9 replies to this topic

[Verificus]

I can't remember, or find, the topic I read it in. But some guy claimed he made a DPS build (don't know if it revolved around DD, Crit or Cond.) that had Water as the primary attunement.

I've been trying to find out a similar build like that but had no success. Aren't Water spells inherently low damage? What can one do to make this at all viable as a main damage dealing attunement. I started out as staff water and played primarly as support with my friend. I was also able to outheal most damage thrown at me however the killspeed was beyond slow. I also have a feeling that at my current level I'll not be able to outheal the damage I take aswell.

So I ask, does anyone know or remember the guy who posted that here and can link me to his build? Or, maybe you have a build of your own that focusses on Water that you'd like to share.

I've tried a Crit build myself but its like a watered down version (no pun intended) of light and fire crits. Also the only condition that the Water spells can inflict that might be able to up the damage is Vulnerability. However even at 25 stacks that is only 25% more damage taken (it's 1% per stack right). And it seems hard to get even 15 stacks of it.

Anyway, input is apperciated

[Anam Itheoir]

I ran a main water dps til lvl 30. It is slower, but you don't die.  I still use it to stack vulnerability after switching attunements to build up boons.  Currently I still have more points in water, but staying in any single Attunement I found boring..  However, I have found it to be more beneficial to run a Deep water build but you rotate through your attunements.  Even in a deep water build your air and fire attacks will hit higher.

The only viable water/support dps build is D/D.  Water 2 at 16 stacks of vulnerability hits like a truck. Would I do it again?  Nope while it's really tough to kill me the damage is going to be lower.  Water is  support attunement.  It stacks vulnerability and chills.

I have gotten to 16 stacks pretty quickly, and will generally get to 11 or 14 on any fight.  The key is making sure that your target is close enough to get hit with each thrown dagger twice.  Remember, it hits once going out for 1 stack than again on the return.  It's really strong in aoe situations where it hits everyone in line with it.  The best part is that you can throw it through one person run away and it will follow you in whatever direction you head hitting everyone it passes.

Edited by Anam Itheoir, 07 September 2012 - 04:30 PM.

[ToyChristopher]

I've been wondering about a water build that relied on Bountiful Power to boost your damage via boons. It seems like it could be really powerful in groups.

Edited by ToyChristopher, 08 September 2012 - 06:37 PM.

[Verificus]

ToyChristopher, on 08 September 2012 - 06:34 PM, said:

I've been wondering about a water build that relied on Bountiful Power to boost your damage via boons. It seems like it could be really powerful in groups.

I don't know.. Lets say you hit for 500 damage with water. eveen if you had 50 boons on you that would amount to 1000 damage instead. Air and Fire laugh at 1000 damage.

[Anam Itheoir]

Verificus, on 08 September 2012 - 10:16 PM, said:

I don't know.. Lets say you hit for 500 damage with water. eveen if you had 50 boons on you that would amount to 1000 damage instead. Air and Fire laugh at 1000 damage.

True, but the difference isn't that great.  It's more like 750 damage for water, and 1000 for air and fire. The biggest difference is that fire has 5 attacks, air has 3 and water has 2. So while the damage isn't a gigantic difference the amount of times you can apply the max damage is greater with fire, air, and earth.

[bhavv]

I'm definitely using water as my third trait now because having at least 10 points helps a fair bit in dungeons.

There are various ways of using it:

30 fire / 30 air / 10 water DPS build with the water perk that boosts your damage over 90% health in the main game, and swap to 20% faster cooldowns on water spells for dungeons.

30 fire / 20 air / 20 water for extra healing power and capable DPS.

20 fire / 20 air / 30 water cantrip mastery build for dungeon healing, as in the thread I made. For pure DPS though, I doubt water will beat 30 fire / 30 air / 10 wherever else, but its definitely a very viable splash on top of Fire + Air.

Edited by bhavv, 09 September 2012 - 08:24 AM.

[Anam Itheoir]

Okay I correct my above statement. At lvl 59,  Cone of Cold is rediculously powerful I saw a 1.5k tick. It's the second hardest hitting attack we have especially with power and precision gear.  Pick up Zephyr's boon and you have an almost guaranteed crit.

I run water dps currently  and it's leagues more fun than bleeds or fire, but I will admit it's slightly less powerful, but it works for my guild.  Healing plus vulnerability stacking.  We have a condition ranger who stacks bleeds, and I use signet of fire to get burning on the target from that point on it's vulnerability stacking and then swapping through attunements till I get back to water and getting the boons going.  Once there we blow things up.

My guild's group runs
Warrior
mesmer
Ranger
Engineer
Elementalist

This means we have a ton of different conditions if we wanted to go condition stacking so the warrior or I will go burst.  Water is actually a better burst than Air for D/D builds.  Air hits for around 580 if you get both ticks to hit on the whip at lvl 59.  While dagger hits for about 480 if you get both to stack with zero, but the key Cone of Cold.  That thing ticks upwards.  So it starts at say 400 and it's last tick hits for 1400.  If you get stacks of vulnerability going it is incredible.  Plus 20 stacks of Vulnerability will greatly benefit everyone else's damage.

My current build

My build at 80

Edited by Anam Itheoir, 11 September 2012 - 11:36 PM.

[forevrzero]

Quote

but the key Cone of Cold.  That thing ticks upwards.  So it starts at say 400 and it's last tick hits for 1400

Check your combat log, most channeled spells add up the damage they do, so you see bigger numbers displayed towards the end but it's still only actually hitting for a small amount per. I just checked CoC and it hits 4x for about the same amount, so in your case it ticks for about ~400 every tick, that 1400 you see at the end is the total amount of damage CoC has done over it's duration, not the size of the individual tick.

[Krewe_1986]

Has anyone else tried a build that centers around water or is it not even feasible? I'm losing interest in my ele at 34 after being pigeon holed into fire/earth for DPS most of the time

[Verificus]

Krewe_1986, on 13 September 2012 - 04:05 AM, said:

Has anyone else tried a build that centers around water or is it not even feasible? I'm losing interest in my ele at 34 after being pigeon holed into fire/earth for DPS most of the time

It is doable but you'll get lesser results since their base damage is lower than all other attunements and no matter how much power/prec u stack the other ones will always out dps it. However it is doable and fun, you can still kill reasonably fast and have very good healing too. In sPvP it's really nice too, wvw, not so much.