1500 replies to this topic

[Nikorasu]

I've been toying with the idea of a pure movement speed build for the Ele, since it seems to me it's the best class to achieve insane running speeds (good for taking Conquest points and WvWvW guerilla warfare). Here's what I have, any idea how to make it better with the current skills and traits?

http://medias.luna-atra.fr/gw2/skill_tool/generator.php?lang=en&code=3232m06v71gmao2g000ua0u0j0m0o0u1b1d1f

Here's the absurd amount of movement speeds we can rack up:

+10% MS from Zephyr's speed
+15% MS from Windborne Dagger
+10% MS from Signet of Air (permanent thanks to Written in Stone
Swiftness from Shocking Aura (Zephyr's Boon)
Swiftness from Updraft
Swiftness from Glyph of Elemental Harmony
Swiftness / Charge from Ride the Lightning

Also, fire and earth attunements give movement abilities too. All swiftness-granting abilities have +30% duration thanks to the Arcane spec, and all air abilities have 15% cooldown reduction.

On top of that, we have a teleport in Lightning Flash, which helps getting places even faster.

Any idea to make this build even more mobile? Or else to increase its effectiveness in battle without sacrificing speed.

Mod edit: To stop several different threads from popping up about builds, lets try to keep all the build discussion on one thread for the moment. Keep in mind this thread is for serious contributions. If you are going to post your build, explain why you chose the skills/traits you did. If you are going to comment, offer some proper criticism.

Thanks.

Edited by Nikorasu, 09 March 2012 - 12:52 PM.

[Evereghalo]

Am I the only one skeptic about all of these being able tO stack

[Spark026]

Additions:
Skills: Burning Speed and Magnetic Grasp

Traits:
Glyph of Elemental Harmony - Air - Grants Swiftness Boon
Winds of Change - Trait - Grants Swiftness to allies upon entering Air Attunement
Frost Aura, Shocking Aura, Fiery Aura, and Signet of Restoration(Passive) is an Aura -- Its possible just Shocking Aura procs Zyphyr's Boon, but it's also possible some or all of these Auras could potentially proc it.

Runes:
Superior Rune of Speed
(1) +25 Vit
(2) +20% Swiftness Duration
(3) +50 Vit
(4) 5% chance to gain Swiftness for 30s when hit(cooldown: 60s)
(5) +90 Vit
(6) +7% move speed while using Swiftness

Nice to have a thread with all the speed boost listed. Feel free to add these to the OP for easier reading.

I'm not advocating ever creating a build with all of these, but movement speed should be a strong consideration in making any D/D build.

[Ihovo]

Evereghalo said:

Am I the only one skeptic about all of these being able tO stack

absolutely not, no

[Spark026]

Evereghalo said:

Am I the only one skeptic about all of these being able tO stack

And no you're not the only skeptic, that's for sure.  The main question is whether or not Swiftness can stack with your base movement speed bonuses/traits.

[Gible]

I have a very similar build that is focused around Movement as well as Mist Form for some survivability. http://gw2.luna-atra...k0j0m1214191d1f

I am thinking of taking "Soothing Wave" (regen while in mist form) instead of "Icy Mist" (damages and chills while in Mist Form). Thoughts?

Also, if "Signet of Restoration's" passive is an Aura, does that mean "Zephyr's Boon" will proc when the Signet is used?

Edited by tomfabio, 08 March 2012 - 04:01 PM.

[Spark026]

tomfabio said:

Also, if "Signet of Restoration's" passive is an Aura, does that mean "Zephyr's Boon" will proc when the Signet is used?

My take(theory):

The Aura is just the passive. Because it's a passive it can't ever be "applied" which makes me think it won't proc Zephyr's Boon.

I'd be more hopefully on Frost Aura, and possible even Fiery Aura(though less so).  There's also Magnetic Aura on Staffs, and on 1 of the Runes you can equip. If Frost Aura procs it then Magnetic Aura will too as they are both skills.

I believe the Aura component of the passive on Signet of Restoration is meant to be used in conjunction with the Powerful Aura's trait in the Water tree(grants all auras to allies in you vicinity).

Edited by Spark026, 08 March 2012 - 04:18 PM.

[Nikorasu]

I wouldn't worry that much about Signet of Restoration when we have Glyph of Elemental Harmony, which seems like a much more straight forward way of gaining speed through our healing ability.

[Imperium]

http://gw2.luna-atra...00i0k0u0v121909
Explanation:

Spike
--Traits: Air: +25% damage to foes under 25% health  +50% dmg to foes who are knocked down or stunned.

Eath skills recharge 15% faster

--Scepter/dagger: earthquake to knock down nearby opponents followed by churning earth.
For 150% - 175% dmg.

Survivability
--traits: Water: mist form at 33% health, mist form chills nearby enemies

signets always keep passive effect

--utility: mist form
--Signets: heal everytime I cast, lose a condition every 3 secs, cleansing fire: break out of stun + loose all conditions.


Should prove to be a pretty nasty and frustrating build ... thoughts?

Edited by Leyana, 08 March 2012 - 10:03 PM.
Error, sorry

[Epic_Bear_Guy]

Sounds good. For pve this will obviously be quite effective. Beware of the guardian in pvp though, they have a lot of anti-KD boons/buffs. I would have a backup plan just in case those KD's fail because it could greatly hinder your damage.

[willienugget]

Regarding the trait for mist form at 33%, Is this skill separate from Mist Form or just an improvement? I'm not sure if I can have two mist form skills.

[Gible]

willienugget said:

Regarding the trait for mist form at 33%, Is this skill separate from Mist Form or just an improvement? I'm not sure if I can have two mist form skills.

I would assume they are the same skill but one activates automatically when you reach 33% health and the other can be activated whenever.

[willienugget]

So in order to get automatic mist form, you need to hit 33% and have Mist Form skill cooldown ready or it's completely separate skill?

[Gible]

It is separate. The trait would be rather useless if it just used up your Utility Mist Form.

[T0ken]

Imperium said:

http://gw2.luna-atra...00i0k0u0v121909
Explanation:

Spike
--Traits: Air: +25% damage to foes under 25% health  +50% dmg to foes who are knocked down or stunned.

Eath skills recharge 15% faster

--Scepter/dagger: earthquake to knock down nearby opponents followed by churning earth.
For 150% - 175% dmg.

Survivability
--traits: Water: mist form at 33% health, mist form chills nearby enemies

signets always keep passive effect

--utility: mist form
--Signets: heal everytime I cast, lose a condition every 3 secs, cleansing fire: break out of stun + loose all conditions.


Should prove to be a pretty nasty and frustrating build ... thoughts?

earthquake kds for 2secs, churning earth 3.5sec cast.

[abr4]

Spark026 said:

The Aura is just the passive. Because it's a passive it can't ever be "applied" which makes me think it won't proc Zephyr's Boon.

The aura is (it has to be) applied everytime the signet comes off cooldown.

Whether or not that procs Zephyr's Boon is still unclear though.

[Spark026]

abr4 said:

The aura is (it has to be) applied everytime the signet comes off cooldown.

Whether or not that procs Zephyr's Boon is still unclear though.

This may be true.

I personally would never use this heal without the trait that makes all your passive signet abilities constant, so that would add an extra kink... So my passive would be constant.

It's def on my testing list for Zephyr's Boon.  God...I'm going to be in that PvP area testing abilities for an entire week before I play the game...lol:D

[abr4]

Spark026 said:

It's def on my testing list for Zephyr's Boon.  God...I'm going to be in that PvP area testing abilities for an entire week before I play the game...lol:D

I hope I can use the beta weekends for that. I was planning to get to 80 as quickly as possible upon release, can't have testing holding me up :/

[Meva]

I think the ele is the best candidate for a battle-mage hybrid. Here is my build based on conjured weapons, staff and active healing:

* Fire = 30: conjured weapons +10 charges, conjured weapons +10% damage. The last is 20% chance burning when you crit.
* Air = 10: Glyphs recharge 20% faster: this is important for lesser elementals to be available every 34 secs instead of 45secs
* Earth = 10: Passive effects of signets are not lost: this is great because you can now use Signet of Restoration as a reliable healing, as aura of restoration in GW1
* Water = 10: regenerate health when attuned to water. Coupled with Signet of Restoration it should keep you alive without even activating your heal. I think I could use extra damage at full health because it applies to all attunements
* Arcane = 10: More AoE size for staff skills

I am looking for the best synergy without marrying to a single element, having active heals all the time and making the best profit from conjured weapons, glyphs and signets.

The flaw is the 20% chance of burn when you crit: if my crit chance is only 25% then I have only 5% to apply burn. However, if my crit chance is 50% then I have 10% of burn, which means that I can spam water spells and apply burns once in a while. But the nice skill here is Arcane Power: having 100% of crits makes my spam skills quite interesting for burn, and if that applies to each hit of Meteor Shower or Glyph of Storms then I see a lot of potential synergy here.

Edited by Meva, 09 March 2012 - 10:59 AM.
wrong skill name hehe

[Skaddix]

good move crit goes to 100% USE AN AOE AND THEY WILL BURN.

[EatThisShoe]

http://medias.luna-atra.fr/gw2/skill_tool/generator.php?lang=en&code=322220gj712e2flm00k0u0k0e0g0u0v101d1e

The primary focus of this build is to drop a Flamewall then swap into earth attunement and use the scepter to activate the fire combo field. Every scepter skill in earth attunement is either a physical projectile or a whirl finisher. Traits in earth are focused on damage, with +10% damage, 15% faster recharge, and 10% more damage when endurance is full. And in earth attunement with Rock Barrier, Stone Flesh, Signet of Earth, and 30 in Earth traits he should be fairly durable.

Speaking of endurance, that leads to the second focus of this build: Endurance regen. With pyromancer's Alacrity, and 20 points in arcane increasing boon duration I should be able to keep vigor from Phoenix up most of the time. Add Enduring Scepter and I can dodge a fair amount, and trigger Evasive Arcana.

I am aware of the apparent lack of synergy between Evasive Arcana and Enduring Damage, but my expectation is that I would dodge more against melee opponents, going back and forth across the Flamewall (which can be up 100% with traits) and Evasive Arcana should hit, since most dodge based traits from other classes appear to be PBAoE. Against ranged opponents dodging is not as necessary since I have Swirling Aura and Magnetic Wave, so I can simply stand behind my wall and get more bonus damage while ignoring most incoming attacks. I can still dodge any recognizable threats, and regen endurance to full quickly due to constant vigor and Enduring Scepter.

With minor master traits, arcane line, and evasive arcana the build should also spam a lot of PBAE without even trying. I expect there will be a short delay before going back to earth after refreshing firewall/phoenix, which gives me a good window to switch to water/air for whatever utility might be useful.

And then lastly I went into signets. Most of their abilities are redundant, more blind, more burning, and passive damage/toughness/healing. No need for signet of water with Phoenix and Magnetic Wave both with 15% faster recharge even. Signet of Earth -> Comet seems like a nice combo, since the Yogscast video seems to show comet striking multiple times.

I could replace the signets with anything really. But having simple redundancy and passives lets me focus on what the build is meant to do. Any signet could be dropped for a specific need. The only thing that feels lacking is mobility.

[Athru]

Hey EatThisShoe. I like your build, the one I've done it's pretty much about the same you want to do, but I'm like... a boon factory.
http://gw2.luna-atra...l0n0t0u191d1e1f
A lot of glyph synergy, flash lightning just for mobility when I need climbing mountains or whatever. I need damage? Just pop whatever glyph in fire attunement. Swiftness? Regen? Protection? Yes please. Also shocking aura gives me fury and swiftness again. I'll be a good kitter. And difficult to kill too.

[EatThisShoe]

I've considered similar builds myself. I am expecting that Signet of Healing will return a significant amount more healing than the glyph, otherwise there wouldn't be much of a point to the skill.

[Roan Rivers]

http://gw2.luna-atra...t0u191b1d1d1f09

My build is kinda half planned.  It's basically the true hybrid dagger guy that has elemental pets helping to overwhelm an opponent suddenly.  Was looking at the rank 15 minor skills for fire and earth there, how turning attunements does damage to nearby guys and I think the air and water will do the same, just blind and chill.  So being melee ranged with daggers, turning into different attunements, dodging casts a random attunement spell, elementals hitting on a guy, and a few "Oh shiz" traits and mist form to make finishing me off that much more difficult.  I brought along the glyph of storms cuz daggers don't really like large AoE apparently.  

Thoughts?  Opinions?  I like having, what I like to think above average health and toughness for an elementalist while several outside forces, along with me, do various amounts of damage on a person.

[Hexed]

http://gw2.luna-atra...00g0h0k0t0u1219

I saw this build somewhere and think it will do fairly well, but then again what do I know, I've never played GW.

[EatThisShoe]

Hexed said:

http://gw2.luna-atra...00g0h0k0t0u1219

I saw this build somewhere and think it will do fairly well, but then again what do I know, I've never played GW.

This build feels kind of all over the place to me. Grounded is a good trait, but it can only trigger from Shocking Aura (unpredictably) and Earthquake.

It takes Icy Mist to buff One With Mist, but doesn't bother to take Mist Form as a utility.

And then Pyromancer's Alacrity and Internal Fire make you want to stay in fire attunement for max DPS, but then I would be concerned that Signet of Fire's long duration while focusing on fire attunement, you might stack burning to the point that it was already up 100% and gain no additional DPS.

And it has Written in Stone for only that signet, which means you must intend to trigger it constantly.

The traits are all fine individually but it lacks synergy and focus.

[Hexed]

EatThisShoe said:

This build feels kind of all over the place to me. Grounded is a good trait, but it can only trigger from Shocking Aura (unpredictably) and Earthquake.

It takes Icy Mist to buff One With Mist, but doesn't bother to take Mist Form as a utility.

And then Pyromancer's Alacrity and Internal Fire make you want to stay in fire attunement for max DPS, but then I would be concerned that Signet of Fire's long duration while focusing on fire attunement, you might stack burning to the point that it was already up 100% and gain no additional DPS.

And it has Written in Stone for only that signet, which means you must intend to trigger it constantly.

The traits are all fine individually but it lacks synergy and focus.

Like i said just really messing around with it, ive never played GW before so was just looking at what looked alright, itll probably take me some ingame playing to get a grasp on what i would like to do PvP wise

http://gw2.luna-atra...00g0h0i0t0u1214

not sure if you would consider that any better changed utilites and traits a bit, like i said idk wtf im doing haha, i just like the dagger/dagger skill set and im not really sure why lol

Edited by Hexed, 21 March 2012 - 05:33 AM.
added link

[Stormcaller]

http://gw2.luna-atra...m0n0t0u0v141g07

The focus is on using air attunement to maintain a high movement speed with Lightning Flash being used to get out quickly of difficult decisions. Spamming blind will also be key against melee characters.  Although the idea focuses on using air most of the time, earth and water will of course be used when necessary (occasional swapping to earth+water will be used to cripple/chill enemies or for pumping out some healing). Fire won't be used so much while under pressure. When the pressure is off, fire can be used to dish out some quick nukes.

Signet of Water or Signet of Earth can be used (depending if condition removal or damage reduction is needed more while both limiting enemy mobility). If it's awesome enough, Glyph of Storms might be thrown in instead. Glyph of lesser Elementals is candidate as well.

Traits:
Zephyr's and Aeromancer's should be pretty obvious. Quick Glyph because of the glyphs used.  Glyph of Restoration will give more frequent healing as well as switftness.
There are 20 points in Fire simply to increase condition duration and overall DPS. The traits don't have much of an impact on the build so far.
Written in Stone is used to maintain the high mobility of the build (via signet of air) and to maintain any other signet used.
Cantrip Master is simply used to decrease the recharge of Lightning Flash.
Blasting Staff is used obviously for grater AoE damage. However there's a chance this will be switched out for Evasive Arcana depending on the effect that gives (and depending on the size difference Blasting Staff makes).

Taking advantage of traits in each trait line also makes this a fairly balanced build since there will be a fair amount of damage output, but the defensive specs aren't completely ignored.

Edited by Stormcaller, 21 March 2012 - 10:39 AM.

[Stalefish]

Nikorasu said:

I've been toying with the idea of a pure movement speed build for the Ele, since it seems to me it's the best class to achieve insane running speeds (good for taking Conquest points and WvWvW guerilla warfare). Here's what I have, any idea how to make it better with the current skills and traits?

http://medias.luna-a...u0j0m0o0u1b1d1f

Here's the absurd amount of movement speeds we can rack up:

+10% MS from Zephyr's speed
+15% MS from Windborne Dagger
+10% MS from Signet of Air (permanent thanks to Written in Stone
Swiftness from Shocking Aura (Zephyr's Boon)
Swiftness from Updraft
Swiftness from Glyph of Elemental Harmony
Swiftness / Charge from Ride the Lightning

Also, fire and earth attunements give movement abilities too. All swiftness-granting abilities have +30% duration thanks to the Arcane spec, and all air abilities have 15% cooldown reduction.

On top of that, we have a teleport in Lightning Flash, which helps getting places even faster.

Any idea to make this build even more mobile? Or else to increase its effectiveness in battle without sacrificing speed.

Mod edit: To stop several different threads from popping up about builds, lets try to keep all the build discussion on one thread for the moment. Keep in mind this thread is for serious contributions. If you are going to post your build, explain why you chose the skills/traits you did. If you are going to comment, offer some proper criticism.

Thanks.

"Swiftness is a boon that increases movement speed by 33%, excluding the passive effect from signet skills, which increase movement speed by 10%."

so the signet would be rather useless with all the swiftness you'll get from your build, I'd use cleansing fire instead cus in pvp that will probably give you more movement speed since everyone will try an cripple and freeze you

[Strumfeta]

what you guys thinking about earth magic looks very good for pvp with dagger/dagger weapons ,in combination with air magic  uber survivability and good dps.

Edited by Strumfeta, 22 March 2012 - 10:54 AM.