Future-Proofing the Elementalist

[Kaleban.9834]

This will mostly be about gear. Having been disappointed with the most recent balance pass (to be fair most have been underwhelming or nerfs since daphoenix), I'm curious what the remaining Ele players are gearing towards?

I don't have the time and likely lack the skill to Raid, so Legendary Armor is probably not in my wheelhouse. What I wouldn't give to be able to switch on the fly without paying exorbitant material costs (this being PvE mostly). Perhaps a bog standard or deprecated skin that has the functionality might be in the works for solely Open World players? Hopes and dreams.

 

So the question then becomes, in the absence of Raiding, and being only marginally successful at the piano virtuoso that is the Elementalist playstyle, what gear set is optimal? I have exactly one Ascended gear set, and have been seriously considering just switching it all to Trailblazer so I can condi burn everything and not go down in 3 seconds aka Berserker, but with nerfs to burning damage as well I just don't know.

 

A game shouldn't cause this much agonizing indecision. I want to be effective and not a hindrance with my chosen profession (the Ele in concept is just so COOL) but realistically don't want to sink 20! gold per Master insignia thanks to the price on Maguuma Lilys to switch my entire armor set if Trailblazer isn't going to work in Open World come next update/LW/Expansion.

 

Thoughts?

[AliamRationem.5172]

> @"Kaleban.9834" said:

> This will mostly be about gear. Having been disappointed with the most recent balance pass (to be fair most have been underwhelming or nerfs since daphoenix), I'm curious what the remaining Ele players are gearing towards?

> I don't have the time and likely lack the skill to Raid, so Legendary Armor is probably not in my wheelhouse. What I wouldn't give to be able to switch on the fly without paying exorbitant material costs (this being PvE mostly). Perhaps a bog standard or deprecated skin that has the functionality might be in the works for solely Open World players? Hopes and dreams.

>

> So the question then becomes, in the absence of Raiding, and being only marginally successful at the piano virtuoso that is the Elementalist playstyle, what gear set is optimal? I have exactly one Ascended gear set, and have been seriously considering just switching it all to Trailblazer so I can condi burn everything and not go down in 3 seconds aka Berserker, but with nerfs to burning damage as well I just don't know.

>

> A game shouldn't cause this much agonizing indecision. I want to be effective and not a hindrance with my chosen profession (the Ele in concept is just so COOL) but realistically don't want to sink 20! gold per Master insignia thanks to the price on Maguuma Lilys to switch my entire armor set if Trailblazer isn't going to work in Open World come next update/LW/Expansion.

>

> Thoughts?

 

Hi! Please see my thread! It may be useful to you!

 

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/107218/open-world-domination-fire-weaver#latest

 

Here's a post-patch video demo to give you an idea of what condi weaver running dire stats can do post-"nerf":

 

 

I've also actually improved my best solo time against avatar of Balthazar to 0:43 at 16.2k DPS since the patch as well. So, if you are feeling discouraged about fire weaver in open world, please don't worry. You won't feel this nerf at all. Fire (sword) weaver, at least, is still basically as strong as ever for solo play in open world!

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Personally I just run berserker. If I need defenses, I change my traits and utilities around. Personally I've come to like obliterating everything within moments. The only thing I really can't do is solo some of the harder champions/legendary mobs, in which case I usually just change to cheese tactics and win that way.

 

Otherwise, there isn't much you can do to future-proof a class. It doesn't matter what you pick, because it can end up nerfed into the ground beyond all recognition.

[Infusion.7149]

Berserker's+scholar runes. Until scholar runes are nerfed to the ground it will be the defacto choice. For greater survivability you can swap trinkets to marauder stats since ascended amulet,rings, and accessories are easily obtained via conversion of eternal ice shards in Bjora Marches.

[MarzAttakz.9608]

I'm running with Celestial - it's kinda middle ground for everything, bit low on toughness tbh but I share the set with my Necro (this was when Celestial for both was still viable). My goal is a set of light Legendary via WvW to start off with. I've also been grinding Ascended trinkets via LW3 maps so have back, neck rings x 2, accessories x 2 of Viper, Trailblazer, Celestial, Minstrel, Marauder and Berserker so can tailor stats to a degree. Got ascended Marauder for my heavy classes with a set of Exotic Minstrel's (Bladed) for my Firebrand. Apart from armor and trinkets I've slowly worked my way through the e-spec weapon collections so haev a variety of Ascended weapons to share. The most troubling decision is obviously which weapons are condi and which are power since certain ones work as both.

 

I mostly WvW when not grinding open world which I do on various classes depending on my mood since I have one of each with all e-specs completed. As for my Ele specifically I am planning on trying out either AliamRationem.5172 or Dahir's condi-weaver.

 

Yes, we've come a long way since DaPhoenix and even from Cellofrag's builds - and we're not in a good spot but I still love my Ele.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

It' may be the only class I play with celestial in OW. Everything is berserker, vipere, diviner etc but it's a lot of pain with elem: mostly on the new maps with mobs that blind you , chill, cripple and deal 6k dmg per attack, etc.

Here's one of my builds : [gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lZwkYTsImJOqWZvbA-zRRYVB5xGNchhgzA-e](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lZwkYTsImJOqWZvbA-zRRYVB5xGNchhgzA-e) But with the recent nerf of fury and mights in Fire traitline I may gear with vipere and dagger/x for OW if i have the courage and the will.

I also played hybrid fire/air in fractals, [gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lJwkYTsLmJOqKrvKA-zRZYmBJyGFcBFRCiLMqSguCw5gEGlANp4sC-e](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAw2lJwkYTsLmJOqKrvKA-zRZYmBJyGFcBFRCiLMqSguCw5gEGlANp4sC-e) (edited to try cap 100% burning with ascended food, otherwise 100 condition+70 precision and sigil+10% condi duration) with some Rampager to cap 100% crit with potions conversion (11~12% crit) and without signet of fire, it worked very well for fractals with strong burst and often top dps. Much less for raids compared to full berserker or vipere. But they nerfed burning on all skills and traits, I haven't tried for a while, it might not be that strong either today.

Balthazar runes are better than Flame Legion, you lose the +7% power damage, but you want the extra condition damage over the power, because condition is often >50% of DPS in both cases with my gear.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Fire weaver bursts just fine even with pure condi (dire) stats. I just made this quick clip as a demonstration. I'm already over 10k/s by the third burn tick, peaking at 22.5k with an average DPS of 16.2k over 7 seconds against this veteran bristleback. That's bursty enough to neutralize this threat (although I toss swirling winds up to block the projectile spam anyway because why not?).

 

 

I find it's pretty hard to justify running hybrid stats with my build. I've tried grieving several times, thinking there must be some way to get significant amounts of power damage with a fire/air build. But no, I just get a lot glassier and my damage stays about the same. Exception when I am getting pressured, in which case it drops off significantly! That's no bueno! So I always end up going back to stats like dire, plaguedoctor, trailblazer.

[Fueki.4753]

Both of my Elementalists run Marauder gear with Wurm runes.

But I only use them for Open World these days.

[Auburner.6945]

**Popular builds:**

1. Typical Berserker/Marauder with Scholar runes is great for most cases as Glyph of Storms is a nice 10s blinding AoE field. Ranged (w/o terrains) and/or high attack rating 'champions' are almost impossible because sustain is terrible on berserker's/marauder. This build can go into raids, preferably on full Berserker's with the ability to play either Weaver or Tempest.

2. Other way to go, and only if you're not going to be raiding or doing T4s/CMs, Trailblazer's/Dire is a powerful stat for Open World condition builds. If you're going to be raiding, then Viper's is the go to (could also be for Open World). Offhand focus already has great utility and the build goes into Earth attunement/2ndary Air to ensure most of the life saving skills are accessible, so with the addition of Trailblazer's/Dire's toughness; you can take down legendary bounties if you've got the basics of the class and the understanding of the bounty's mechanics... nice. Mostly Weaver is the go to in raids and is a matter of preference in Open World, Tempest is great for Open World as a condi build but the zooming on Dagger in raids is not really comforting. Build variant posted above by AliamRationem.5172

3. If you want to be the group hero, you can go Harrier's (raid-ready, but Healbrand is broken) or Minstrel's, buuut you can't roam on your own anymore in Open World.

 

In my opinion; since swapping stats on ascended gear exists, it means that if you really really want to go for Trailblazer's condi builds then it won't be costy to switch stats to Berserker's (cheap-ish exotic insignia/inscription) if you were to ever need that stat swap... but yeah that price for having swapped to Trailblazer's before is going to hurt if this happens.

[Kaleban.9834]

Dangit I just want a gear set that can work in all game modes! Is that so hard ANet? LOL.

I guess it comes down to Viper for game modes where you don't want Toughness aggro, and Trailblazer for literally everything else.

Thing is I take my Ele main into Fractals, but find more and more that I'm simply doing OW stuff as I don't really have time anymore for organized "stuff".

So perhaps Trailblazer is the way to go, at least until ANet releases stat swappable armor in OW that isn't Raid gated.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

If you want gear that works in all game modes, take Marauder. It sacrifices 10% of damage for a much more massive vitality bonus (can't remember the exact numbers, not bothering to do the math). It works in any scale of WvW fairly well, and it is strong enough to take into fractals and raids. So long as your raid commander isn't particularly stingy, the DPS drop will be barely noticeable. It is basically just a more efficient version of berserker gear, which has more total stats overall.

[mizaru.1385]

Just got a full trailblazer set for openworld as I think its better for ur ascended gear to be group content focused (fractals, raid etc) so u can perform with better stats.

 

Weapon wise can get a grieving stat if ur not a min maxer, so both ur open world and group builds for power/condi can use them properly.

 

Exotic trailerblazer is easy enuf to get as there are easy ways to get exotic pieces with stat select, and u dont need to perform optimally all the time as no1 is judging u. Then slowly convert them if u see fit.