Punch.4231

> @"FrownyClown.8402" said:

> http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lVwiYPMImJW0TdvWA-zVZYVhJGEPc0gGOjGlA9qAM8q8bA-w

>

> My take on your build.

I don't love superior elements but I agree with swapping out some condi for more precision. I'll give this a go, thanks.

You're still way better off playing thief or revenant but this build is pretty fun and thought I'd share. It does deal really well with Rangers and condi classes, of which there are many, as you are aware. You have no protection, but barrier doesn't consider protection anyway, and let's be fair, while it's more dangerous it just feels better without it... I don't play much anymore but I think the build deserves more testing - I haven't seen anyone else playing this. I'm liking Sigil of Vision - Sword doesn't have big hits but it hits often, and you can get a lot of hits in a 3s window, especially with air/air sword 3 (and with tons of vuln from primordial stance and electric discharge). You have a lot of mobility, perma regen, perma fury, and condi clear galore. If you're with a group you offer some group utility from water line but mostly your best contribution is that you won't annoy your friends by dying all the time, because you have strong kiting potential. Anyway, hope someone else finds some fun out if it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lVwiYPMJmJW0TdvXA-zVxYBBBWFGYQBsRCCxNIC4oAJdGNKB6VBo4V53A-w

[https://youtu.be/XCiWcxOSfX8]

> @"Zahrak.6382" said:

>

> New material.

Well played. I like the quick immob after lightning orb.

Do you miss not having regen? Or you find sustain ok as it is? Fury and Protection on auras is nice. I usually find in order to not get ER interrupted I need more mobility or stability (via rock solid)

I would add that Bolt To the Heart does not seem to apply to Elementals. Would be nice if it did.

> @"Coeruleum.9164" said:

> Well if you just want the worst ele build possible don't equip any weapons, armor, or trinkets, don't put any skills in your skill bar, and don't take any traits. That's probably too easy of an answer though.

I guess it comes down to what constitutes a "build". Initially I meant what is the worst/most underpowered damage type and weapon combination and I wanted to see if I could make it work, at least as far as a montage goes, but the literal "what is the worst" is yeah, not really a build at all.

I think the more interesting things are facts like scepter autos apply condis, but scepter is a trash condi weapon. Why? Poor design? Underutilized by the community? Gotta test it. Is there hidden power there? Can a ele be a budget scepter necro?

Today I tried minstrel/nomad (I don't have full minstrel gear) core staff as suggested by MegaMetzler and it turns out it is actually possible to kill someone with it, thanks to elementals. Is it suboptimal? Yeah. Terrible? Probably. Kinda fun? Yup. But I think the point of trying weird stuff is that we may find something viable where we least expected it. I have a super weird build in mind that I think will work because of this exercise. So for those asking WHY and saying WTF there is both an element of challenge in attempting something way off meta and also some small hope that you might discover something you hadn't previously considered. That's kinda what theorycrafting is all about, I think. Anyway, much love to my fellow ele mains.

> @"Yasai.3549" said:

> Core Staff.

> Literally doesn't get any worse than this.

condi or power?

lol I love that you even put in terrible consumables. Thank you for raising (lowering?) the bar. I feel like any kill with your build would be basically beating the game.

Thanks for the feedback. I don't play much anymore but I spent a couple afternoons playing tempest and core condi with scepter and staff. They're awful, you guys were right. Zeesh you were also right in that TB stats and signet of fire are enough to get kills at times. It was actually pretty rewarding though, to get kills on a build this bad.

I was curious to see how bad these setups would be, and yeah, they suck. But basically anything can look ok in a montage.

I'm thinking condi scepter.

Thoughts? We all rag on elementalist but what's the absolute worst iteration of the profession?

It was overperforming and got overnerfed. What we need is some tuning. Desperately.

I agree with Broski that that power level is pointless and trying to get crits out of it doesn't make sense unless your crits are tied to condi application. You'd be better off dropping power for precision and running fire and arcane for burning precision and arcane precision (plus condi cover blinding ashes). That's what I prefer but to each his own.

Also, unless you're running "one with air" in air trait line you pretty much need speed runes as an ele in wvw IMO. You can get away with something else if you're just dueling or running in a group or if you only fight somewhere where you can lightning flash out of trouble. But in general just about every other profession can outrun you (or catch you) as a roamer and that's not a good thing. In your build running speed runes would allow you to swap out the long cooldown of eye of the storm (since you no longer need the mobility) for something better. With fire line traited "feel the burn" will blind, do decent burning damage, give 3 stacks of might, clear a condi with fire aura, and is on a 15s shorter cooldown, so that would be a good option but there are a few. GLHF

> @"Coldtart.4785" said:

> 1v3'd some guys way back in vanilla on my gvg staff build. Killed 1 but the downed icon alerted the nearby zerg which promptly ruined my fun. Dishonourable mention to the condi trapper ranger I nearly took out with a build that was pure pve except for ether renewal; he popped stealth too many times letting me cap a camp from under his feet then ran away.

Your post is evidence that when you're handicapped by a bad profession/build/weapon choice, victory is that much sweeter. So much so that you remember it for a long long time.

I do not recommend, but getting kills with it is fun.

earth 121

water 113

arcane 321

mostly settler (cheap) w/ durability runes

energy and doom

I recommend watching at 1.25 speed

What's the worst build you've ever killed people with?

This is a massive win for eles. I think all of us have been disheartened by the massive power creep. Instead of buffing weaver damage again to compete they've literally nerfed the power damage nearly across the board, and nuked a lot of the brainless but effective passives in the process. Amazing. It's the kind of thing we would have asked for but it seemed ridiculous to ask.

Celestial is better but you could mix some gear to get the stats you want. Something like this would be a cheap option http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAoIG2AsqHsBvB0K4CMCmHQAoAC-jVTHABaqEcCtAks/gF6AiRJ0hqgQjSmRUl4GlDC8AAKRlBAOBAooGAZA8XAA-w

If you look on YouTube for d/d ele there are loads of videos on how to play core d/d and it all still works. Once you get comfortable you could drop earth for fire or air. Enjoy

Thanks! Hope it helps you

> @"reikken.4961" said:

> condi clear options not tied to Cleansing Water

> Signet of Water was an ok start. Not great, but ok. Next cleansing fire needs a buff or rework (it is demonstrably worse than similar skills on other classes), and there needs to be another skill, and/or some other traits.

>

> Also make dagger and staff actually usable on weaver outside of situations where you have zero need to access the defensive or utility skills (ie playing dps in a raid). Buffing unravel to the above would be an easy way to do this. Making unravel last 5 seconds just for the sake of consistency with the other 5 second stances is unnecessarily crippling. It actually makes it less useful.

>

> > @"Punch.4231" said:

> > A low duration pulse would limit the opportunity to tempest boon copy to your group perma resistance (although other professions can do this already).

>

> tempest can't boonshare resistance anyway. or anything at all other than might and fury

>

Shows you how much time I've given tempest. Thanks.

Before the patch I was running marauder/zerker with S/D because without it sword damage was poor and with riptide sustain was decent even with 0 heal power. Post patch I've geared more into condition damage (sword hits harder so less need for power) and sit around 2k power 1k condi without might, and run more like 600 healing power. You have to work way harder than superior roaming classes like holo and mirage, but it's still fun. People complain about healing power being uselss on riptide now, but it still works on SoR and the many, many sources of regen. Sustain seems fine to me, and this is only 2300-2400 armor. I know that it sucks to be underpowered but I don't think we're far away from viability. Please note the build image shows that I'm running Soothing Disruption but really I use Aquamancer's Training (I'm an idiot). I'm not totally sold on the stat distribution I have going, or the rune set, but hey that's what this forum is for.

I would suggest you open in air (double attuned ideally) and use primordial stance. This will give you stability and rapid 25 stack of vulnerability aoe. From there blast in fire fields for might or in riptide water field as necessary (using primordial stance or twist of fate as needed for more stab/vulnerability). As strong as primordial stance is for condi it is just as strong for power when in air.

For core I would suggest d/d arcane water air and if you don't have cele gear mix knights cleric and carrion until you get the balance of stats that work for you.

1. Some alternative condi management would be nice. Maybe via resistance. If diamond skin was reworked to pulse resistance when your health is above 75% it would be less OP than the original (because it would be strippable/corruptible) but better than it is now (mostly nerfed into oblivion). A low duration pulse would limit the opportunity to tempest boon copy to your group perma resistance (although other professions can do this already).

2. A smoke field (not underwater). Fully attuned fire 3 s/d maybe? Remove damage portion even. It wouldn't be readily accessible but it would be a situational option that would be fun.

3. Signet elite. Signet of Renewal? Passive improves vitality. Active recharges all signets and grants 3s superspeed. Even if you only run signet of restoration this could be a useful elite to use your signet heal twice consecutively while kiting.

Weaver is fine. Before the patch you had to gear aggressively to do any real damage, and the healing was still good. I often had top healing in PVP with marauder amulet. That probably shouldn't be a thing.

Now you can gear for more sustain and still do same damage. I switched to Sage amulet and that's been fine. In WVW I switched from mara/zerk to a hybrid gear. No traits needed to change.

If we are going to complain about anything, it should be the unreliable ability to hit moving targets (firegrab I've been looking at you since launch). That and the fact that dagger has longer range than sword. That just boggles my mind. If there is a slight range increase and a bug fix or two, s/x weaver will be a beast.

I use Sage in plat with s/d. It's viable. Not necessarily with fire and earth though. If you're using Aquatic Stance for your heal you should try Balthazar runes for 3s burn on heal with 10s cd (plus more burn duration). I played condi staff for a long time with balth runes and your same earth traits. If you're having trouble with condis use rock solid trait or stab on stance trait to get your ether renewal off. Just a suggestion.

The problem with condi ele in higher tiers is that there aren't enough cover conditions. Burn guards aren't a thing either. You could use a sigil to get you poison or torment but it's an uphill battle.That's not to say it isn't fun though. I will give it a go. Cheers

I'm using Zealot weapons. Marauder/zerk/assassin gear and trinkets after fury nerf. I have wondered about using more zealot pieces - I will try it. Cheers.

I've also had some success with these traits and marauder amulet (runes of exuberance) in PVP (platinum not legendary mind you). With sigil of cleansing and energy. Give it a try sometime if you're bored. O/

Hello fellow eles. I've tried many different builds and gear combinations (cleric/carrion/celestial etc etc etc) and of course Cellofrag's healing-power tanky setup, but there were too many stalemates for my liking, and not enough dead bodies. So I took the defensive traits that make cellofrag's build work, and swapped in mara/zerk gear with zealot weapons and now there are more corpses (and yes sometimes the corpse is mine, but that's alright). Perhaps it will be a fun alternative for someone on the forum. Thanks for watching.