16 replies to this topic

[SpelignErrir]

I run this build: http://gw2skills.net...EUIACjHiACJiCPA

The traits seem to synergize with each other, and even with my gear (listed later) I have a ~40% crit chance, 50 bonus crit damage, over 3k attack, 2.5k armor, and 14k health, which, in my opinion is rather decent. I rarely go down in dungeons and am able to do a respectable amount of damage.

In open world pve, I use D/D and in dungeons, scepter/dagger or staff depending on the situation.

All my weapons and armor are berserker's with emerald (knight) orbs, save for my helm, which is a pow/vit/tough helm. My amulet and accessories are valkyrie's (accessories are still masterwork :c) and my rings are knight's.

This provides me with constant healing from signet of restoration, even when I use it. Also, with only my utility signets, I am able to keep 100% fury and as good as 50-60% uptime of protection, except when I'm destroying objects and replace signet of fire with a frost bow.

I see most builds using cantrips (which I do too in pvp), but since most of them are defensive, I see no use for them in pve considering using signets, I never die, and losing out on a bunch of fury/protection and sustained healing doesn't seem worth it to me.

[WildHeart]

I don't know for sure why but for me...I don't like signets
They are good in the hand of elite players but I can't seem to find a good use of them beside single target fight.
and they eat up my utility slots for cantrip and arcane.
Yes... there's no use of them in PvE but in the dungeons is different story. (Unless you can perform perfect dodge...)
For signet of restoration...I still prefer glyph of elemental harmony for extra boons it grant.
And I can easily keep up my boons without using signets (using water, monk, and earth runes combine with 20pts in arcane instead)
One last thing...signet aura builds need you to traited in 20 fire (for fiery embrace)
and 30 earth (for written in the stone) to be effective
and leave you with only free 20 pts to spend somewhere else.

[Rumstein]

Firstly, signets suck for an ele in my opinion.

Fire gives you nice crit chance (not power? Why?) but the burn is mediocre and irrelevant compared to other fire skills.
Air is nice with the aoe blind on use, but the passive is mediocre (eles have so much swiftness that this speed is obsolete)
Water as condition removal is nice, and the chill is ok (I like this signet, but there are better skills)
Earth is situationally good for the immobilize, but the passive is crap.
Healing is crap both as a passive and active. Doesn't heal enough at either.

Earth I only use for boss in dredge fractal. Water is not as good as cleansing flame.

Then you also can't do aura quite so well as a signet build due to wanting 20 fire and 30 earth, leaving you with 20 (when you want 10 air and 30 water...)

Cantrips, arcane and glyphs are just so much better than signets it's not funny.

[Fenice_86]

The build is too selfish, that's it more or less, before quitting and before moving to cantrips i was using it but... it's just too selfish, you dont bring anything valuable to the party

my 2 cent

[lmaonade]

because cantrips are much better, every single one of them is a stun break, something Ele's need since they have very little access to stability. Try doing Arah exp path 2 without a stun break and watch yourself be chain stunned to death

Edited by lmaonade, 24 December 2012 - 11:16 AM.

[MegaCotts]

If you drop points from earth and pump them into water you can use Powerful Aura and then apply fury, protection and switness nearly all the time to party members if you spec right, as well as apply vulnerability to foes. Also I'd use Signet of Water for condition removal.

Agreed though that cantrips give you more in the way of stun break and grant might, regen and vigor which can be necessary in dungeons and vital in sPvP.

At the end of the day it's all situational and this build is fine for running around solo in the open world pve.

Edited by MegaCotts, 24 December 2012 - 01:08 PM.

[SpelignErrir]

Rumstein, on 24 December 2012 - 06:55 AM, said:

Firstly, signets suck for an ele in my opinion.

Fire gives you nice crit chance (not power? Why?) but the burn is mediocre and irrelevant compared to other fire skills.
Air is nice with the aoe blind on use, but the passive is mediocre (eles have so much swiftness that this speed is obsolete)
Water as condition removal is nice, and the chill is ok (I like this signet, but there are better skills)
Earth is situationally good for the immobilize, but the passive is crap.
Healing is crap both as a passive and active. Doesn't heal enough at either.

Earth I only use for boss in dredge fractal. Water is not as good as cleansing flame.

Then you also can't do aura quite so well as a signet build due to wanting 20 fire and 30 earth, leaving you with 20 (when you want 10 air and 30 water...)

Cantrips, arcane and glyphs are just so much better than signets it's not funny.

Ah, I think you misunderstand the use of the signets. The only signets whose active and passive effects are, imo, useful, are restoration. Air's active is very useful, and there is no cast time, and you get the aura as well. I use fire and earth simply because they have low cooldowns, the better to apply my auras with, not because they have incredibly useful passives or actives.

[DarkOrange]

signets with 20 in fire and 30 in water are incredibly good for supporting your team. I use signet of air in my D/D Auramancer build to give an extra aura, 5 seconds of protection and 8 seconds of fury and swiftness to my whole team. On a 20 sec cooldown this is very good. Plus, the passive speed increase is very useful, and aoe blind on activation with no cast time is great.

[WildHeart]

Take note that with D/D or D/F you gain access to 3 auras not 2 (included RingOfFire/ FireWall + MagneticGrasp combo which have low cooldown)
with these 3 you can easily keep up your boons without using signet

my regular rotation for keeping up my aura (and boons) with D/D is...
RingOfFire > MangeticGrasp > Shocking/ Freezing Aura > RingOfFire > MangeticGrasp > Freezing/ Shocking Aura > ...
insert anything in between to do dmg or adjust to the situation

[DarkOrange]

WildHeart, on 24 December 2012 - 04:44 PM, said:

Take note that with D/D or D/F you gain access to 3 auras not 2 (included RingOfFire/ FireWall + MagneticGrasp combo which have low cooldown)
with these 3 you can easily keep up your boons without using signet

my regular rotation for keeping up my aura (and boons) with D/D is...
RingOfFire > MangeticGrasp > Shocking/ Freezing Aura > RingOfFire > MangeticGrasp > Freezing/ Shocking Aura > ...
insert anything in between to do dmg or adjust to the situation

As a note, RoF -> Magnetic Grasp only procs the aura on yourself, which isn't great if you are going for a support based aura build. This is why I still use a signet.

[WildHeart]

DarkOrange, on 24 December 2012 - 05:33 PM, said:

As a note, RoF -> Magnetic Grasp only procs the aura on yourself, which isn't great if you are going for a support based aura build. This is why I still use a signet.

Yeah,,,I know that which is suck... I'm running PowerfulAuras build, too.
But with only Shocking/ FreezingAura + ElementalAttunement Trait
That's enough for me to keep up boons to my whole team.
Using water/ monk/ earth rune and 20pts in arcane

[DarkOrange]

WildHeart, on 24 December 2012 - 10:21 PM, said:

Yeah,,,I know that which is suck... I'm running PowerfulAuras build, too.
But with only Shocking/ FreezingAura + ElementalAttunement Trait
That's enough for me to keep up boons to my whole team.
Using water/ monk/ earth rune and 20pts in arcane

Ah ok. I've been debating whether to drop 10 points from fire to take 10 points in arcana, but I'm not sure whether it is worth it.

[Shrimps]

DarkOrange, on 24 December 2012 - 10:42 PM, said:

Ah ok. I've been debating whether to drop 10 points from fire to take 10 points in arcana, but I'm not sure whether it is worth it.

I had that conflict as well, and I tried it out. I think it is worth it because my boons are a little bit longer and attunement recharge is faster. Also, Evasive Arcana is nice. Idk what you were originally running, probably 3 stacks of might with cantrips? But you'll live without those 3 stacks

Now back on topic, that build might be usable for regular PvE but for dungeons I think that it doesn't put too much into helping the party out and also your boons lose some of their longevity if you don't put points into Arcana. Finally, I simply don't really enjoy signets because cantrips are simply superior in my opinion with their no cast time and stun breaks.

[Aetou]

Elemental Attunement is still pretty much the first ten points I spent in any build.  It really is that awesome.  Fire-Signet Auramentalist is just gimmicky, to be honest.  While it looks great on paper the twenty points in fire can be better spent elsewhere.  Putting 30 points in Earth and having 3 Signets on your bar is fine (but suits Staff better than D/D, and should really be part of a Condition build) but if you want to use Staff effectively you NEED Arcane 20.  That requirement alone basically kills your build for the weapon, meaning you are left with just the 1 aura and so making staff auramentalists very lame (but keeping the Signet element IS viable.)

[DarkOrange]

Shrimps, on 26 December 2012 - 04:29 AM, said:

I had that conflict as well, and I tried it out. I think it is worth it because my boons are a little bit longer and attunement recharge is faster. Also, Evasive Arcana is nice. Idk what you were originally running, probably 3 stacks of might with cantrips? But you'll live without those 3 stacks

Now back on topic, that build might be usable for regular PvE but for dungeons I think that it doesn't put too much into helping the party out and also your boons lose some of their longevity if you don't put points into Arcana. Finally, I simply don't really enjoy signets because cantrips are simply superior in my opinion with their no cast time and stun breaks.

I am currently running 20/10/10/30/0, with the fire trait that procs an aura on the party when I use signets, (I run sig of air, cos it has no cast time and a fast recharge), so dropping 10 out of fire would mean that I lose 1 of my party wide auras and 3 party wide boons for 10% boon duration and 1 party wide boon on attunement switch. I'm not sure which is more useful.

[Shrimps]

DarkOrange, on 26 December 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

I am currently running 20/10/10/30/0, with the fire trait that procs an aura on the party when I use signets, (I run sig of air, cos it has no cast time and a fast recharge), so dropping 10 out of fire would mean that I lose 1 of my party wide auras and 3 party wide boons for 10% boon duration and 1 party wide boon on attunement switch. I'm not sure which is more useful.

Ah I see, then in your case it may not be worth it. I was unaware of your build, but it seems that keeping those 10 points in fire is probably a good decision.

[McGinnis]

I'm using mostly the same build as the OP at the moment. 20/10/30/0/10, though. And I use two signet utilities instead of three (I simply cannot live without Cleansing Flame).

It is, indeed, a very selfish build, but it's also incredibly effective. Fury is up permanently (as is Swiftness, but that's less of an issue because of Air Signet) so I don't need as much precision on gear. I often combo it with Earth Signet. The passive toughness never hurts, but the immobilize is great for general PvE. And the AoE blind on Air Signet can be used in so many useful ways on a relatively low cooldown.

The Restoration Signet takes a bit of getting used to. True, it doesn't heal as much as the Glyph, for instance, but that's only if you compare the raw healing. In most fights I'll be casting so much that the passive healing + active component heals for quite a bit.

It also keeps protection up for a good amount of time (anywhere between 60 and 80% depending on how I use the auras in water/air attunement). And that's with just three signets (heal + 2 utilities).

That said, I probably would not use this build in harder dungeons (lack of stability really hurts). The only real team support I bring is a few boons from attunement swapping and some innate support from water. For solo play, though, it's one of the most fun D/D builds I've tried so far, and very effective.