Guild Wars 2

If you have 30points in arcane then you have 30% boon duration? 60% maybe

Then you can get an adtional 30% in pve or 10% in pvp from 2x Superior Water Runes and 2x Superior Monk runs. An adtional again 10% from 2x Major Water Runes (only in pve).

Swapping attunements like a made dog will net you your perm swiftness. You also get a large amount from Lightning Aura 12-20sec I think (not in game atm and haven’t been on for much in a while).

so if we go Arcane = 30%, runes = 40% pve 20% pvp then you get 70% pve 50% pvp then that 5 seconds is 8ish in pve and 7ish in pvp. Time to recharge air spec is 9 sec + however long you stay in it. So when you addon the swiftness from your 3 auras (lighting, frosty and firey shield from fire 4+ earth 3’s second effect leap finisher) you get a large amount of swiftness.

Hope this rambling help lol.

There is a nice S/D build that my friend runs, I’ve forgoten it but it takes advantage of the 16 sec burn that the flame axe dishes out, and alot of the endurence regen traits as well as sigil of energy.

Try dagger dagger 0 15 0 25 30 (usual dapheonix’s with 5 in air and 5 less in water) with bezerkers amulet. 2x water 2x monk 2x fire? (20% might duration). This will add some more cannon but keep you alive if you play it right.

If you can live without EA try 0 20 0 30 20 with bolt to the heart in air and the above gear setup.

Water and Arcane are just too good to not put some points into. Fire and Air have some bad traits (10% damage in fire for example).

If you go full glass cannon this skill is best used against downed foes to prevent them from quickly getting healed. Thats about it other then no targeting / camera targeting it and hoping it goes where you want it.

Indeed, like GVG :p. But seriously. I want a guild hall, on an island, with trebuchets

I play D/D because the combat is fast and fun. Knowing what to use in what situation and chosing the wrong skills from time to time leading to my defeat only to get back up and learn from my mistakes. I run a bunker build, I’ve also run glass cannon S/D (more fun back in beta before the damage nerfs) I don’t fancy the staff. I follow peoples guides, try thier builds out, see what works for me and what fails then I incorperate other changes that I find to be better, or that I like.

For example there are people that live and breathe Dapheonix’s build, they must have it, MY PRECIOUS. What is your new armour, what are you doing now, why are my stats not exactly the same as yours? Why can’t I think for myself?

Me, I run a variation of Dapheonix’s build that isn’t too far from the build I had previously (0 0 10 30 30). The 10 in Air was an amazing boost. I do muchly prefer 0 15 0 25 30 since the EA got its blast finisher back. Before that 10 15 0 25 20 where cantrips grant might and my cantrips are used offensively. None of this panzy mist form or clerics amulet, Knights or Zerkers all the way (sometimes soldiers but mainly against thieves).

I loved my 30 30 10 0 0 S/D build way back when but now it is so weak, feels like paper with not much of a cannon.

Yea, watch the Arcane Power buff when you use skills, it drains faster on some skills then others and generall I haven’t noticed it to last longer then 2 or 3 hits can’t say I’ve ever seen it make 5

So, I’ve been away for a while, giving another game a chop. Logged into GW2 the other night for some pvp with a friend. D/D bunker (geared toward damage, zerkers) and a S/D condition/tank spec. We decimated 3 other foes in a 2v3, 2 necros and a D/D bunker ele. Then continued to beat some other D/D eles, either in 1v1 or 2v2.

Why? How? They are OP thats impossible isn’t it?
NO! They were predictable.
Note: This was in hotjoin for you info, we weren’t in the mood for Tournies. Tourney players are much more skilled and would have whoop our buts or put up a strong fight.

Seems as though most of the guys we versed were using the build to win with the standard rotations. There is much more to a build then the build itself and following the same rotations dayin dayout will make you to predictable. Being Tricky is much better then being Predictable. If you can feint an attack, trick your opponent into a dodge where you can land the same attack as his dodge ends you get the damage and he waists his dodge. Same is for using unconventional rotations, where you know an opponent will dodge your attack if you use the normal rotation so you throw a curve ball and land the attack you would have missed.

The main rotation I see is the good old Ride the Lighting into Updraft followed by x and Burning Speed into Fire grab.

Ride the Lighting into Updraft:
Whats a good mixup? Lighting Flash into updraft, everyone is expecting the RTL when you are at a long range, let them come a little closer then use your Lightning flash to get up close and personal and put them on thier but. Try also a trick attack here. Use your Ride the Lightning at your foe, if he dodges that is great. You can now hold off your updraft and then use it when his dodge is over.

Burning Speed into Fire Grab:
If you buring speed at me I’m going to be ready to dodge your fire grab. We all know your using Evasive Arcana. What does EA in fire do agian? Burning? So dodge, switch to fire before the end then Fire Grab.

Do you have cleansing fire? I do, I take it over Mist Form to output more damage and less invun running away like a pansy man. I do run away when needed but not while invun. How about you switch to fire then Fire Grab straight away. But they’re not burning you will say. Did I just mention Cleansing Fire, use it offensively, start Fire Grab, then pop Cleansing Fire just before it hits. This is also useful if your enemy removed your fire condition. You can quickly use cleansing fire to put that condition back on them allowing your Fire Grab to hit for full damage.

Cleansing fire can also be used to obtain a trick attack. Using your Burning Speed or Drakes Breath will prompt your opponent to get ready to dodge, if he does dodge premptively then you can get a free Fire Grab + Cleansing Fire hit.

What’s your Elite?:
What Elite do you have? Do you remember to use it? I’ve fought a few eles recently that used no elite at all. My elite is the Fiery GreatSword of great justice. Lighting flash with this baby will rock your world (if you have some nice might stacked up, or have zerkers like me). You want to use FGS 3 then teleport back to where you started as you pass your foe. This takes a lot of practice as your character and camera move quite quickly. But if you pull this off you will hit for 2x more damage with the whirl. If you deciede to take the Elemental Elite don’t forget to use it.
_
There are some other things that I do, such as Lightning Flash + Frost Bow 5 to stun my foe from a much larger range, carry the frost bow in general and the FGS of great justice. Don’t forget with the summoned weapons that you can still get the heal from changing to water as well as the EA skills and fury on changing element (even if it doesn’t change your summoned skills).

I know alot of you are reluctant to use your cantrips offensively but think about it, you lose your condition removal but still gain the vigor and regen. So if your target isn’t using heavy conditions why not hold 1 for stuns / imob and use the other 2 in an offensive matter. I personally roll with 2 cantrips, cleansing fire and lightning flash my other skill is Frost Bow unless in a tourney, then frost bow is situational and normally replaced with Amour of Earth.

If anyone else would like to add thier Tricks or Unconventional openers please feel free to.

Seriously I don’t know why we have all this hate toward D/D eles when S/D eles are much better bunkers. We built this way to try and nullify some of the rediculous burst there was and now that a 1 shot pony combo doesn’t work on us we’re op. There are builds availible that tear D/Ds apart, boon striping, and don’t just say that only certain classes get it, everyone can get the 60% on crit to remove a boon every 10 sec (not ideal but still if you look to other avenus then pure damage you might find something of worth).

Elementalist is the most fun class I’ve played in any game to date. Zipping around the battlefield, a mage tank, an Avatar.

We got a huge damage nerf in the betas, take away my tankiness and give me back my burst and I will be happy. The next day, Glass cannon Eles are op, they can 1 shot me Q.O

Battle has an internal undisplayed cd of around 9 sec as well. Also if you have 2 weapon swap sigils only 1 will work as NO sigil that has an active effect will work while another is on cd. So you can’t stack on Crit as well as on Swap (unless you get the low cd ones and they luckily don’t go on cd as you swap)

Serp.3264:

Chancer.3716:

Lingering attunements – You will see where this +6 second attunement bonus will come in handy once I explain the major traits. To be brief +6 seconds of boon duration (Especially considering Regeneration and protection) is godly for a minor trait.

This is incorrect. Lingering attunements has nothing to do with your boons. This is purely your attunement. If you look at your character’s attunement buff, trying swapping between elements. Notice how the previous element remains for a few seconds. This is Lingering Attunements. It allows things like “10% more damage in Air” traits to be effective 6 seconds longer, even though you switched to fire.

Your description is flawed, I do believe that this trait is bugged and the only parts of the other attunements that ‘linger’ are infact the 5 point minors. If the other attunement traits lingered that would be amazing

@Asmodal
How do you go with arcane power? Everytime I use it, it bugs out. Wanted to use it on Churning Earth but it consumes all 5 uses and only imobolizes (arcane 30) on the final hit. I assume you use this mainly for auto attacks as alot of the other skills just fully waist the skill

I haven’t played ranger in a while but how bouts: Power line 25 minor: your pet retaints x% of your power.

Precision line 25 minor: you pert retains x% of your Prec

etc. etc.

that way your pet gets what you spec for, so going damage would damage boost your pet.

Pets would usually miss their attacks. Drakes were almost unusable as the enemy would have moved before they even started drawing breath and then fire in the wrong direction completely missing the target and getting thier F2 on CD

People could dodge your arrows by strafing.

[you guild] Hyena Ally … wonder which is real …. :P just fooling bro

Staff from mine an a friends experience is a long range weapon that almost forces you into short range anyway, especailly when bunkering/supporting a point in pvp with the staff.

Oni.5429:

Arenanet said on SOTG that they were toying with the idea of making guild lord death=instant win. Kind of like gvg!

New meta, 5 burst theif, teleport through wall insti kill lord, game over.

How often do you visit a Ecommerce site … Daily Monthly … why no never option, or yearly at least?

I want to remove / make optional the ranger mechanic because I play GW1 as a Ranger/Mesmer and never had a pet (except Pre-Searing start area). I was my favorite, barrage ranger, echo trap ranger mmmmm….. donuts.

On topic, if you see or know there are going to be ranger traps in the area dodge through them, this will set them off and you will take no damage. Keep presure on the ranger and try to kill off his pet (if its not a tanky pet)

Here is an even more fun one, you can test it with the training NPCs in the mists. Down someone then use any skill (not movement) right beside them …. you will start the finish animation straight after the skill :s

Vulcus Madbreach – 8/10. Madbreach, the hardest member of the Breach warband. Lost points on backstory :p

Slasher Sladorian – Male Warrior and Sophea Sladorian Female Ranger.

Two cubs had become lost as they were exploring too far from the citadel. They had turned feral, feasting on critters and smaller deer.

A human couple, explorers from Beetlerun found the 2 cubs and took them in. The human were the Sladorian family and named the cubs such. Slasher got his name from his furiously tearing apart his prey with his claws. Sophea, more peacefull then her sibling receive a more human name.

The two cubs grew and learned of their race and their long forgoten home, the Black Citadel. They trecked back home, but as they reached the citadel they were rejected, scum, human scum. It took many years and the rise of Ritlock before they were accepted into the citadal once more.

This has happened to me, you only recieve the correct chest for the level though, the higher one is not given to you

@skinnyb
Dapheonix uses corruption because he wants to have balanced stats, a bit in everything so you do damage from all sources.

If you want to boost raw power go for Bloodlust, if you want to do more damage from those conditions but less from raw power go for Corruption

I’m sorry but I’m going to criticize your build.

Synergy is what a good build needs.

I’m going to start at this trait: Fire: IV Spell Slinger
I did use this without EA after the nerf before the blast finisher was added back.
This trait doesn’t synergise will with your skills, you only have 1 Cantrip so this seems like a waist of points

Air: III Quick Glyphs, I guess your after this for the 5 sec cd on your heal, while that is a good reduction is taking this trait worth it since you only have the 2 glyphs and no other glyph traits?

Next, your surivability is low, you mentioned that, think of putting 5 more points into water, this will give you a 1k for you and allies when you swap to water.

Evasive Arcana, everyone takes this it seems, you have some arcane skills I see and you have another trait to make them CD faster. Look at the other 30 point trait, it is a condition when using your arcane skills, to be precise earth is a 1 sec imob. Very helpfull

If you keep EA remeber that alot of enemies will use imob to try and keep you from healing with EA water. Maybe a condition removal, like Water: V? If you moved those 10 points out of fire you could get this with the 15 point heal included.

I see arcane skills and I see Zephers Boon, perhaps you could trade that Air III for Air VII Arcane Lightning, 3% more crit damage when using 1 of those arcane skills.

Just some ideas to toss about, you will need to test any changes you make though

@Intigo, how does S/D go with buffs in a bunker spec? (normally play glass cannon when going S/D). If you can keep 5 up then you don’t really beed the extra 5 in air for 10% air damage, that can go back into water for 10% all the time damage.

0 15 0 25 30 is a fun build, I was running 10 15 0 25 20 when the EA nerf hit. The lightning bolt boosts your damage and helps to remove Agies / single block before doing your updraft.

D/D eles they must be OP!!!!. I play D/D ele and get torn apart by my friends S/D build (by torn apart I mean it is a close fight, but he wins and can full heal straight after).

It has been said many times, time your immobolizes, they destroy D/D eles. A well timed imob will stop a 1k heal and if he is in water at the time then changes before the dodge then he will have blown all his healing capability for 9-10 seconds except the healing signet.

Poison is also effective. Watch out for the condition removal though, agian learning the animations, knowing what skills he has cast and how long they will be gone for is your best bet.

I’ll suggest heading to Dapheonix’s D/D guide, creating an ele then trying that build out for yourself. Get used to the CDs and learn the rotations that most people do (read my part on unconventional attacks but not many people stray from the usual rotation). This will help you. GW2 PvP in a 1on1 isn’t about playing your character, its about out playing your oppenent and knowing what they are capable of and what they might do next is a great help.

D/D and S/D ele player here (mainly D/D).
As a D/D ele I change attunements a lot, I also play mainly PvP where changing attunements keeps you alive. In PvE I change attunements to mix things up, auto attacking in air just gets boring when the rest of air is on cd.

Changing attunements is up to the player, if they spec for damage in the fire and air trees then they should be in the fire or air tree. When they need a heal then they can swap out for that heal.

Also if you don’t have any points in Arcane (people say this is a must, I disagree) then changing attunements isn’t going to be as effective and its going to put you on a long CD, burning those skills would be a waist.

Try them both?
You can start a character, do the tutorial then jump into the mists for a free lvl 80 with everything unlocked.

After this you can look through the traits and skills for both and see if you prefer to be a Trickster or an Avatar

Dagger Dagger with frost bow and fiery greatsword, running bunker traits but with zerkers runes to dish out what I take.

Frostbow = wicked

Fiery greatsword = lost of damage when immobolized or chilled/crippled

My ele clicked for me in pvp in the Betas
My ele in pve clicked when I looked at the traits and started lvling the defensive ones, tried out all the weapons and got good synergy with the ones I liked. So around lvl 5 I knew I wanted to play daggers, and lvl 20ish I knew which traits I wanted (needed) first.

Just remember to buy some cheap but new gear every 5 lvls or so, if possible get the stats you would like.

@dapheonix
Have you tried using the energy sigil instead of the might one?
You will lose you soul and 3 might stack per 9, but gain an extra dodge every 9.

Infact my friend runs a build with energy, adventures runes and the ether heal. Every heal is a dodge, +2 dodges, perm vigor and another dodge every 9 sec weapon swap.

This adds a truck tonne of survivability. Even adding just the energy sigil adds a lot of survivability. Now you can go, Ring of Fire switch to earth, dodge, earthquake, churning earth then swap to water or air for another dodge, with a third up your sleeve.

It takes a lot of concentration to pull off the 3 dodge in a row, and this sigil promotes being on 0-50% endurance most of the time. With the vigor doubling the regen of dodge you can get a lot of dodges in.

As you have to remove the might stacking sigil you do unfortunately lose a lot of might, but damage for life is usually the trade off.

I have been thinking of using this in conjunction with Zerkers or Knights. As the dodges will make up for the defense and the Zerkers/Knights will make up for the damage loss.

I thought Aidan was the best ranger

I don’t know if you know about the massive damage nerf or not. But undo that and I’ll give up my d/d for sure and go back to avatar scepter.

I’m having problems with the forums today. And the internet, lost 2 long posts

Recap of what I lost.
1: Your on your own for this one, don’t have too much to do with the staff

2: Healing staff combo:
Eruption -> water -> Healing Rain over Eruption -> Water Dodge (end of dodge in the field, no blast finisher but the EA heal) with Arcane Wave during.

3: Field priorities is something that may need to be mentioned / researched more.
When using a blast finisher in a field, your air field will take precedence over your water field, not sure if this happens 100% of the time or if it is random / placement etc. But basically if you need to heal your friends try not to over lap you fields too much.

That sums up what I needed to say, and most of my knowledge of staff eles lol, know a lot more about S/D (beta 1 spike builds) and D/D (the “op” builds pfft).

I love running the D/D build with Zerkers or Knights for extra damage, everyone’s like: your build is op, you can hit me for 5-7k (with fire grab while burning and lots of might) and I can’t hurt you because you are d/d. Try fighting me buddy, you’ll learn that with great power comes next to 0 survivability and with your first 2k damage (zerkers) or 5-6 (knights) I basically stop fighting to even have a chance to survive.

If you hit me for 6k and I don’t have protection and its still looks like less damage then the others, that would be knights, you may now proceed to kill me easily due to no toughness and very little healing power.

Rage face, just had a good idea in edit and clicked post reply instead of edit noob moment. Not writing all that out again.

This is what we need from a 30 point arcane trait.
1st skill: something that will support whichever trait line your in, such as EA.
2nd skill: The same as 5 point arcane except that all traits from your previous line are carried over for 5 seconds. That means, when I switch to lightning from fire I can also get ever skill cast for 5 sec is fire and lighting (so the 1 might per fire skill 30pointer) 10%extra damage in fire (and the one in air) and anything else I have in fire.

If I change to water the I now have air+water traits for 5 sec.

Fixed a bug with lightning whip: Removed the unintentional hit chance from this ability, it now only misses and is used for visual effect

On another note I would like to see the: removed unintentional blast finishers from EA, logic applied to guardian wall skills: Removed unintentional knockdown off guardian wall skills. Because being trapped in kd at the epicenter of one of those walls it BS. So is getting kd from a “you shall not pass wall”

If you read dapheonix’s guide there is a disscussion on monk/water runes and also on healing power and its effectiveness in a toughness build.

Basically the more toughness you have the better healing power becomes.

20% boon duration + 60% from arcane is very good, it also leaves you 2 runes spare so you can put 2xFire? (the ones with 20% might duration and power) to boost your might stacks duration. If you are in spvp then the Divinitys are good. PVT are also good in pve, throw in some cleric (healing power) jems and what not and it will boost your healing.

E.G. if you are using the signet heal, that is about 200hp per attack. Chuck in the cleric amulet and jewel in spvp and its about 350. So every attack you do is 350hp healed + regen (boosted by the duration runes) + soothing mists (if in water) is adds up to a fair amount of heal per second. Of course you could do what I do and not play mainstream. Try out the same build with ViPoPr (knights in spvp). Large health pool, lots of nasti damage, bugger all defense in comparison to say soldiers or clerics, and yet still get called OP. I think its because I hit like a car(would say truck but I’m not blinded by the low damage we eles can do) and the general mindset is that, “Its a dreaded d/d, it must have tonnes of defenses, it just hit me for over 3k with its biggest hitting move OP OP OP nerf@!!!!##@)+!”

There is a recipe for throwing in your mats from the chests to make die in the forge of great mystics, or so I believe

Downed only, its only good if you hit it as the guy is about to go down and hope he does go down. Its cast time is stupid and bugged. Its listed as shorter on the wiki I believe.

Sig of air for the blind? (I think air is blind, been a while lol) use it to blind a downed guy using his kd, kb, fear or etc. However, this is instant and can be used during other skills, I would not trust it as I have seen it interrupt your skills as well, not sure if bug. Very frustrating.

I think this is what is actually going on in there mind:
“Bunker eles are very strong”
Actually means
There are too many bunker eles so we will nerf them so that they go and play something else.

The very same happened to bunker staffs, too many now they all play d/d.
After d/d we will all play s/d the super bunker builds that not many play.
Then they will nerf that till we are a mush of non existence.

I wish they would buff our damage if they are going to nerf our bunker-age, so we can compete with warrior and thief burst capabilities again.

@Anet, we play D/D (bunkers in general) because everything else gets destroyed by thieves backstab combo / unprepared 100 blades (although a lot less to 100 blades then invisible thieves). And our “damage” builds are so subpar that it’s not worth specking those points. Our class changes attunements a lot due to high cds on our skills and yet most of the damage booster traits are only available in that attunement, and don’t even carry over with 5 arcane minor. Make the arcane minor something else and make a 10 or 20 points in arcane (or even 15 or 25 minor): All traits carry over for 5 seconds, only 1 can carry over, when changing again you will have the previous traits and current (not 3 attunement sets of traits).

The only reason most of us play D/D is due to thieves one shoting us if we don’t. I play D/D because it is fun, I also mix it up alot, I use different stats all the time, I have even put on bezerkers in spvp to do that little more damage we can do but lose everything else and still get called OP ele by people who could then effectively 1 shot me. So kudos to the devs for taking away our damage in the first beta and then nerfing us more throughout our life span. Taking us from Super Magus status to god only know what we are now. Some d/d postulant avatar? (They’ve become postulants, novice novices if you will and therefore are under the protection of the church!)

Banzai.5681:

Wow thanks TGSlasher and daphoenix for all the great tips!

Its good to know as well that I’m not the only one that’s sailed over the edge of a drop for an electrifying finish. I’m still currently running a SD/SF heavy earth and fire condition build with a bit in water for some heals and vit but with gear so cheap while levelling I’m itching to give D/D a try again since I can now access Evasive Arcana. PVT gear isn’t quite as cheap as condition gear but its still very affordable for the lvl 60-70 range. Think I’ll give it a try over the weekend. Especially now I’m out of the nasty mine with all those really narrow walkways and dredge that like to chain stun you while their buddies shoot you with rifles.

Ele community has been great so far! Good for an old retired GW1 Ele like me.

No probs mate. I’m sure we’ve all gone off an edge, either when first unchecking auto target option or when the skill fails to target track properly. I got pretty used to it after my rangers sword main hand and the number of times I fell off the edge with that thing and the greatsword auto targeting things off cliffs when trying to move about with is. I’m 54ish, and using d/d. EA is not really needed at the lower levels although the dodge water heal is great and the dodge fire into flame grab is also nice. Water 15 or 25 ( the one with the heal ) that is very helpful. Think I currently have about 10 arcane, 20 water maybe 5 earth and the rest heading toward air.

Another great tip with this build. If you are using the signet heal and need to be healed but don’t want to use it smash auto attack in water. Even if you have no target, use the water auto attack, water because you get soothing mists, some regen when you change the other healing skills as the cd and water auto is pretty fast. Just don’t fire in the direction of mobs :p

@daphoenix
Nah not 80 yet, just overtook my previous highest lvl char (which is actually a Charr lol), LvL 54 now I think. Don’t need to be 80 to learn the class, though the higher lvls will start to challenge me according to my Staff ele friend.

Was lvling my Charr Ranger when the game came out but got enraged with my River Drakes lightning breath always failing to hit anything but the ground, leading me to die a lot. Want to try her out again.

I could probably answer all the non gear related questions from personal experience (although I’m 54 I have played my ele more then any other toon in the game, I just do way to much pvp). However I don’t have the time unfortunately, between work and other commitments. Usually try to keep an eye on this tread but can’t read through every thing. Also have been taking a break from GW2 to try out Planetside 2.

Most of what is in your guide I knew about or had tried before, the only thing I hadn’t seen was the use of pbaoe’s through walls/line of sight. I had done this with ranger traps accidentally but it never clicked as to be useable on my ele lol.

Grab a friend and jump into hot join foefire. Go to the big gate whip out the FGS and get your friend to grab the other, then open up on the door with it. It drops so quickly that its not funny. You want to use FGS 3 (the spin) at point blank in the door.

Another cool use for the FGS is when you are imob or chilled. The FGS 3 will hit someone close to you for all spins and do maximum damage, similar to how a burning speed into a corner works.

When fighting the Lord, if you have the frost bow with you and can predict his heal you can freeze him and try to dps him down before his heal goes off. This is hard to do with a bunker spec. If the gate was dropped and you still have your FGS off cd you can get some good damage out before the freeze ends. I haven’t tried this solo before mind you, once you drop the door everyone seems to run in (in hot join anyway).

I would suggest to first use FGS and either use the 5 skills and drop or drop straight away, fight him till he is almost at heal hp, then use Frost bow, Frost Bow 5 when you think he may heal, then drop the bow pick up the FGS and use it to burn him down. Remember to use the change attunement trick I talk about before each move for the 2 sec fury bonus. (Note: the FGS cast time is horrid and you will lose to much damage if you try to cast it after the frost bow 5, also try to drop the ground FGS where you will be luring the lord).

The best place to position the lord for this is in a corner if you can get him in one. Or to lure him to the ramp and try to teleport/ quickly move into the ramp corner as to increase your FGS 3 ability. If you do this then you defiantly want to attunement change just before the FGS 3 to apply maximum damage.

If you bring your friend with you remember to time 2x frost bow 5 to do 2x 4-5 sec freeze in a row. You want him to start his FB 5 1 second before the freeze ends.

Double freeze also work wonders vs PvP players. And single freeze is great against bosses and champs, however no-one ever cc’s them to remove the 5x immune buff

Final note. In tourney your skills are locked (unless they changed this, has been a couple of weeks since I’ve been on) So you will be stuck with the FGS if you chose it for foefire. You will not be able to get the elemental at all in this situation

I’m expecting somewhere under eles: Ride the lighting issue is now resloved
And the next 10 mins on the forum: Ride the lighting only goes straight forward, it doesn’t target track
Then: Fixed the tool tip of Ride the lighting to say that it sends you only forward 1200 units, it does not target track.

I’m hoping for some scepter and staff love, want to get away from these dagger dagger builds. Although so much fun to do full damage d/d build and playing with the enemy mindset to trick them into thinking you are an OP ele, then continue to rip from life’s flesh their soul. To the forum they will cry, OH D/D ele can do so much damage and heal so much and get protection and not die, when infact the reason I’m doing so much damage is because I sacrificed the other things they think we can do and they just think its the same build.

Elementalist with 60% chance on crit to remove boon? (no one uses this sigil, I don’t know why not). Also if you apply a shorter duration of stability it will replace your plague stability. How ever, your a necro so you probably only get that from traited death shroud.

If you think that is bad, come and play in Australia where you can get CC in the middle of your dodge animation due to the lag that Anet says doesn’t affect us. You have to predict roll 500ms – 1sec early or whatever may hit you will hit you.

I’m a D/D ele, I once fought a pre-made tourny group of 4 engineers and 1 gaurdian. I had no idea what was going on other then my face being in the dirt for most of the fight, a stupid amount of kb and imob turrets.

As I have stated many times before, you can take all of my buffs and defensive abilities but on that day I expect our BW1 50 ridiculous % damage nerf to be undone and you can deal with eles that can kill you at the same speed and ease as a thief.

I agree with both sides of the argument (finding a near full 5v5 server full of duelers is annoying and not having an option to duel is equally as annoying). Most of the 5v5s I join are duelers, usually its 1v1 or 2 lots of 1v1 and the others are spectating. After my 3rd attempt at getting into a 5v5 me and my friend just give up and end up dueling in the last server we got into. Then some random comes along and ganks me or him for the fun of it.

I want to test my spec specifically against a certain class or build and I can’t. To do that I have to either go into an empty server with a friend, or find that class and build in a random hot join game.

Sometimes I want to test my spec against 2 or 3 others in certain specs (e.g. 1 bunker with 1 roamer/spiker) and I can’t without doing the above. And usually if I’m hot joining its 1 v 8 not 1 v 2

4. Most skills are aoe, self explanatory here, your skills hit everything. I lied, its actually up to 5 targets and knowing how to get your skill to land on the 5 targets you want it to takes a little getting used to. This is helpful at getting an aoe chill/cripple on melee only when there are about 5 of them, allowing you to kite them while dealing with the ranged guys. Or how to dish out full damage to ranged guys whilst not wasting the 5 on the melee guys now successfully kited.

5. Fire field apply burning only when passed through. Don’t just stand thier pull / push those foes back and forth through those fields. If you earthquake and churning earth are on cd then popping a ring of fire and just standing in it is a waist of resources and time. Walk through the fire field then back in, or even pop it on your foe, walk out and as he crosses use updraft to knock him back though so as he gets up he’ll likely take another hit of burning.

6. Burning speed does maximum damage in a corner. Kite them mobs up, run to the edge of the corridor and use burning speed. The mobs will hopefully move into the fire field and take maximum burning damage (to tell if this the burning speed fire trail will be very short and thus stacked on top of itself). You can also setup the field and try to updraft the mobs into it but that would waist most of BS duration. When your in the fire field with the baddies you want to pop lightning shield so when they hit you they will be stunned. Now is a good time to use fire grab too (that would be BS in corner/at wall then fire grab then lightning shield).

Remember, Dapheonix’s guide is about mastering the elementalist, not beginning the elementalist. That experience you draw yourself, then you apply Dapheonix’s techniques to your knowledge of the class. Its not a single build or guide that will make you a good player, its learning the basics yourself and applying the knowledge / experience of your fellow elementalists to your knowledge base, allowing you to find what works well and to learn some other strategies along the way.

My dagger dagger has changed alot. Started with a build similar (prolly very much the same) as dapheonix’s Tanky elementalist build (0 0 10 30 30). It was actually a copy of my friends OP staff bunker build, got him into the game, gave him a few pointers of which traits I though would be good for a healing ele and 20 mins later he has an unkillable staff ele build (without EA). Then I showed him the ea blast finisher bug and well I’m sure you get the picture, super unkillable ele. So taking all the elements that made his build good I went with a S/D build for about 1 game then went to d/d. Haven’t turned back. A week or too later Dapheonix’s tanky build showed up then later this current guide. I saw that he took 10 out of earth and put it into air for swiftness and fury. That was the game changer for me, a large upkeep of fury would allow my to dish out more damage. Before that I was going mad swapping attunements before big hitters for the 2 sec of fury off 10 arcane (still do this with conjures)

@Banzai

Fighting in confined places is the most fun.
Remember a few things:

1. Kite melee mobs
2. Drop ranged asap
3. Don’t waist your dodges on blast finisher (when you get 30 arcane) or when unnecessary. If possible try to keep one.
4. Most of your skills are aoe to an extent
5. Fire fields apply a lot of damage to foes passing through them
6. Burning speed apply maximum damage when used at point blank in a corner

1. Kite melee mobs, this can be done in a corridor. Remember 3, don’t waist dodges as you can use these to kite / save your but. Run the melee mobs down the corridor then turn around and either burning speed through them or dodge through them to avoid damage then allow them to catch up and burning speed into ring of fire away from them so they will walk though the fire and take a lot of damage (the second method loses out on the blast at the end of BS as well as the ring of fire damage).

2. Drop ranged asap. If all the mobs are melee thats fine, kite them and PBAoE thier buts to Grenth. If there are ranged mixed in your gonna have a bad day. Step one, kite those melee mobs, remember water 3 and earth 2 (chill pbaoe and cripple aoe) which should hit 5 mobs. When you have a tight group of melees (don’t spend too much time doing this as the ranged will melt your but) use water 3 (some healing in this attunment first if necessary) or earth 2. This will slow the oncomming horde of melees and allow you some time for those ranged guys.

Dealing with ranged. To deal with these ranged guys is much easier with out the large numbers of death chasing you. Not mentioned previously but very helpful, line of sight your ranged foes together. Get behind a rock (not a dredge destroyable or they might shoot through it) or any other solid los blocker. This will force them to re-target you usually moving to a location where they can attack better and usually that position is close together (if there are multi ranged foes).

Now that we have grouped them and not spent to much health / time grouping those melee guys engage the ranged. Try to line up a burning speed so that the fire will go through the foe but the blast will still hit most of them. If 30 arcane try a fire dodge or a air dodge. A fire dodge will allow you to put up some damage with your fire grab. An air dodge will give you 1 shot of each foe hit freedom (aoe blind). Stand away from them (still in lightning flash range) and prime up a churning earth teleport at them. This will cripple those melee guys and the teleport will allow you to hit the ranged guys as it has a limit of 5 and we don’t want to waist it on the melees just yet (unless you have 5 or less targets ignore the above and hit all of them with the CE). Circle kite them using your other skills, mostly autos now and still keep the melee at bay with water 3 earth 2 when off cd.

The above doesn’t mention you updraft, lighting aura, chill aura or earthquake, you will get used to applying the other skills as you go along, this is just a very basic how to go about fighting 7-10 enemies. You will also know when to stay and when to flee. E.G. 1 ranged 6 melee easy peasy. 2 ranged 5 melee mediocre. 3+ ranged 3 melee you want to get out of their or apply daphoenix’s LOS attacking strats to keep those ranged attacks off you.

Continued below …