like with them govering like little balls around you , and not being killable .

While I agree, dont you dare suggest that we lose our dolphin and whale friends while underwater!!

In all seriousness though, they would probably be better suited as little balls of different colored energy that could be “sent” to a location like in my suggestion, like the ranger’s way of manipulating their natural environment to suite their needs.

Rules of How to Play:

General Idea of Stats

Real-World Performance

Conclusion

That’s pretty much the focus of the build. You become a damage focal point that can out damage any other profession (besides a good mesmer who can maintain their phantasms WHILE also using your lightning hammer). You are squishy, so you have to play well, especially since you are rewarded for keeping your health high with Vital Strikes and Scholar runes.

This is not a PvP build, nor really a WvW build with its mobility lacking. There is a more self-sufficient option for general open world if you prefer that in which you proc your own burning and vulnerability, but you lose out on potential damage from other traits if others can provide this for you.

What IS this build good for? Its the absolute highest dps dungeon build in GW2, bar-none, in a coordinated group situation, but its not for the faint of heart

We’ve had a lot of vigorous debate about this build on Guru, so I figured we’d open it up to a larger audience to test it and provide feedback on any improvements or tweaks that could be made.

Hope you enjoy the build and that the read wasn’t too tedious, have a good day everyone!

Hey all, I’ve had this build up on GW2 Guru’s PvE Elementalist section (I’m Kitsune on there) for a while, and we’ve been improving it as we go. I currently do NOT have full ascended accessories, so that could skew the stats a bit higher, and in my current set up I’m not personally optimized as strongly as I could be, but despite that I’ve yet to find a build that comes close to the potential, and realized, damage my build can achieve.

If you want the full details of the build, it can be found here .

For now I’ll go over the highlights and answer any questions anyone has.

The Build and the Rational

Damage Amplification

You want to maintain your multiplicative stacking damage increases as often as possible, which are the following:

NOTE: to the best of my knowledge and testing, damage increases scale in a multiplicative fashion, and even if they do not, I do not believe any other profession can achieve the same level of damage amplification even if it is merely cumulative.

These stipulations are maintained with what easily accessible in a normal group, with someone keeping vulnerability and burning on a foe, while the rest completely depends on your ability to avoid taking damage and dipping bellow 90% health for an extended period of time.