Guild Wars 2

Kodiak the problem is not the condition damage, the problem is your build !
Also I like how your build changes suggestion to the OP is a blunt copy paste of your own build.

Updated:

Edited all sections
Current build 0/30/10/20/10

I will add videos soon.

ARM isn’t viable anymore.

It depends on what mode of the game you are playing:
-In wvw and pvp it is mainly support (offensive), not burst.
-in PvE you can go GC and put out some nice dps with fresh air, but you’d do better with the focus anyway.

Any viable PvE build can work, I’m at the last boss and I haven’t had any problem with my build so far

I also tend to use the focus quite a lot, well who wouldn’t in PvE anyway?

x/30/x/30/x aurashare could work though, with fresh air and air cd reduction, no boon durations runes of course.

Fresh air is nice for scepter because it increases its damage by quite a bit, but since scepter air’s damage is low anyway this trait is actually more beneficial to the dagger MH since the air auto attack is the strongest we have.

This belief that you need to rely on guardians to be able to deal damage on your own without being threatened is complete rubbish.
Maybe it is high time people understood that everyone needs to provide a bit of support and control to the group while doing good damage.
A 0/10/0/30/30 ele is almost useless in fractals.
Actually anything with high arcana or without fresh air is weak in PvE.

Thanks oZii !
Maybe it could be interesting for the bunker ele, but I am not sure at all.

I do 70+ fractals, I use D/F 0/30/10/20/10 (Fresh air, elemental attunement), full berzerker.
It works really nicely because we have a rather optimized group with tons of reflect (3 D/F elems, some guardians or mesmers).
I find that vigor is not necessary, fire traits are really lacking unless you use staff (even conjurer is weak), and that Fresh air is compulsory.

I think that you should consider switching to more zerker gear and getting rid of fire traits (10 points with + 5% damage to burning foes is ok though), you can put those points in more optimal defensive traits (water and earth).

In the end a large part of how successful you will be in fractals depends on how efficient your group is.

Neko.9021:

-2 Runes of Maj. Water / 2 Runes of Sup. Water / 2 Runes of Sup. Monk

This one is quite bad actually

Neko.9021:

I have noticed this too. There seems to have been a change in the aggro system. A few months ago mobs seemed to aggro more reliably on characters with high stat defenses. Now it seems just completely random. There’s basically zero reason to have an “Anchor” (a character with high stat defenses while the other four use full Berserkers) in your dungeon group now.

Are you completely positive about this? I have not noticed such change, but that is likely because I have stopped reliably playing with a good anchor.

I really like having 15s cooldowns on attunement swaps, it makes me have to strategically think ahead and plan the way I am going to use them.

Neko’s guide states pretty clearly that scepter is not the best choice in terms of damage (PvE) unless you use the Lightning Hammer, and he is right about this.

The most perfect staff rotation has a coefficient of power per second of about 1.51, which is indeed very high (calculation compensated for weapon damage).
The lightning hammer build does way more damage than this build.

The issue is that it requires you to stay in the fire attunement, because if you start to switch out then your damage drops drastically. It requires your target to be immobile, it has long cast times (meteor shower) and requires you to take 30 points in fire.
So yes, it hits hard in the right situation, but that’s pretty much all it does.

If you are going to try and only focus on doing damage then you are going to be as useless as a zerker warrior. We are elementalists, we know better! We know that damage is not the only priority, and that it is most important to be able to harm, support and control at the same time. With 0 points in arcane and no Fresh Air, you are locking yourself out of attunements for 15s, a lot can happen during this time. So the cost of providing control and support with your build is very high in terms of damage. In the end, you will find that your playstyle is a bit clunky (yet powerful).

This build may work for you, in which case I encourage you to keep using it. But you need to be aware that it is possible to do almost the same damage while providing group utility, control, heals, etc.

Nice! Make him talk about the focus please

I wish I could move in mist form!

You can use some heals in mist form

Guys let’s keep this thread for creative ideas, i.e. ideas that use new factors or new ways providing old effects.

Ptolomy’s Sticky Mud, Peter Buch’s Living Sun, Cold Shield, Overcharge and BlackBeard’s Static Shock are creative ideas.

Remember that it is a whirl finisher. People tend to overlook the value of such combos a lot.

Actually I have one comment: in your “staying alive” paragraph, you seem to omit to talk about the group healing potential of your build.
The increased power of this kind of build (with at least 15 in water and EA) is that you can cleanse and heal allies in a heartbeat. If your team-mates know this and expect you to support them, then you achieve an increased group efficiency.
Maybe you should stress that compared to the other classes, most of our heals are bursty and easy to use. And that, while it is potent in 1v1, it truly shines more in multiple player encounters.

Frostedblaze.9017:

Zelyhn.8069:

What is sustain burst?

I guess I meant sustainable health pool. Like you can sustain yourself in a fight. And the damage is high burst. Sorry, probably should’ve clarified that better!

No it is clear! I just often have a problem with these two words being juxtaposed, because there is always a high risk of people understanding “sustained burst” instead of “sustain & burst” if you see what I mean

Full zerker D/F 10/30/0/20/10 here, you rare not alone my friend!

Or you could level up as a complete junky like I did with staff and full fire full air.
No, I don’t regret my early days as an elementalist.

The arcane tree is far from mandatory after the first 10 points.

Ouch! You sound so bitter Neko!

Congrats on sticky

For Scepter I agree with you, in fact I never understood why anyone would use it by default in PvE.
For Focus however, I think this is the way to go until they decide to buff off-hand daggers (it is really lacking ATM). While wielding my focus the one thing I miss from the Dagger is the ability to AoE kb (for PvP), but it is possible to make up for that using the conjured earth shield (tricky!).

It seems the Ele community is elvolving, it is good to see that, after a long winter of bunker D/D supremacy!

Yes your Barricade spell is a nice idea! It is creative

There are plenty of cool spell ideas from existing games like DotA.

Haha you know I am always spot on

Lightning whip is our strongest hitting AA (1.22 per second), easy to land (300 range) in aoe (max: 3 targets). The fire AA is a bit more tricky (1.15 c/s) because it requires you to be very close to your target to unleash’ its full potential, which is a bit lower than Lightning Whip. The earth AA is decently strong and allows you to hit targets anywhere on the Z axis and behind you while you run, even behind walls. The water AA is half-ranged and pierces, but it is slow. I must admit that in water and fire I am most likely using the Drake’s breath and the Cone of Cold in PvP.
Anyway, D/D is just insane once you can master it.

It happened to me quite a few times to fail my weapon switches at the beginning of some tournaments. I ended up with just a dagger main-hand, no off-hand. It was so instructive! This is how I learned how to use my first 3 skills on each attunements with increased efficiency. You can win a tournament with just a main-hand weapon.
Our class is hard to master, it requires a lot of practice.
If I can give an advice to this community, it would be to stop reading guides (even mine) and experiment for themselves. Experiment everything! Only after you know what works for you can you compare your performance with others and improve it.

Swimsasa Stoon I think you misunderstood what this thread is about.

@ Wryog
I think I can think of more like that

Ultimate compassion
Description:
If an ally with less than 50% health touches you, your water attunement is recharged.
Note:
A mechanic similar to fresh air.
Theme:
Water

Perfectly fluid
Description:
When you successfully evade an attack, for 10s the cooldown of the next utility spell you use is halved. Medium ICD.
Theme:
Water.

Life link
Description:
Link your life to that of your nearby allies for a duration. Any direct damage received by you or your allies is split evenly between the linked allies. The shared damage is non-lethal.
Note:
Allows for a smoothing of combat and practically empowers AoE heals.
Theme:
Water.

Cold hearted
Description:
You deal double damage to downed targets. In water attunement, hits you land on downed targets push them away by 200 units.
Note:
Allows for some vicious play with downed targets for capture points in PvP.
Theme:
Ice.

If you are not using your Auto-Attack as a D/D ele you are dealing no damage.
Edit: actually this is true for all classes and all weapons.

I see many suggestion of spell reworks, or trait changes. Most of the time I find them very dull because they are just pale copies of other spells and traits in-game or because they are redundant. In this thread I would like to talk about creative spell and effects that could be used to make new skills or reworks traits. Feel free to contribute.

These ideas are just suggestion to increase the creativity of future suggestions
The occasional numbers, use, and source of these spells and effects would have to be discussed for balance, but this is not the intent of this thread.

Dying star
Description:
For a short duration after cast time, all damage received is also absorbed in a fireball growing above your character. At the end of this charging time, the fireball explodes and deal AoE damage around you in a medium aoe. The damage dealt is augmented by a percentage of the damage stored during the absorption time.
Notes:
The growing fireball remains effective even if your character is CCed or downed.
Such spell would allow for timely bursts, as well as a new way to deter foes from attacking you.
Theme:
Fire. Growing sun, feeding the fire

Overheat
Description:
Every 10 seconds that you spend in the fire attunement, you overheat the air around you for 3 seconds, in a small AoE bubble around you. This overheated air acts are a fire combo field. The overheated air blurs the line of sight of enemies: they cannot see through it.
Note:
This allows you and your allies to hide behind this bubble, untargetable, but you would still receive attacks if targeted before hiding.
This spells creates an incentive to stay in the attunement.
Theme:
Fire. Mirage in the desert

Devouring fire
Description:
When you burn your enemies, every instance of burning (every second of the effect) eats the endurance of your enemies by a small amount (5%). Every instance of burning decreases the recharge time of your fire attunement by 3s.
Note:
A mechanic similar to fresh air.
Theme:
Fire.

The burden of Atlas
Description:
A melee hit that inflicts direct damage equal to your target’s armor.
Note:
Punish targets for having high armor.
Theme:
Earth. Overweight, deadly gravity.

Bound to the Ground
Description:
After spending 8 seconds in the earth attunement you gain the Bound to the Ground effect. This buff lasts for as long as your remain in this attunement. Bound to the Ground affects all enemies in a medium radius around you. If enemies affected use a mobility skill (or teleportation) they get damaged a bit and weakened (weakness for a short duration). Short global ICD.
Theme:
Earth.

Levitate
Description:
Rush high in the air for a short duration, before returning to the ground (trigger on-fall effects). While in the air all your spells have a 300 increased range, your projectile speed is increased, and melee attacks cannot reach you.
Note:
This would synergize with the water trait that create a spell on fall.
Theme:
Air.

Draining water
Description
Morph into a snaky water monster and jump into your target. While inside your target you are invulnerable, unable to take action apart from switching attunements (like mist form). This effect last for a short time (5s), during which you drain your target’s health by small amounts per second and heal yourself. The target can dodge roll to force you out of its body.
Note:
A mechanic similar to the karka’s.
Attunement switching in this form is convenient to land Sun Spot and Earthen Blast on your target for example.
Theme:
Water. Virus, karka.

These are some example of what I consider to be creative ideas. I will add more as they come to my mind, I have new concepts every minute!

Do you think these could be interesting ideas to play with?

Aether McLoud.1975:

Zelyhn.8069:

Stop using daggers, they won’t fix anything until we use other weapons.

Well 99% of ele players don’t use focus yet it still isn’t fixed :/

Focus does not need a fix. Players need a fix! If someone talented (not me) could show the community how powerful the focus is then people would change their minds.

A suggestion for spell instead of firegrab:
Theme: dying star, growing sun
For 4 seconds after cast all damage received makes a ball of fire grow above you, at the end of the 4 seconds the fireball explodes and deals damage plus half of the stored damage in a medium aoe around you, deals more damage to burning targets.
The fireball remains active even if you die within the 4s absorbing time.

Please! Stealth and teleportation are just bad and redundant.
Be more creative!

Yeah focus is just so much better, especially since we have crap mobility.
I have started playing with the focus a long time ago too, and I am loving it.
I still use 30 arcane in PvP, but for elemental surge (with focus). My role is offensive support, and kill setter: I can lock someone from afar for long enough for my thief team mate to instagib them without worrying about anything. In PvE I find that arcane is just a huge waste of points.

I am not complaining about RTL, I am just saying that elems have low mobility.
For example: RTL used for mobility has 40s cd, 1200 range, that’s 30 units per second if you use it perfectly on cd, and if it is not bugging. This is the equivalent of a 14% speed boost to our in-combat move speed, or 10% out of combat.

Just for comparison, Warrior’s savage leap has 900 range, 8 second cooldown, so 112.5 units per second. This is the equivalent of 54% bonus move speed in combat or 38% out of combat. And it is far from being their only mobility skill.

Luckily we have an other mobility spell on D/D: burning speed!
Burning speed has 600 range, 15s cd, so it is a bonus to our move speed of 40 units per second. Yes that’s 33% more than RLT, but still 64% less than warrior’s savage leap.

Well ok, I guess I just complained about RTL, my bad.

What is sustain burst?

Mobility?

15 char

Aether McLoud.1975:

Zelyhn.8069:

For one dagger heal 5, you can throw 2 scepter water 3 or four dagger water 2, that makes dagger water 5 pretty crappy in terms of heal.
That’s why I use the focus …

Yes, what makes dagger water 5 good is the condition removal.

The focus has that with a 25s cooldown
But only for the player, admittedly.

For one dagger heal 5, you can throw 2 scepter water 3 or four dagger water 2, that makes dagger water 5 pretty crappy in terms of heal.
That’s why I use the focus …

You really think a heal that does 1k3 + 1.0 healpower is low ??

Not exactly: it was the concept to be able to mix attunements with this trait, but it was OP so they needed redesign. Redesigning takes time and resources, so in the meantime they just toned those traits down. And since everyone is happily using arcane regardless of this, it is not in their top priority.

Stop using daggers, they won’t fix anything until we use other weapons.

You know that I am definitely in favor of a fire tree overhaul McLoud, and that minor trait definitely need to be changed because it is redundant, but not with stealth.

No fury
15 char

If I am not mistaken this is what used to happen in beta.

Exactly
Also flamewall lasts longer, and well, swirling winds !!

A lot of people think like this, but it is worth trying, trust me.
Also my point was that FA benefits daggers a lot too.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Focus was unchanged. Just tooltip and bug fixes with the exception of the Glyph.

I know, but tooltip fixes are a huge buff: it means it won’t be nerfed too soon!

I run a FA build with 10 arcane in both PvE and WvW, it works just fine.
It could also work with only 5 in arcane!
In PvP however I take 30 in arcana, but I am not as invested in this mod as I used to be.

Yay more buff to my focus!

Well they have started introducing alternatives to arcana, like fresh air. I am quite confident that we may see something rather similar for the other elements in the future. Or maybe I am just too faithful!!

Yeah..
The thing is they will likely only fix lingering elements and buff arcane precision when there will be less people running that much arcane.