1 reply to this topic

[Kapitein]

At first I'd like to introduce myself !
My name is Yannick, and from today on I'm a level 80 Elementalist.
My main interest in Arena Nets Guild Wars 2 lies at The Eternal Battleground and Boderlands, thus it'll be the main priority regarding gearing and what so.

Although this Elementalist could use some serious help regarding gearing and building a traits list. The thing is, I'm not entirely sure whether I should aim for.
Would it be glass cannon, bunker, I have no clue ..
A glass cannon setup would be able to pull out some serious numbers on a zerg (staff)
although it's survival won't cut it nine out of the ten.

Quote

there is nothing funnier then a Power crit damage precision staff elem that use fire storm with glyph of storm and glyph of elemental power combined with sigil of fire (AoE fire blast on crit) and 33% burning on crit trait.

This quote I found on the official forums made me quit stoked running a glass cannon setup. I'm just not entirely sure I should go for it tho. Another thing I would like to be capable off is running staff/sd-dd. And as a glass cannon dude that won't end quit well.

Anyhow, another thing whether I'm not entirely sure about is the '' condition / crit '' discussion. Should I stack crit, or be it power ?

I'm looking forward to some advices, thanks in advance !

edit; either way, I think I'm fully set upon going damage only in W3, though the whole gearing/traits issue remains.

Edited by Kapitein, 21 October 2012 - 07:59 PM.

[Varun]

Glass cannon staff build (30/20/0/0/20) is indeed very gratifying when you're in a keep defense or are supported by a big zerg yourself. You'll see massive numbers pop up when you open meteor storm on an enemy zerg, combined with slows and glyph of storms you can live some epic moments.

One anecdote from me: while defending stonemist, the enemy zerg got through the inner gate and was packed in the tiny small corridor leading up to the keep lord, I had stayed behind a pillar and got an entire meteor shower + glyph of storms off on them + slow and shard from water. Epicness ensued, and their assault failed because of that.

For those purposes, you should go for crit damage in my opinion, you want to kill things quickly, before they run out of range of your aoe's, I'm sure condition damage is viable on several elementalist builds, but I personally dislike it.

With a DPS staff build though, you will not win any 1vs1's, except if the opponents are majorly outgeared or outskilled. 2-buttonspammers with sufficient gear level can and will absolutely destroy you in the field.

I'm personally running a full exotic valkyrie set with mostly beryl jewelry and eagle runes now, I use S/D while moving to places and then switch to staff upon arrival. I have about 17k+ basic health which goes up to 19k+ depending on how many orbs we own. With this I haven't lost many 1vs1 situations yet, even 1vs2 I manage and often win. Depending on the gear situation of the other players however, I still get lolspammed to death by thiefs (whom I usually don't even see before I'm downed, due to server lag on stealth) and ranged warriors / rangers. The rest of the classes really need to  do their best to kill me.

Edited by Varun, 21 October 2012 - 08:42 PM.