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[SuperNova]

The Build

(Original Build)
http://gw2skills.net...UloKbVuqkVNAZ6B

(New Build - thanks to politesowter)
http://gw2skills.net...UloKbVuqkVNAZ6B

There will be some stuff in there that makes you think "he must be trolling", but trust me it works.

How it Works

It's tanky - very tanky - and mostly kills people with Signet of Fire and bleeding combined with the usual Signet of Earth/Dragons Tooth/Phoenix.  That's pretty much it.  Obviously it is still capable of dishing out some good damage but as you can see there is no effort to crit people to oblivion, it's simple fire and bleeds mixed in with whatever else you can get to hit.

What else?

This build in particular is also permanent swiftness/high protection uptime.

How you might change it

You might go 10 Water for Shard of Ice, dropping 10 Air.  This will give your fire a bit more protection due to adding vulnerability to the Signets.  Any more suggestions, feel free to add.

Lava Tomb (now swapped out for Burning Fire (Fire 2)) - but feel free to try this out for a laugh.

This one is pretty much hilarious.  People who down you are generally on very low health, bleeding and burning to death themselves, and the last thing they want to see is a lava font at their feet as they are trying to finish you off.  I've weighed up the pro's and cons and for me, Lava Tomb is the best choice at 10 fire with this build.  If you are downed first, then your opponent goes down before he finishes you off, the damage from lava font will put you in the lead in the "throwing rocks at each other" stakes.

They might also just decide to leave you or dodge out of it, buying you more precious time.

Fire Shield

This one gets a bad rep but you're going to be seeing it a lot.  Honestly I think it's pretty good - I've seen some Unload thieves take themselves apart on this.

So how to play it?

I'm not for a minute suggesting this will work in tournaments, but it's working for me in sPvP.  Signet of Fire is key as it is the vast majority of your easily-landed damage output.  It's like 8K damage plus every 16 seconds if not removed, and condition removal is still a lottery in many ways.

Keybind Fire and Earth to good keys - I'm using Q and E.  As soon as you are rooted, hit E5 and use that "free" invulnerability.  Remember the blind at 3 can buy you more time - all the time your opponent is burning to hell due to Signet of Fire.  Your ranged defences are fantastic with S/F as well and with Magnetic Wave + Fire Shield you can have ranged profs crying while burning to death as well.

After you've got Fire and Earth mastered, concentrate on adding Air to your repertoire.  The knockdown at 5 is great, another blind at 3 and the projectile killer at 4 are all designed to save your life while your opponent burns and bleeds.

Here is a free pic of my lovely lass, just to break the monotony.



Strengths and Weaknesses

Very tanky.  It has very good "free" condition removal due to magnetic aura and Phoenix.  You are gaining health while being tanky due to the healing signet, all the while your opponent is burning and bleeding away.  If they don't have good condition removal they are toast for sure.

Which brings me to the obvious flaw - good condition removal is going to make your life a lot more difficult.  That's why you might go 10 in water for the vulnerability on signets - but don't forget you also have Water 2 which causes vulnerability.  That's adding a 4th attunement to your repertoire and if you're doing that then grats - you're already better than me at my own build.

Summary

This is quite easy to play as your main source of damage is a signet - SoF should be used on every cooldown and believe me it will kill people - especially those glass cannons who will melt under it.  There is no "bad" attunement to be in but obviously being in fire for extra damage and earth for extra defences makes the most sense.

You should be able to solo the mist bosses without breaking much sweat (once you've got it Svanir won't do any damage to you at all), so go try it out.

Question/Comments feel free to add.

Edited by SuperNova, 09 September 2012 - 10:58 AM.

[sanji2k3]

Hmm...sounds a bit crazy...i like it

So im atm actually going into SSS Builds...perhaps I will try it tonight.

Dont think Builds like these or SSS have to be great in tPvP cause atm the ele obviously is the supporting Mate here.

But the more I think about it....

Well it seems to me like this build is working great against ranged Profs like Mesmer, Rangers, DP Thiefs (are there any out there?). But...whats about the annoying Melees?
I have the Earth Invulnerability following the Fire Shield and a few blinds...but is there enough time that your SoF burns these enemys down?

Edited by sanji2k3, 06 September 2012 - 01:30 PM.

[SuperNova]

You have got to time your dodge for bulls charge/100b or you're in trouble.  I can generally kite "bad" melee by switching to earth fast (with hydromancy sigil and earth cripple) but a decent warrior or thief is a bit of a nightmare.  Thieves will be getting nerfed at least so I'm not too bothered about them, but yes I feel a well played GS warrior is the toughest opponent out there.

Edit - yeah, first line of defence is the dodge, and if that fails then you have earth 5 to fall back on.  You should already have him burning for a few seconds by then so just keep him occupied using air 5 and the blinds until SoF is ready again.  Hardly anyone survives two of them unless they are fast on removal.

Edited by SuperNova, 06 September 2012 - 01:58 PM.

[Jeordy]

Hm, interesting build. I like the idea of it. May try it out and tinker with it a bit.

Question: Does the Fire's Embrace Trait proccing of a fire shield count towards the traits that activate with an aura? Aka: Do Zephyr's Boon and Elemental Shielding activate when you use a signet?

[SuperNova]

Jeordy, on 06 September 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

Hm, interesting build. I like the idea of it. May try it out and tinker with it a bit.

Question: Does the Fire's Embrace Trait proccing of a fire shield count towards the traits that activate with an aura? Aka: Do Zephyr's Boon and Elemental Shielding activate when you use a signet?

Yes, hence the permanent swiftness.

[politesowter]

Interesting choices does lava font really work that well? I'd rather take the 10% extra damage in fire but that's a personal pref.

Also, how do you manage your conditions as 3 signets is all well and good but, surely you get wtfpwnd by those? or is the 1 condition every 10 seconds good enough? Did just noticed magnetic aura as well so actually that's not too bad

I will have a play with it tonight and let you know how I get along

[SuperNova]

Magnetic Aura removes 3 and Phoenix removes some as well.  Lava Font is more of a humour thing...it's worth it for that alone tbh because sometimes you will see 2 nearby people going going down to it.  The problem with the 10% extra damage is it doesn't work with the Signet of Fire (I'm guessing it only works on direct damage, not DoT's) - otherwise yes I'd go with that instead.

Edited by SuperNova, 06 September 2012 - 03:25 PM.

[politesowter]

Yeah, after looking further into this for rotation aspects it appears this could be quite the nasty little build.. chills instead of imobilize for combos, flame wall and DT / phoenix for might stacking.. then back into earth for bleeds and what not.

Will deffo play with this, out of curiosity what do your conditions tick for? the highest i ever got burning to get is something like 476 will be interesting to see what this build can put out.

And yeah i forgot phoenix removes conditions, man i love that ability

Edit :- Would Fire trait 2 Burning fire, add another 3 seconds onto SOF's duration or add a second stack of burning for 3 seconds?

Edited by politesowter, 06 September 2012 - 03:29 PM.

[SuperNova]

648 is standard tick for the SoF (x12 ticks in this build =7776 damage total).  Adding duration is how I was playing it before I tried the swiftness/fury build.  I was 30 fire for more duration but felt that the fire 30 abilities were very poor.  I had SoF ticking for as much as 9700 total with certain builds though.

edit - hm good catch on Fire 2 - that adds 4 ticks to the burning in this build for a total of 10368 damage.  There goes lava font lol.

Edited by SuperNova, 06 September 2012 - 03:39 PM.

[politesowter]

Fantastic I'll be on this tonight I'll let you know how I get on!

[SuperNova]

Cool, I've been playing it the past few nights and it feels very strong 1v1.

[Anlyon Spellrage]

Id love to add the OP to my guide if thats okay with you SuperNova. I think plenty of people could benefit from this!

[SuperNova]

Sure man fire away...pun intended!

[drk87]

Its a sad day when signets are one of our most reliable sources of damage.

[masterloup]

Been trying out this build for about 2 hours now and to be honest i find it horrible, The mobility is the worst i have ever seen, Your damage is way too low, You're "kinda" durable because of the focus offhand but no way enough to make up for the rest.

Also with rock barrier up (2600'ish armor) http://oi45.tinypic.com/25p4gat.jpg

Edited by masterloup, 06 September 2012 - 07:52 PM.

[SuperNova]

Yeah you get hit hard with heartseeker, but who doesn't.

I just soloed a mesmer and dual pistol thief with this, and 14 kills in a large group fight.  Didn't die once.



Not sure if you're serious about the mobility being bad...what are you comparing it to?  Also low damage?  You won't see BIG numbers a lot because of the low crit, but that's because it's not what it's supposed to do.  The damage is in no way low though.

drk87, on 06 September 2012 - 07:16 PM, said:

Its a sad day when signets are one of our most reliable sources of damage.

To be fair, there aren't many other abilities in the game currently that does over 10K damage with one keypress.

Edited by SuperNova, 06 September 2012 - 08:05 PM.

[corext]

SuperNova, on 06 September 2012 - 01:08 PM, said:

It's tanky - very tanky

Is this a joke? You are still incredibly squishy.

If you think this does good damage or is tanky (big lol here) you have never played another class. Yes I tried your build before judging then shortly went back to my guardian, in which I can out damage and out tank this build with only my scepters auto attack.
Id suggest every ele try another class so you have a good idea of what decent survivability and damage looks like.

[masterloup]

Quote

Not sure if you're serious about the mobility being bad...what are you comparing it to?

Anything? ride the lightning, shadowstep, shortbow skill #5. Warrior's greatsword whirlwind/charge. This build has no quick way to close the gap or escape

Your SoF burn is instantly cleansed if you fight someone with atleast 1/4 of a brain and earth skill #1 doesn't  stack condition fast enough to be a treat(sp?)

Edited by masterloup, 06 September 2012 - 08:09 PM.

[Athletic]

If you want a more tanky spec I think it's better going staff.


0/0/10/30/30
dwayna runes
clerics amulet

Relying on signets seems a bit boring.

[SuperNova]

masterloup, on 06 September 2012 - 08:06 PM, said:

Anything? ride the lightning, shadowstep, shortbow skill #5. Warrior's greatsword whirlwind/charge. This build has no quick way to close the gap or escape

You do realise that it can have permanent swiftness?  What you mean is it doesn't have ride the lightning...well yeah.

Quote

Your SoF burn is instantly cleansed if you fight someone with atleast 1/4 of a brain and earth skill #1 doesn't  stack condition fast enough to be a treat(sp?)

So people are blowing their condition removal on one fire condition?  First I saw it.

Edited by SuperNova, 06 September 2012 - 08:14 PM.

[drk87]

I wish burning stacked intensity instead of duration like bleed, that small change would be pretty good.

[masterloup]

Quote

You do realise that it can have permanent swiftness?  What you mean is it doesn't have ride the lightning...well yeah.

Wow, how useful. Specially when being slowed for being in combat, crippled, chilled or rooted or shoted at from 1200 range.

Quote

So people are blowing their condition removal on one fire condition?  First I saw it.

Are you saying when you see a 16 second burning on you, you just ignore it and move on? Also most class have more than one condition removal skill

[Isms]

Honestly you're missing out on half of your build's potential. I do run a focus aura build in tournaments and it works very well. You are slightly tanky, but more focused on shutting down potential threats with constant stuns, chills, knockdowns, etc.
http://gw2skills.net...sjYH7Oudk7MMYWC

Your goal here is to stay with your team and keep up perma swiftness, fury, and protection on the group, as well as the benefits from the auras themselves. DPS is not your concern with this build, but more of a byproduct. It's your job to lock down the most potential threats with your chills, and lock down targets with knockdowns and immobilizes. I honestly feel this build is more like a mesmer in GW1 than anything else in this game, as it is a cruel build to play. I'd avoid the scepter at all costs with this build, as the dagger lightning aura stun is too important, and dagger water has too many chills to pass up.

As far as your title goes saying (if you're having trouble), this is by far the most difficult build of any class I've come across, as the micro management is seemingly infinite in size. But it's a whole lot of fun to play.

Edited by Isms, 06 September 2012 - 08:45 PM.

[SuperNova]

masterloup, on 06 September 2012 - 08:25 PM, said:

Wow, how useful. Specially when being slowed for being in combat, crippled, chilled or rooted or shoted at from 1200 range.

And what else do ele's have that helps exactly that makes you call this "the worst mobility you've seen"?

Quote

Are you saying when you see a 16 second burning on you, you just ignore it and move on? Also most class have more than one condition removal skill

Are you saying that you are perfectly tracking every condition you have on you so that you can remove it so fast that it barely registers?  Each tick is 650 damage.  Not all fights are 1v1's either, do you have any idea how fast stuff goes down when they are in a fight with somebody else and you put SoF on them?  There's no big red circle for them to dodge like with Dragon's tooth.

I'm sorry you can't use it but believe me, that's your problem.  I'm having plenty of success with it and there is no prof I feel like I have no chance against.

Edited by SuperNova, 06 September 2012 - 08:35 PM.

[SuperNova]

Isms, on 06 September 2012 - 08:28 PM, said:

Honestly you're missing out on half of your build's potential. I do run a focus aura build in tournaments and it works very well. You are slightly tanky, but more focused on shutting down potential threats with constant stuns, chills, knockdowns, etc.
http://gw2skills.net...sjYH7Oudk7MMYWC

Your goal here is to stay with your team and keep up perma swiftness, fury, and protection on the group, as well as the benefits from the auras themselves. DPS is not your concern with this build, but more of a byproduct. It's your job to lock down the most potential threats with your chills, and lock down targets with knockdowns and immobilizes. I honestly feel this build is more like a mesmer in GW1 than anything else in this game, as it is a cruel build to play. I'd avoid the scepter at all costs with this build, as the dagger lightning aura stun is too important, and dagger water has too many chills to pass up.

Yep I immediately recognised the potential of a water support build with this.  Yours is very similar to what I'd run but honestly I'd ditch Air Signet and keep fire just for the damage pressure.  You could ditch Burning Precision for Burning Fire maybe?  How much would SoF in your build damage for?  5-6K?

[masterloup]

Quote

And what else do ele's have that helps exactly that makes you call this "the worst mobility you've seen"?

Ride the lightning is pretty much the only thing. This is why i laugh a little inside when people say the ele have great mobility. If you want to see a class with GREAT mobility go take a look at the thief. All their teleport/shadowstep completely ignore movement impairing effect.(except root i think) THIS is great mobility. Running X% faster than someone (who probably have access to swiftness aswell) isn't.

Quote

Are you saying that you are perfectly tracking every condition you have on you so that you can remove it so fast that it barely registers?

Yes, i do actually. If i see a stack of burning that last 15+ second (you can easily tell with the white line thingy around the icon) i remove it asap because i know it's going to hurt me more than anything in the long run. The same could be said with 10+ stack of bleeding

Edited by masterloup, 06 September 2012 - 09:43 PM.

[SuperNova]

Well I sure didn't make any claims about it being the most mobile spec ever, however it does have on-demand swiftness which can be permanent so frankly to claim it has the worst mobility ever is pure bullshit.  If you and your opponent are both crippled and you have swiftness on-demand, you're doing ok.

As for removing conditions, yes clearly that is a drawback and is one that I noted in my OP.  However, you make it sound like everyone is stacking so much condition removal and is so uber skilled that they know to burn theirs as soon as SoF hits.  Well you know what?  Even if they are they are still going to NOT be removing the rest of the conditions this build can throw at them.

Earth + signets alone has 5 conditions it can put on people within a very short space of time (say 5 seconds).  And it is not like the build has no hitting power - it is very low on crit but can reach 35%+ with Fury.  It still is near 2900 attack.  This is NOT a soft hitting build - it's just steady damage instead of constant crits.  Maybe it's a bit more complicated than I had assumed.

[masterloup]

Saying it had the worst mobility ever was a bit much, but its mobility is really not good though. Swiftness in most case is overrated. Swiftness only work when you run foward and is reduced greatly by both being in combat and movement impairing effects and if by miracle you manage to create some distance between you and your oponent, he will simply range you or close the gap with shadow step, bull charge/GS/sword's charge, ranger's GS charge, etc

Don't get me wrong, maybe i just suck with your build but i just feel like it won't be viable in most situation since the burst combo is probably D tooth + phoenix. Which is very easy to avoid(even with signet of earth) and the condition damage from earth scepter 1 /SoF is too easily cleansable reducing your total damage to 0 in many situation.

But as i said maybe i just suck with the build.

[SuperNova]

It's not about the burst combo - those are just the icing on the cake.  A better player than me will be able to pull them off with far more regularity than I can...but even without DT + Phoenix I find that the Signet and E1 + the huge amount of cc is enough to get most people running or dead.



This is not a fluke because I'm doing it too much for it to be - it's a tight losing game where I am 100% sure that my constant damage output is making the difference to the team - obviously I can be doing a job roaming instead of zerging with the rest - but I'm just trying to prove the point that this *is* capable of standing on its own as "dps".  If I can do that, why should I be roaming or support?

Yes there are games where it feels like it falls flat on it's face...but I'm sure everybody has that.  All I know is that I feel very comfortable 1v1 vs anyone.



This guy here jumped me from the blindspot hill off the mine and basically 1-shot me.  Then he proceeded to jump on my body like he was something good.  Well I jumped on his twice after that and he's in no doubt who the better player is.  Considering the damage output I doubt any other ele would even try.  I absolutely 100% believe that this is the strongest 1v1 build in the entire game that I have seen so far and something very like it will be proven to be the best by some player who is a lot better than me.

It will include SoF, guaranteed.

Edited by SuperNova, 06 September 2012 - 11:23 PM.

[Isms]

SuperNova, on 06 September 2012 - 08:46 PM, said:

Yep I immediately recognised the potential of a water support build with this.  Yours is very similar to what I'd run but honestly I'd ditch Air Signet and keep fire just for the damage pressure.  You could ditch Burning Precision for Burning Fire maybe?  How much would SoF in your build damage for?  5-6K?

I've questioned it too. I'm usually in the middle of the battle with this build, so SoA usually helps with the blind (and especially with the quick activation). It helps with telegraphed skills like eviscerate as well. It really just depends on your preference. The 20s cooldown is nice too.