21 replies to this topic

[HurricaneMP]

Hey all, been playing WvW for around 3 months now, currently I’m using D/D and Staff.
My build is 20/10/10/10/20 and I use P/V/T armor with sup runes of the earth.
For accessories I use all Berserker’s gear.
I rarely die and can deal a kitten load of damage atm, been thinking about more survivability for when I get a Commanders tag.
I’ve been thinking about taking 10 out of Fire and swapping it to Water, losing the +5damage Fire trait and picking up cleansing wave in the Water line.
Also changing my Berserker’s trinkets to P/V/T also, I know the trait point swaps would give me an extra 1k ish health, what kind of gains would the P/V/T accessories give me though? everything Exotic of course.
Also would these changes totally gimp my damage output?

Edited by HurricaneMP, 11 February 2013 - 04:40 PM.

[Mitch]

Try something like 0/10/0/30/30 (or 0/15/0/25/30) water magic just has a lot more useful traits than fire and the 25 point is a nice damage boost, taking 30 in Arcana is pretty much a given for any build, the cooldown on attunements is amazing and the spell on dodge trait is still really really good.

As far as items, I'm not sure what is best, probably PVT or H P T armor with berserker trinkets is fine.

[Ashin Dreidon]

Mitch, on 11 February 2013 - 06:24 PM, said:

Try something like 0/10/0/30/30 (or 0/15/0/25/30) water magic just has a lot more useful traits than fire and the 25 point is a nice damage boost, taking 30 in Arcana is pretty much a given for any build, the cooldown on attunements is amazing and the spell on dodge trait is still really really good.

As far as items, I'm not sure what is best, probably PVT or H P T armor with berserker trinkets is fine.

The 0/10/0/30/30 is what I run in sPvP and WvW and I actually do more damage than when I ran 10 in Fire.  After the Evasive Arcana nerf I messed around with dropping Arcana to 20, but as Mitch says having 30 seems a necessity.  You will probably notice an increase in damage by speccing higher into Water oddly enough, as one of our most powerful passive traits for damage is Water 25, Bountiful Power.  With 30 in Arcane, you will have great boon duration, and even moreso if you rune for it in WvW.  Each boon you stack is +2% damage, so you will easily see a boost of about 10%.  Also, when I feel pretty safe, I often take Vital Striking in Water as well.

I switch around my Water/Arcane traits pretty often.  With essentially all D/D builds you will want Zephyr's Boon glued to your traits, especially with increased boon duration.  You'll have nearly perma-fury, which will make up for any lost precision from not speccing highly into Air.

As far as gear, I'm still in the process of coming up with an ideal pairing to what I run in PvP, but I use a mixture of Knight's and P/V/T for WvW with nearly all Berserker Trinkets except one that is Valkyrie for added Vitality.  I'm still experimenting with blending a good mix.

Edit- As for weapons/runes, I run Battle/Force.  I sometimes run Energy/Force, but if I'm running Renewing Stamina I notice I have constant vigor, so with wise dodging you can run Battle/Force for an increase in damage.  For WvW I tend to use boon duration runes such as Water and Fire/Strength.  I'm lazy and don't like dungeons so I don't have Monk runes, but those would be even better. (Sup.Water, Sup. Monk, Maj. Water).

Good luck!

Edit:
Don't mean to spam you with a giant wall of text, but one thing to note is that in WvW if you need to swtich to staff with a 0/10/0/30/30 you can easily re-trait on the spot without having to change much.  I switch from Zephyr's Boon to Quick Glyphs and then switch an arcane trait to Blasting Staff.

Edited by Ashin Dreidon, 17 February 2013 - 01:04 AM.

[Mitch]

Ashin Dreidon, on 12 February 2013 - 03:28 AM, said:

Don't mean to spam you with a giant wall of text, but one thing to note is that in WvW if you need to swtich to staff with a 0/10/0/30/30 you can easily re-trait on the spot without having to change much.  I switch from Zephyr's Boon to Quick Glyphs and then switch an arcane trait to Blasting Staff.

And powerful aura to cleansing water (assuming you took powerful auras, which obviously is next to useless if all you do is run around solo).

[HurricaneMP]

Thanks for the replies guys! I'll be reworking some of those changes into my build in the next few days,
Thanks!

[Ashin Dreidon]

Yup, switch out Powerful Aura to Cleansing Water when using staff.  I really like the 0/10/0/30/30 for being able to bounce between D/D and Staff. I don't often use S/D anymore, but I really don't see myself moving away from that spec.

[Caffynated]

You can still run Zephyr's Boon and Powerful Aura with staff. You get two auras, one directly with magnetic aura and the other from using a blast finisher or 2 (eruption and arcane wave) in your frost field (water 4).

[Mitch]

Caffynated, on 13 February 2013 - 06:35 AM, said:

You can still run Zephyr's Boon and Powerful Aura with staff. You get two auras, one directly with magnetic aura and the other from using a blast finisher or 2 (eruption and arcane wave) in your frost field (water 4).

Aura's acquired by combo's don't work with powerful aura's, you can still use those traits yes, but it's often better not to, cleansing water combined with staff water 5 removes up to 4 conditions to allies in the area which I'd argue is better than giving up to 5 people a short magnetic aura. Zephyr's Boon is great but with 1 aura it might be better to opt for more endurance while channeling (staff skills often have considerable channel times) or faster recharge on glyphs, depending on your 6-0 skills.

[Caffynated]

Mitch, on 15 February 2013 - 03:16 PM, said:

Aura's acquired by combo's don't work with powerful aura's, you can still use those traits yes, but it's often better not to, cleansing water combined with staff water 5 removes up to 4 conditions to allies in the area which I'd argue is better than giving up to 5 people a short magnetic aura. Zephyr's Boon is great but with 1 aura it might be better to opt for more endurance while channeling (staff skills often have considerable channel times) or faster recharge on glyphs, depending on your 6-0 skills.

Frost aura from Frozen Ground + blast finisher definitely works with powerful aura and zephyr's boon.

Cleansing water is also incredible.

[FoxBat]

Ashin Dreidon, on 12 February 2013 - 03:28 AM, said:

I sometimes run Battle/Energy

I would recommend against "sometimes" running absolutely useless combos.

The cooldown on battle will block your energy sigil every time.

[Ashin Dreidon]

FoxBat, on 16 February 2013 - 07:14 AM, said:

I would recommend against "sometimes" running absolutely useless combos.

The cooldown on battle will block your energy sigil every time.

I meant I switch out Battle for Energy, I realize that wasn't clear.  My mistake!

Edited by Ashin Dreidon, 17 February 2013 - 01:07 AM.

[Mitch]

Caffynated, on 16 February 2013 - 05:28 AM, said:

Frost aura from Frozen Ground + blast finisher definitely works with powerful aura and zephyr's boon.

Cleansing water is also incredible.

It is an AoE frost aura, that has nothing to do with powerul aura though, it might work with zephyrs boon, it works on yourself for sure but not sure about on allies.

Then again would you really want to 'waste' a blast finisher on frozen ground though?

[Ashin Dreidon]

Mitch, on 17 February 2013 - 12:45 PM, said:

It is an AoE frost aura, that has nothing to do with powerul aura though, it might work with zephyrs boon, it works on yourself for sure but not sure about on allies.

Then again would you really want to 'waste' a blast finisher on frozen ground though?

Yeah, it works with Zephyr's but not Powerful auras.  I don't think the benefit from it would outweigh what's lost from not using Cleansing Water.  This is similar to how the Fire Field + Magnetic Leap gives personal auras but not shared auras.

[Caffynated]

Frost Armor from combos is AoE, so powerful aura doesn't really matter there. Giving projectile reflection to 5 people is incredibly strong though.

Edited by Caffynated, 17 February 2013 - 10:11 PM.

[Ashin Dreidon]

Hmm, I guess I never really thought about the projectile reflection part.  I guess it would depend on the situation as the cleansing pulses from Staff 5 + Cleansing Water is pretty beast.  Good point about the AoE nature of the auras.

[Caffynated]

Ashin Dreidon, on 18 February 2013 - 01:02 AM, said:

Hmm, I guess I never really thought about the projectile reflection part.  I guess it would depend on the situation as the cleansing pulses from Staff 5 + Cleansing Water is pretty beast.  Good point about the AoE nature of the auras.

Water XI is definitely a great choice on any ele build. I use it a lot when we're facing guilds using confusion mesmers with epidemic necros. It makes it very difficult for them to cover their confusion stacks because of how fast conditions are removed. I don't think you can go wrong with either choice when using staff or D/D.

That's one of the best things about the GW2 spec system though. You can always swap out your traits as needed with just a few clicks.

Edited by Caffynated, 18 February 2013 - 01:19 AM.

[Khezial_Tahr]

Thanks for all the info everyone!

Quick question though- Do you need 30 points in Arcane? Is the weapon swap cool down that different? I was thinking of putting more into either earth or air (0/10/0/30/30 build as a base).  Anyone try this yet? opinions? Thoughts?

For some background, I've been swapping around weapons for different scenarios. Ran with Staff for a while, now switching out for S/F. I just got a decent dagger so i may toss that in the mix too (hoping to get another dagger too). Thanks for any input.

[Mitch]

Khezial_Tahr, on 19 February 2013 - 07:02 PM, said:

Thanks for all the info everyone!

Quick question though- Do you need 30 points in Arcane? Is the weapon swap cool down that different? I was thinking of putting more into either earth or air (0/10/0/30/30 build as a base).  Anyone try this yet? opinions? Thoughts?

For some background, I've been swapping around weapons for different scenarios. Ran with Staff for a while, now switching out for S/F. I just got a decent dagger so i may toss that in the mix too (hoping to get another dagger too). Thanks for any input.

I would say that it is, especially if you want to run the signet heal, having the dodge in water attunement is one of your main heals with that build, the other attunements have very useful spells too, I can't think of any situation where I would drop that trait.

[Ashin Dreidon]

Khezial_Tahr, on 19 February 2013 - 07:02 PM, said:

Thanks for all the info everyone!

Quick question though- Do you need 30 points in Arcane? Is the weapon swap cool down that different? I was thinking of putting more into either earth or air (0/10/0/30/30 build as a base).  Anyone try this yet? opinions? Thoughts?

For some background, I've been swapping around weapons for different scenarios. Ran with Staff for a while, now switching out for S/F. I just got a decent dagger so i may toss that in the mix too (hoping to get another dagger too). Thanks for any input.

Khezial_Tahr, on 19 February 2013 - 07:02 PM, said:

Thanks for all the info everyone!

Quick question though- Do you need 30 points in Arcane? Is the weapon swap cool down that different? I was thinking of putting more into either earth or air (0/10/0/30/30 build as a base).  Anyone try this yet? opinions? Thoughts?

For some background, I've been swapping around weapons for different scenarios. Ran with Staff for a while, now switching out for S/F. I just got a decent dagger so i may toss that in the mix too (hoping to get another dagger too). Thanks for any input.

Every time I move away from 30 Arcana I definitely feel the loss.  It may not seem much on paper but it really does add up over the course of a fight, especially if you run the Signet of Restoration, as Mitch mentioned.

[Fenice_86]

Tbh i feel better with 20 Arcana + 10 Earth... yes my attunements recharge about 0.5 sec later and i have -10% boon duration...
but i gain a +100 toughtness and overall Protection Boon when i cast Auras!

Sharing a party wide 33% dmg reduction for 5sec, with 2-3 auras + Earth switching (a total of more or less 20sec Prot on a kinda quick CD) is better than any heal Evasive Arcana can provide imho

[Martin Firestorm]

Fenice_86, on 28 February 2013 - 09:10 AM, said:

Tbh i feel better with 20 Arcana + 10 Earth... yes my attunements recharge about 0.5 sec later and i have -10% boon duration...
but i gain a +100 toughtness and overall Protection Boon when i cast Auras!

Sharing a party wide 33% dmg reduction for 5sec, with 2-3 auras + Earth switching (a total of more or less 20sec Prot on a kinda quick CD) is better than any heal Evasive Arcana can provide imho

Yeah, that's what I do also. I'd like the other 10 in arcana for faster attunement switching, but I think the trade off is worthwhile.

[ExkaeI]

Fenice_86, on 28 February 2013 - 09:10 AM, said:

Tbh i feel better with 20 Arcana + 10 Earth... yes my attunements recharge about 0.5 sec later and i have -10% boon duration...
but i gain a +100 toughtness and overall Protection Boon when i cast Auras!

I fully agree.

The only thing I struggle with is the armor/jewel stats for spvp with this setup (0/10/10/30/20).

Any thoughts ?