Guild Wars 2

Deneb.2697:

I really see no use for Dragon’s tooth. Idea: make Dragon’s tooth “floating” on the head of the target until it land. If the target move, Dt will follow the target. Evade with the right timing to take no damage…

I like this idea, atm its basically used to bait a dodge (with chill / cripple) or to deny area.

For the moment, try:
S/F, Air kd → DT → Earth Signet → Phoenix.

Solo.9027:

You can’t argue that there didn’t need to be a change, EVERYONE was using the exact same build and now just casually browsing these boards there are several viable new options.

You assumption is incorrect. I know 2 eles who weren’t using D/D build.

Myself and my friend whom I pvp with. The Troll eles people usually call us.

I’m only lvl 70 (don’t do much pve, infact I have made it to lvl 65 by doing no zones over level 30 lol, those friends and their alts) and I still have 2 dagger, a staff, a sceptre and a focus in my bag.

You may see some good fire eles, may being the key word. They are the ones that build for support and not auto attacks.

I currently use the focus in my sPvP build. Mainly for messing with rangers. But yes it needs more love.

kostbabis.8791:

Dunkelbunt.1064:

TGSlasher.1458:

Fresh air is amazing.
Step 1, auto attack in air and use 2 and 3 quickly
Step 2, Change to something else while the auto attack is still happening
Step 3, Change back to air (since air auto critted under a different attunement)
Step 4, Continue air barrage.

What all of you conveniently seem to be forgetting is that fresh air is bugged at the moment and does not have the intended five second internal cooldown. Once it’s fixed it will be next to worthless in my opinion or at least not worthy of a grandmaster trait. More like first or second tier.

Ok..ive heard that from a million people..Cant you kittening read the tooltip or what?
The internal cooldown is supposed to start when you refresh air by scoring a critical hit..NOT WHEN YOU LEAVE AIR

This, if you start in air you can go back to air within milliseconds. Even if the cd was there. Then it would be on cd for 5 sec.

Dunkelbunt.1064:

TGSlasher.1458:

Fresh air is amazing.
Step 1, auto attack in air and use 2 and 3 quickly
Step 2, Change to something else while the auto attack is still happening
Step 3, Change back to air (since air auto critted under a different attunement)
Step 4, Continue air barrage.

What all of you conveniently seem to be forgetting is that fresh air is bugged at the moment and does not have the intended five second internal cooldown. Once it’s fixed it will be next to worthless in my opinion or at least not worthy of a grandmaster trait. More like first or second tier.

I’m not forgetting. I currently play as if it were more or less 5 seconds as is. If you start in air, you still can do what I listed above.

Usually its:
Step 1, auto attack in air and use 2 and 3 quickly
Step 2, Change to something else while the auto attack is still happening
Step 3, Change back to air (since air auto critted under a different attunement)
Step 4, Focus KD
Step 5, Change to Fire
Step 6, Dragons tooth, Sig of Earth, Flamewall (when not bugged anymore), Pheonix + Fire Aura
Step 7, Then back to air and watch that thief go invisible and come back with full hp

When getting back to air number 2 is off cd, so I’ve taken at least 4 seconds since changing.

Indeed and the only reason I didn’t find them in the first place was due to the fact that they were labeled Shatter Stone. Because no one cares for the poor focus

Vigorous scepter only regenerates endurance 25% faster. It is faster, but not by much.

I use it at start of fight, due to S/F. Like to keep my foes opening form hitting me, from the on its tactical. Although I do have earth 3 and sig of air for extra blinds.

I totalled my friends thief build just by blinding him to death lol (lies, but the blinds did prevent me from taking damage for quite along time).

I do know about using skills when required and not spamming, air 3 on opening is my exception.

Fresh air is amazing.
Step 1, auto attack in air and use 2 and 3 quickly
Step 2, Change to something else while the auto attack is still happening
Step 3, Change back to air (since air auto critted under a different attunement)
Step 4, Continue air barrage.

To add to this, any skill action taken after trying to case Focus 4 Fire Flamewall will interrupt it. This includes changing attunement and instant cast skills.

Vennyhedgie.5369:

That’s why you use focus offhand. Focus ele is underrated

^This

However it won’t help much against a stealth theif. S/F has no really useful spamable skills to fight off invisible thieves. Dagger main hand you can spam Fire Water and Air and have a chance at hitting, even earth if you are lucky. Scepter auto attack doesn’t connect unless you have a target, super lame but that’s is the case. That leaves Dragons Tooth, Phoenix, Flamewall when it doesn’t bug and Water 2, everything else is useless to damage invisible thieves.

I added my side of the bug under your post. Hopefully it will get some attention and so will some of the other focus skills

To addon from Talindra:
Flamewall cannot have a skill queued after it, it will go on interrupt cd
Also you cannot change attunement when using Flamewall as this will also interrupt the skill.

Eles can stealth underwater, that total balances out our damage → jk lol.

I find fighting underwater a pain and try to avoid it where possible.
However, 1 zerker ele and 1 cleric ele both in whirlpool is redonculous (until it ends, then its a gg feast).

Indeed, I use it for burst builds to mitigate some damage while not having to give up utility slots. Basically Imob (sig of earth) dragons tooth phoenix (would be DT FW P but flamewall is bugged) air for burst.

/D adds get away, stun aura and 2 extra kds, but the big hitters take to long / bug out to often.

The focus skill 4 in fire is Flamewall, I skill that I usually don’t cast as I need to be in air / earth more and drop by fire for dragons tooth, phoenix and flame shield. However, with this new patch, fire wall is a fire field which gives fury (30 in fire trait).

Playing around with the fire wall I noticed an annoying bug.
Flamewall all cannot have a skill queued after it, it will go on interrupt cd
Also you cannot change attunement when using Flamewall as it will interrupt the skill

So basically you have to use the skill and do nothing else at all or it will interrupt. This is a huge annoyance as I am trying to go Dragons Tooth -> Flamewall -> Phoenix but queuing Phoenix interrupts the Flamewall. Also using Flamewall and swapping to air to get off 2 and 3 instant casts interrupts the skill.

Anyone else noticed this behaviour, anyone else even use a focus?

Edit: Corrected Fire Wall to Flamewall and corrected bug info (changing attunement interrupts flamewall, not unusable as the wording previously indicated)

I would be nice if Fiery Greatsword could be cast while moving. I mean, the others can , and this on is an Elite.

I have been trying a 30 30 0 0 10 build in sPvP (hot join). My god it is amazing. You die almost instantly, but anyone that comes near you is also downed (by lava tomb) and your damage output with +33% makes a downed ele sorta usefull. 2k auto attack, 2k/s lava tomb and 2k/s downed 3.

I’ve been using S/F. This makes those pesky rangers almost kill themselves while giving me defences to live long enough to down non rangers.

Playstyle:
This build is brutal against ranged foes at the start and end of engagements. Offering Swirling winds as projectile destroy for your buddies and reflect for yourself. The build has 3 blinds, 2 are instant and can be used for downing foes with interrupt or defensively. While the build has be built a lot around conditions, I prefer to take zerkers to hit hard at the start. It is also one of the better amulets I have tested. This build is still usefull against melee (losts of blinds, knockdown and invulnerable) but has a lot more defences against ranged foes.

I did mention a good use for earth signet, here it is. Starting in air, use you Focus 5 for a knockdown, then switch to fire, start your dragons tooth. There is not enough kd time for dragons tooth to land, but you do have a sig of earth. As soon as you dragon tooth cast is finished, fire your earth sig then phoenix. This isn’t the best spike damage in the game but will put your foe on the defensive, using his heal. This is where the Sigil Of Superior doom comes into play (one of the only ways for eles to get poison).

The build requires more attention and skill level then some others and as with most ele builds the rewards don’t match the effort put in.

Before the patch (I haven’t been able to play since) you could achieve almost 100% protection 100% swiftness and 100 % fury if you played your auras at the correct time. However in battle, nothing ever works out as planned.

As to invulnerable and condition removal, this is covered under the focus skills, earth 4 (better then Cleansing Fire) and Earth 5 (better then mist form, although no stun break).

There is not much might stacking or fields at all with this build. The only class I have trouble fighting (pre patch) are mesmers and stealth abusing thieves as the S/F has very few skills that can hit invisible targets.

As to runes, I’m not to sure yet. Looking at Grenth, Afflicted, Forge, Earth, Nightmare, Lyssa or scholar for opening damage. Not sure on this. Afflicted with the new lava tomb might stack nicely against melee.

-Intro-
So I’ve played my elementalist for quite some time. I’ve tried the 0 0 10 30 30 OP Staff build (a friend still runs this), I’ve tried the 0 0 10 30 30 D/D build (the same as the 0 0 10 30 30 staff minus blasting staff). I switched out to 0 10 0 30 30, finally falling in love with the 0 15 0 25 30 d/d build (using the build as defense and zerker to dish out the hurt).

My final resting place on builds though has to be my Selfish Aura Build. All of my PvP builds to date have had Lightning Flash, Cleansing Fire (or Armour of Earth for tPvP) and Frost Bow (yes, even in tPvP). This S/F build however does not have a Frost Bow (I kind of miss the 5 sec stun). It uses the flame aura and the buffs gained from that aura, as well as some skilful gameplay.
-End Intro-

Build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArdhMmcbtx3wjEABFHgw4BIiQiowDlCzA-ToAg0CnI+R9j7HzPyfs/M6YuA

Fire:
Fire’s Embrace: A key piece of the build, this trait turns our 4 signets into Fire Auras when activated
Ember’s Might: A filler trait, as there isn’t anything too interesting in the adept tier. Lava tomb since the patch could also be good here. I mention combining it with Afflicted Runes as well, haven’t tried this personally

Air:
Zephyrs Boon: Another important piece of the build, this grants swiftness and fury when activating an aura (which our signets do).

Earth:
Signet Mastery: The quicker the signets come off cd the sooner we can use then for more buff
Elemental Shielding: Gain protection when using an aura, or in our case signet.
Written in Stone: Signet Passives last after activated. I enjoy this trait, it keeps healing on skill use, condition removal over 10 and +25% speed (needed for the lack of movement on S/F).

Water:
Nothing, you could trade 10 in arcane for II Shard of Ice (arcane and sig cause vulnerability on activation)

Arcane:
There are only 10 points left. I throw these into arcane for 10% faster recharge on attunements, you know the trait: Elemental Attunement. This also increases the duration of protection.

Utilities:
Signet of Restoration: Heal when using skill (nerfed in pvp) adds an extra signet to our build for more buffs and has a quicker CD then GoEH. Ether Heal would be nice for the condition removal, but it takes away from the buffs.

Signet of Air: This is now a stun breaker, which means my build now has a stunbreaker finally. Signet of Air also gives 25% movement speed and an instant cast blind. The movement speed is a requirement in a S/F build. The instant cast blind can also be to finish off downed players with interrupts.

Signet of Water: This skill is a passive condition removal, unreliable unfortunately. It also offers up some chill on the enemies. I have been thinking of switching this to Fire signet with the changes, however this build lacks a lot of condition damage, so more testing is required (fire signet has a shorter cd, air signets cd got increased by 10 sec, so fire would give access to the faster auras as air sig used to).

Signet of Earth: The icing on the cake. I am slowly falling in love with this signet. Its cd is long (24 sec traited) but what it does is messy, more on this later. Immobilize and Toughness passive.

Elite: Your choice, I like the FGS when using zerkers (I like this at all time actually, the movement gained out of it.

It couldn’t do that, might be op, 30 extra condition damage.

I’d say lack of full testing.

I think Zephyr’s Focus has always been bugged with sceptre earth 1.

I got a stun break on sig of air, that was nice, but the 30 second cd without a reduction on cd on another signet breaks my build a little. Has a stun break now though lol, that’s a plus I guess. Gonna be hard to get used to a 30 second blind instead of a 20 second blind.

I had a Mesmer tell me off for fighting a 2v1 against him (in a 5v5 game). Later I found him and got a 1v1 vs him, almost beat him and pop, there’s the card up his sleave, the Phantams, toying with me the whole time he was. Finally I lost, I got killed during my dodge dam lag lol.

Mesmers are the only class I dread fighting in general, much more in a 1v1.

I play ele and I run my own build (S/F selfish aura), the amout of people who have told me off for playing a D/D OP ele when playing the S/F build (because S/F must look like d/d, all those similar skills lol) is unbelievable.

Which F1? If its the Sword’s channel it probably will, just like any ele channel skill. Axe F1 I’m not to sure on. The others I don’t play around with too much lol.

Game lags most of the time from Australia, interrupts and dodges usually need to be predicted and you can get downed when a foe is on the cliff you were on previously (even though you are now on the ground below

My problem with stealth is that not all attacks can be used against stealthed foes.

For example, warrior can swing widely or d/d ele can use his auto attacks. But a S/F ele (what I play) has very few skills that can hit a stealthed thief, or pressure him out of refuge. The s/d auto attacks don’t work without a target and the aoes are on high c/d or are lamesauce.

I’m sure there are other classes / setups in the same boat.

I would like fire wall to become something similar to the rangers Torch aoe skill. Atm I use it to put up a wall and get the burning combo finisher from earth auto, or to be a horrible person and drop it on downed foes.

Fire aura could be cool to reduce incoming damage or reflect incoming melee damage.
Lore: Surround yourself with a flaming aura, the heat from which burns foes getting to close.
Burning as in flinching (reduced damage) or as in burning (damage and burn). Or even, attacks landing on a fire aura result in burning and a short duration of weakness.

I used Cleansing Fire a lot. Almost as much as Lightning Flash. I almost never take Armour of Earth (the cd is horrid) and never ever take mist form (it makes me not count towards point cap in spvp.

GoEP I’m not sure why (if those patch nots are true) it would be here. Sig of air I do like this change, as long as this skill’s cd isn’t increased to much (and if it is I hope for a shorter cd on another skill).

I hate stealth because I use S/F on my ele. There are about 3 skills you can use against a stealthed thief with that weapon set, the rest don’t work without a target.

I hate that the thief can stack stealth in Shadow Refuge. Stealth was announced as a short period, 15 seconds of doing whatever you like is not a short period and as a S/F ele who has phoenix, flame wall and water 2 (ice shards?) as the only skills to attack the field it is a bit much.

The field should be, whilst inside, remain in stealth unless doing not stealthly stuff and heal, when leaving, get 3 sec stealth (if that) instead of this 11 seconds of bs stealth.

I would like fire aura to do damage when someone hits you.

Remember, there is a trait that gives fire aura on signets, when paired with a focus, you can have almost permanent fire aura (giving away all other utilities in the process). This means it can’t be to strong.

I would also like Fire Aura to buff power or grant might for its duration. As is the other auras are much better, but then again there is only 1 cast-able source of those auras (at one time)

+ 1. I play ele S/F with signets, most of the time the signets (other then air) will go on interrupt cd when someone goes through me or even when starting the cast facing the wrong way and turning to engage.

Is it possible to get a trait for the focus? And maybe some silly skills looked at?

The skills I’m refering too are Comet and Fire Aura
Comet is an interrupt but you have to predict the enemies attacks as its not instant cast.
Fire Aura has a very long cd for something not as good as any of the other ele 5 skills (except maybe comet)

Comet could do with a buff, my suggestions are as follows:
Make comet instant cast but reduce the damage – or – Remove the interrupt and replace with more damage or something else (e.g. make it similar to trident but it would have a longer time to heal).

Fire Aura could use a cool down reduction of 5-10 sec.

Finally the focus could use an arcane Trait.
Suggestions welcome, mine are:
Gain Might / Swiftness / Regen / Protection when swapping attunement when using the Focus.
-or-
Focus gives Pow / Prec / Vit/ Tough when in the corresponding attunement
-or-
Focus ranged skills increased to 1200
-or-
Wind bourn dagger applies to focus as well (built into the wind bourn skill)
-or-
Focus skills recharge 10-20% faster, does not stack with other recharge skills (earth / fire / air / water, but they would still work with main hand).

Feel free to add you ideas.
FYI I use the focus on spvp and low ranked tourneys, with this “Build Diversity” patch, I’m hoping for something nice for the focus

I suppose the other question would be if this death match is elimination (defeat the other team, 1 life) or continual till a set of points. If it is the first then the game will be who can burst down that 1 guy the most. If the latter then the game will be 5 man zerg feast.

I hated rock solid when it was a Grand Master. Still don’t like it that much. Could be powerful in a group situation, but 2 seconds ever 9 seconds it a bit to long to waist 10 points on. However, with the potential nerf to water 25 (a previously very good investment) people will now have to decide on this or condition cleans on regen. Remember, cleansing fire may not be a stun break anymore and the new conditions mention look like they will punish d/d eles if not removed.

PvE PvP or WvW?

PVP: Unfortunately this is the sad truth of the elementalist. People will stop by and share their high damage builds, but at the end of the day they are glass cannon builds (by glass I do of course mean paper). You can have some fun with the d/d tanky build but your damage output is not as high as other games mage classes.

You may have some luck with a Sceptre Dagger build focusing more on damage, but if you are hit it will hurt. These builds tend to take a bit more skill and knowledge of positioning.

Fear not though, there is a patch sometime in the coming week that aims to open up more doors for the elementalist. Seeing some of the builds that come out of the new traits setup could be quite interesting, especially the new 30 point Air trait.

PVE: Don’t do much high end pve or any wvw.

Everyone uses the build craft website, but I can’t read that for the life of me lol. Much prefer the gw2skills. My suggestion would be to wait a few days to see what the new patch brings. Might find something you like and save some gold on a respec.

Mainly I call it a selfish aura build because it doesn’t include aura share. But you are right to include the cool downs of the skills. It appears as though our prayers may have been answered, looks like Air signet may be getting stun break. I never really was bothered by stuns in the past as with the /F you get reflect (in case a pesky ranger has a go) and obsidian flesh (instant invulnerable, better then mist form though no stun break).

The S/F Self Aura (if that is a better name for you) build I run, 20 10 30 0 10 is one that I have had some experience with in Hot Join and with in lower ranked tPvP (nothing high end, I don’t play near enough for that). I have been able to beat D/D dapheonix players with zerkers (from memory) and thieves with shamans, guardians with knights. I switch and swap ammys for duels / practice against certain builds. Unfortunately I am yet to find an ammy to be on ground with all of the classes and builds at the same time.

My build uses S/F. I would like to use d/f but the lack of movement skills I find limiting the build. Sceptre allows you to engage your foes at range and the focus offers some very nice defensives for lack of cantrips. Currently earth 4 (almost better then cleansing fire, personally I think it is * see below for more on this) earth 5 better then mist for (no stun break), Air 4? swirling winds, good for downing foes and stopping ranged engagements, giving you the starting hand.

As to your D/D build, it opens doors for you to drop one signet (I run with 4 signets) and gain the 2 auras from the weapons. As to using cleansing fire, if you have that for your stun break, you may want to think about switching it as I believe it will be losing it’s stun break come next patch (though its cd should be shorter). *This is where the sceptre’s earth 4 will become better, remove 3 conditions and reflect projectiles. Since you already have air signet (I’m pretty sure that will be the stun break) unless you need the condition removal you now have a free space for another signet. However, you will have to test this in pvp to see if you need the condition removal or not as the new conditions look nasty (revamped weakness and torment)

The other door opened by 30 earth is that you will be able to use the heal signet as an aura generator and still get health from its passive. Not to mention the 1 condition per 10 and near swiftness speed when not using swiftness (very useful for focus). As the majority of damage from my build is stacking up bleeds and burning (from fire aura), earth 30 adds some nice damage. Unfortunately I cant spam attunements as much and don’t get EA.

Finally, the 20% signet c/d with fire sig and air sig (hoping they don’t increase this cd) allow me to maintain 100% protection uptime (including earth swap) when all sigs (including heal) are timed well. This means the sigs are usually on cd at all times during battle.

A final change I would like to see would be for Elemental Surge to work on signets and arcane (as most related traits work on both of these).

My build from memory: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArdhMmcbsx2wjEABFCgw4BIiQiowDlCzA-ToAAzCpI+S9l7LzXyvsfNWY2B

Gear my be incorrect

I think the reason is that we have to stare at the back of our character for up to hours at a time, and I’d much rather a females curves then some guys but.

D/D doesn’t really shine to higher levels (unless you are playing PvP in the Heart of the Mists where you are lvl 80). And once you master the skills you will love it. Going from D/D to my usual S/F and sometimes Staff builds just feel slow in comparison. Infact, the only other class whose speed I have enjoyed since is the warriors axe / x and the necros axe / focus at lower levels. I wanted to level Flame Decimator (my char flame engineer) but the pace of combat doesn’t feel as good.

pvp, it used to wreck the doors on foefire, now that’s the FGS’s job (since the nerf). I use this weapon is spvp and for destroying groups of mobs in pve. For latest example, the holo grams (before the invun patch) me and a friend could kill them before they spawned with a frost bow each.

Frost bow 5, very good in pvp if you can land it, good against boss mobs in pve if you can remove their buff before use.

Kodiak.3281:

This way you can still share the weapon as needed but you can also double up and use both as well.

While that could be good for PvE and mainly on the FGS, is it necessary? You lose out on so much when using the conjure weapons auto attack (because the other skills are so slow to recharge).

An improvement I would like to see is the conjure weapon replacing the attunement of its elements. Summoning a frost bow would put you in water (with no on change effects if water was previously on CD, but on change effects when not on cd) and would put the last attunement on cd. Switching to fire would leave the frost bow as your water spec but allow you to now use your normal fire skills. The drop bundle would be available in any spec and would drop the equipped weapon.

The only weapon to not follow this would be the FGS.

Other dependancies would be: If equipping a Frost Bow (for example) when water is on cd, then dropping it (to get a free water attunement) all the water skills would be on cd until the attunement would have come of cd, same with passive effects such as soothing mists.

This would allow you to carry a frost bow and earth shield and not lose the skills when needed to go into fire or air. But still forcing you to give up the bow when needing water healing, or the shield when wanting KD (from dagger 4). These skills would still last 60 sec or current usage and summoning one of these weapons would drop one at target location. Skill damages may need to be tweaked.

EDIT:
Forgot to mention, the FGS would be cool if it changed on attunement swap. So an elemental GS. The EGS would be the same in fire spec, but element related in the other attunements. If the provided buffs changed per attunement that would be cool. Another idea could be a 20 point trait Water / Air / Earth trait, conjoured weapons gain +10 charges and the FGS becomes a W/A/E GS (charges and elemental changes do not stack with other traits). That would allow you to get some extra use out of conjures but not have to sacrifice so many points down the fire line.

I suppose the EGS would move people away from the other elements. But it is an elite and we are elementalists, not fire elementalists.

If these are the final patch notes, I dislike the removal of stun break from cleansing fire. Cleansing fire is the cantrip I run when only taking 1 cantrip.

I don’t know why the designed our class to almost require all attunements. At most it should require 2.

My reasoning:
The other classes (engineer exception) have 2 weapons sets, but they can work fine with just 1. My warrior has a rifle and a axe / shield, but I don’t switch to rifle unless the enemy is running away, even then I usually take the time to heal up and prepare for round 2. So if our 4 attunes equivalent to 2 weapons, then 2 sets should be the same power as 1 weapon, and 2 other sets a secondary weapon. Instead we dance through all 4 elements.

Not to mention that the 0.75 cast means someone can LOS you (by walking through you) before you can get it off lol.

@ Razor,
With 20 10 30 0 10 yes, if you cast the auras at the right times. The 10 in arcane you can put elsewhere if you wish, I just like the attune swap to be faster.

Fire: Whatever + Fires Embrace
Air: Zephyr’s Boon
Earth: Signet Mastery + Elemental Shielding + Written in stone
Water:
Arcane:
10 points to spare, I usually go 10 arcane for Elemental Attunement

And I run S/F. Personally I like this build, but it is not as fun/fast as the D/D and doesn’t have as much condition removal (1 auto per 10 sec + 3 on focus earth 4 [25 sec cd] still better then my other builds)

I like it for event tagging.

Benji.9203:

I agree on making signets or other utilities stunbreaks but with the way signet actives and some of the passives (cough air cough water) are now….

cantrip stunbreak > signet stunbreak

Even if signets were made into stunbreaks no one would take them because t the actives are lackluster and redundant. (Not to mention that they can’t compare to the defense a cantrip brings)

Eles already have huge access to burning no need for a fire signet that is single target.

Scepter lightning #3 is an instant single target blind on a 10 sec cooldown + Evasive arcana dodge roll in air for aoe blind every 10 sec + The ele surge trait with arcane spells in air for instant blinds aoe and single target that auto crits no need for air signet.

Good access to chill + ele surge trait etc. no need for a water signet that is single target.

Immobilize with dagger #3 earth + ele surge trait etc no need for an earth signet that is single target.

Could you imagine how awesome it would be to be able to choose an aura you apply based on the situation regardless of wep set. Now imagine this new function being applied with traits like zephyrs boon, elemental shielding, and powerful auras. That to me screams versatility.

Day dreams about a 0/10/10/30/20 build with perma group fury, protection, swiftness with insta group auras of all flavors for any situation.

So go, 20 10 30 0 10. Selfish Aura with perma fury, protection, swiftness, and almost insta auras.

As to huge access to burning so fire is useless, true

As to Good access to chill + ele surge trait, true (good to see someone else using this) but you can never have too much chill.

As to immobilize with dagger 3 making earth useless, true for a bit, see the next one

As to Sceptre air 3 blind and EA blind, air is useless. But above, dagger earth 3 makes earth useless, can’t have a sceptre and dagger main at the same time. There for, an imob with a sceptre would be good (see dragons tooth and phoenix) and a 2nd blind with dagger could be good (assuming d/d EA build here).

I have run the Selfish aura build (with S/F) before and I quite enjoy it. With the right gear set you can even beat mediocre D/D daphoenix build players though it will take a lot of time to achieve.

The signets can find a place in your build, but there are better options (as you said cantrips). The only traits that signets get is the 20 Fire, fire auram cool down reduction, signets effect stay when activated, 25% endurance regain on use and apply vunerability. Where as cantrips can get vigor, regen, might and c/d reduction, not to mention the 30 water trait that makes the regen remove a condition and the trait spread is very thin. Though with a heavy investment you can get swiftness, fury and protection from your signets (with the 20 fire, signets get auras trait)

Signet buffs:
Fire Aura | Fury, Swiftness, Protection (requires fire aura)
20 Fire + 10 air + 10 earth = 40 investment
20 Fire + 10 air + 20 earth = 50 investment get 20% cd on signets
20 Fire + 10 air + 30 earth = 60 investment get 20% cd on signets and their passive stay when activated.
These don’t mention the 20 arcane or 10 water traits either.

The other 10 points for fire is waisted as there is no real good trait to get here, best bet is 5% (pfft why not 10%?) more damage to burning targets. Not to mention the lack of stun breaks in the signets (so you have to drop a signet to get a stun break)

Cantrip buffs
Stun Break, Might, Vigor, Regen | Condtion Removal (requires regen)
Default +10 Fire + 10 Water + 30 water = 40 with the might (not many use this
30 without the might (most people use this, and can get 20% cd on cantrips). In this 1 tree you have almost all of the cantrip related traits (except might). And with your cantrips you have 3 stun breaks, no need to sacrifice any skills.

I believe there needs to be more synergy between the other utilities and traits. Cantrips can be almost fully buffed in 20 trait points within the same line, a line that everyone uses to gain enough survivability to not just die instantly, an additional 10 in fire will secure all the traits for cantrips. The signets require 30 points in earth + 20 in fire + 20 in arcane + 10 in water (leaving 10 fire and 10 arcane free) to gain all of the benefits of signets. But then once you have signets that grant auras, its almost silly to not spec into the auras as well, using all your trait points and not allowing you to take either 20 arcane or 10 air or 10 water.

Just let me know any traits I may have missed.

Neko, dunno if you read that he was a staff ele.
You can swap the suggested Renewing Stamina for Blasting Staff.

SIgnet of restoration is good for a fast attacking weapons set, which the staff is not. Ether Renewal is good if you don’t get interrupted and a good way to keep up condition cleanse when not using cantrips with water 30 trait. Glyph of Elemental Harmony is probably the strongest heal, offering buffs as well. Water is regen, air is swiftness and earth is protection. Fire is probably the most useless buff to get from the skill, the others have their places (water / earth = in combat, air = exploration).

Not sure what the 10 air is for. You can also get 10 earth and get the auto armour of earth for a bit more defence (though its cool down is quite long).

I would also suggest a cantrip in their. Depending upon your water traits, cleansing fire can be good. Condition removal and stun break with a shorter cd then the others. Lightning flash can get you out of sticky situations. Just a though to possibly replace arcane blast (the projectile one).

Good to see a build that has had some thought go into it, instead of just copying someone else’s build.

Sunflowers.1729:

Not a lot of guys play Elementalist

Source: Notice how a lot of the Eles are female (and human)?

GIRL = Guy In Real Life

Meanwhile back at the Female Human Elementalist
Sophea of Elements

Played a fair bit of ele during the BWE. Truthfully I played more Ranger. My first toon was a Warrior, to try and preserve the name Slasher, but alas, even a few hours before pre-release it was taken. Second was Sophea Sladorian (female char ranger) and third was Sophea of Elements, to show off a build to my friend who was running the invulnerable staff build (before d/d was found). Now my Ele is my highest lvl PVE toon and most played pvp toon, even though it was made for pvp lol.