Elementalist sPvP | Tournament Scepter/Dagger | Team fighter Aiden Frost's S/D sustain & burst
Table of Contents
Summary
Fresh Air may be all the rage right now, but nothing beats the good ol 0/20/0/20/30 S/D build. This build boasts an incredible amount of sustain as well as very high burst potential making it great for any skill level.
I. Weapons and Skills
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- 0Fury: 2 s
- 0Fury: 2 s
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- 0Fury: 2 s
- 0Fury: 2 s
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- 0Fury: 2 s
- 0Fury: 2 s
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- 0Fury: 2 s
- 0Fury: 2 s
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- 0Fury: 2 s
- 0Fury: 2 s
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- 0Fury: 2 s
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- 0Fury: 2 s
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- 0Fury: 2 s
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- 0Fury: 2 s
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- 0Fury: 2 s
Weapon and Skill Details
Weapon Skills
Fire
Water
Air
Earth
Utilities
Other utility options
- Cleansing Fire- Pretty much required if facing some cheesy triple condi team or something along those lines. Don't be afraid to use this spell aggressively as well. It can apply a quick burn to a target if setting up a Fire Grab.
- Mist Form- Great for stomps and revives.
- Glyph of Elemental Power- Can bring perma weakness or perma cripple. Very versatile. Pretty strong in 1v1 situations.
- Arcane Shield- Good for stomps, but it is a better stun break than Mist Form in my opinion.
Looking through these spells, a few things really stick out. We have a lot of instant cast damage. We have a lot of burst AoE healing. And, we have a lot of blast finishers. These three things are really the strong point of this build.
II. Traits
Fire Magic
Air Magic
Earth Magic
Water Magic
Arcana
Trait Details
This is a pretty basic trait setup for this build. The only real variation can come in the water tree. With the current condi meta, I prefer Cleansing Wave (great for cleansing immobilizes as well) and Stop Drop and Roll (for cleansing burning even while condi stacked). Most players will switch Stop Drop and Roll for Vital Striking (for an extra 10% damage while over 90% health) or Aquamancer's Alacrity (for a shorter cooldown on your water heal spells.) This is purely a matter of opinion and playstyle. Go with what's best for you.
A note on Air Training, you can start casting a spell like Churning Earth or Fire Grab and switch into air attunement mid cast to gain the bonus damage on that spell.
III. Stat Specifics & Effects
Primary Stats
- Health 22645 (+11000)
- Vitality 2016 (+1100)
- Armor 1836 (+0)
- Toughness 916 (+0)
- Attack 3378 (+1466)
- Power 2291 (+1375)
- Critical Hit 10% (+10%)
- Precision 1116 (+200)
Secondary Stats
- Attunement Recharge Rate 30% (+30%)
- Boon Duration 30% (+30%)
- Critical Damage 75% (+75%)
- Damage 1087 (+9%)
- Defense 920 (+0)
- Ferocity 1135 (+1135)
- Healing Power 200 (+200)
- Movement Speed 10% (+10%)
Boons
Conditions
Control
Fields & Finishers
Stat and Effect Details
The only major thing to note is that your health is fairly low and your toughness is fairly high. This can make condi pressure difficult to deal with. We have a lot of cleanses at our disposal (Swap to water to clear 1, dodge roll to clear 2, dodge roll while in water attunement to clear another 1, water 5 to clear 1 more.) Use all of them and use them regularly.
Also, this build has a solid amount of healing power, and a good amount of AOE healing. Try to use your water dodge roll, Water Trident, and Cleansing Wave near your allies, so they can benefit from the healing as well. Adding in the water 15 trait, Healing Ripple, this build has a ton of AOE healing support.
IV. Runes, Sigils, Accessories & Jewels
Armor & Runes
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
Rune Stat Totals
- Power 175
- Ferocity 35
- Damage 4%
Rune Bonuses
PvP Rune of the Ogre- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
Accessories & Jewels
- Power: 0
- Precision: 0
- Ferocity: 0
- Vitality: 0
Accessory Totals
- Power:1200
- Vitality:900
- Ferocity:900
- Precision:0
Weapon Set Sigils
- Weapon Strength: 895-1010
- Weapon Strength: 924-981
Weapon Set I
Sigil of Superior HydromancyYou freeze nearby foes for 2s when you swap to this weapon while in combat. (This effect cannot trigger more than once every 9s)
Sigil of Superior Force+5% damage.
- Weapon Strength: 905-1000
Water Weapon I
Sigil of Superior Force+5% damage.
Upgrade Item Details
I have found that the Valkyrie amulet with the Berserker jewel is the best option for this build. It brings as much burst potential as a Berserker ammy, but with less of a critical chance. However, utilizing the Arcana 5 trait, most of our hard hitting spells will hit with a 37% chance to crit. The Valkyrie ammy also brings MUCH more survivability and sustaiin than the Berserker ammy. I prefer the Zerker jewel over the Valk jewel for a bit more vitality.
Runes of the Ogre could be swapped for Runes of the Scholar for more potential damage or Divinity Runes for more survivability. I, personally, feel that the Divinity Runes will give us TOO MUCH survivability at the cost of less damage. Runes of the Scholar can be partnered with the water trait Vital Striking to give 20% bonus damage when above 90% health. This can make for some very strong opening attacks.
I have debated switching out of Runes of the Ogre. The rock dog does a solid amount of damage, but it seems to have less uptime in the current aoe condi meta. Also, keep in mind that Necros can Epidemic conditions from your rock dog onto you and your allies.
When it comes to sigils, you have a few options. Sigil of Force is pretty much a sure thing, but you can switch Hydromancy to one of the other weapon swap sigils. I prefer Hydromancy because the chill helps me land Fire Grabs. (Remember, we swap to air attunement mid way through the Fire Grab cast. That swap to air can trigger Hydromancy.) However, we can also use Geomancy, for more damage, or energy, for more survivability. Bloodlust is also an option. We have to maintain 15 stacks of bloodlust (3 kills worth) to do more damage than Force. If you really start to get the hang of your escapes and find yourself dying less, Bloodlust becomes a better option.
V. Basic Gameplay
The basics of this build will be bursting when your burst is off cooldown and sustaining when you're being focused.
Beyond that, there's two key things that all Eles can do to improve their gameplay:
All Ele's should try to land their blast finishers in their fire field (Ring of Fire.) Obviously, if it comes down to hitting your opponent with a Phoenix or landing it in a fire field for 3 stacks of might, you hit your opponent. But you want to keep your opponent inside your ring of fire (through kiting) to accomplish both. Also, an Evasive Arcana dodge roll while in earth attunement triggers a blast finisher. If you find yourself with a RoF on the ground, full endurance, and vigor, feel free to blow an earth dodge roll for the three stacks of might.
The second key aspect to playing an Ele is forcing dodges. Most of the S/D spells have crazy slow cast times with crazy long cooldowns. If we miss a Fire Grab, it greatly hurts our chances of winning a fight. Because of this, we need to keep track of our opponents dodges and try to force dodges on our useless skills. Below are a few tips on doing this:
- Dragon's Tooth- DT is a real high damage ability on a short cooldown. Opponents will want to avoid this ability. They CAN just walk out from underneath it, but it's not uncommon for people to dodge out of a Dragon's Tooth.
- Dodge Roll at your opponent- Most opponents (especially in 1v1s) will freak out if you dodge at them. This can be a good way to force a dodge.
- Earthquake cancel cast- Earthquake is a slow spell that is very telegraphed. However, if you cancel the cast (either hit escape or stow weapon) part way through, the spell won't trigger, and it'll be put on a short 4 second cooldown. This can be a good way to force a dodge.
Main Skill Rotation
This is the very basic burst of the build. If the target is already burning, you can ignore the Flamestrike (you can also dodge roll at your opponent in fire attunement to burn them.) When you start the Fire Grab cast, switch to air attunement and pop off the Lightning Strike and the double arcane. This burst, plus Electric Discharge (Air trait 15), plus the possible proc from Hydromancy has the potential to hit for up to roughly 12k damage in a second. That's huge burst potential.
Also, note that everything after the fire grab cast can be used while stunned/knockdowned/etc. That gives us an ~8k burst off of the global cooldown. Tell those stun warriors to screw off. It can also be used (as well as Air 3) when stomping opponents.
Bread and Butter
The entirety of this burst can be done before your opponent stands up from the Earthquake knockdown. Start by casting Earthquake, then Lightning Flash to your target. You can switch to fire attunement during the Earthquake cast. Always aim your Phoenix slightly behind the target. This will allow your Phoenix to hit three different times (once going through your target, the explosion, then once again returning through your target.) This burst hits REALLY hard. It can do up to 13k damage on the Heavy Target Dummy.
In the current meta, this burst is kind of our bread and butter. If I'm in a mid fight, and I see a damage dealer near half health, I'll hit them with this burst to down them.
VI. Staying Alive
This S/D build boasts a ton of survivability. In this section, I'll discuss some tips for staying alive.
If you find yourself being targeted, it's almost always better to switch to earth attunement before water attunement. This will give you protection to help mitigate some damage. If you get locked down, try to Lightning Flash away from the source of damage.
Once you start mitigating the damage, it's time to start healing back your health. Thankfully, we have a ton of options for that. Switching to water will net us about 1.5k health (Water trait 15) and remove a condition (cleansing wave trait.) We have Cleansing Wave on water 5 and a dodge roll in water counts as another cleansing wave. That's two conditions cleansed and roughly 3k health healed. Trident heals for about 1.3k. Finally, A dodge roll in any attunement will cleanse burning and chill every 10 seconds.
All of those heals listed above are AoE heals. Always try to cast Cleansing Wave, Water Trident, and use your Evasive Arcana water dodge while standing on a health health teammate. This will heal them as well, effectively doubling our healing output. Above all else, this is this builds strong point in team fights. We can lay out the damage, but when things get nasty, we have some great healing peels for our teammates.
VII. Securing Stomps
Lightning Strike, Blinding Flash, and both Arcane spells can be cast off the global cooldown. This means that they can be cast while cced, while stomping, etc.
I find myself using these spells a lot while stomping a target. If I know I don't have stability, I can use Blinding Flash to blind my opponent's cc down attack. This means that we can Engis, Necros, Warriors, Guardians, and Rangers on the first try without stability. This can literally be game changing. Each class has a distinct animation and cast time for their crowd controlling down ability. Get to know these animations. Memorize them. Then, when your opponent starts to cast that ability, blind them and laugh in their face.
If there's two opponents, you can use these spells on the opponent that isn't downed to help secure a stomp as well. You can start a stomp, target the second opponent, use your damage spells on him, and quickly target your downed enemy for the Blinding Flash when they start up their cc animation.
If you're stomping a Mesmer, Thief, or Ele and they've already used their avoidance spell, Blinding Flash can be used (while you're stomping the downed enemy) to blind a second opponent coming up to land a CC on you.
If you're opponent is going for a stomp and you see the downed enemy start the animation, you can Blinding Flash, Dust Devil, or Evasive Arcana Air dodge on the downed opponent to help them secure a stomp.
Moral of the story is that we can get by just fine without Mist Form. There's definitely situations where Mist Form comes in handy, but he have plenty of abilities to help us secure stomps without it.
VIII. Becoming a Better Duelist
In this section, I want to talk about some tips and tricks for 1v1ing against each profession. Please note, I ONLY play Ele. I may not use the more glorious descriptions for other classes builds/ spell names/ etc. Please bare with me on this.
Elementalist:
With all Ele fights, keep track of their attunements. This will help us predict what spells they're using. If they start to run near you in Air or Fire attunement, prepare to dodge an Updraft or Fire Grab. Try to time your burst when they switch out of water attunement and try NOT to burst when they have protection up
Fresh Air
If they're running Fresh Air, it's going to be pretty tough to win. Fresh Air can do a large amount of unavoidable damage. Because of this, you want to out pressure them. Make them use defensive spells instead of offensive spells. They're much squishier than us, so we can burst them just as hard. Get on the offensive to win this duel.
D/D
D/D Eles can be a pretty tough matchup for us. Their Shocking Aura is great at disrupting our burst, and their Lightning Whip auto attack can whip us to shreds. It's best to kite a D/D Ele. Try not to let them near you. If they pop Shocking Aura STOP ATTACKING. It's really tough to win this matchup without a stunbreak, because Updraft + Burning Speed + Arcane Wave is going to hit us hard. If you DO get hit by Updraft, use Lightning Flash when your opponent starts the Burning Speed. This should get us out of the way of their attack.
Our Build
If your opponent is running our build, it's probably going to be a long fight. All of the tips in this guide will help you be better than they are. Stack your might. Count their dodges. Combo your burst. You know the animation for all of their attacks (because we have the same ones!) so dodge the important ones.
Engineer:
Stop Drop and Roll can be a real game changer for this matchup. Burning will generally be applied on an Engi's first attack, then it'll be applied every ~10 seconds after. Stop Drop and Roll triggers on your first dodge roll, whether you have burning/chill on you or not. We have means of dealing with this though.
Most Engi's will start the fight shooting Static Shot. This looks like a bolt of Lightning Flying out from the Engi. This is going to put two stacks of confusion on us. Confusion is our enemy. We don't want that to happen. I try to blind this attack, but it comes with an auto attack as well. So you want to try to side strafe it so it misses as well. If you get hit by this, you will have 2 stacks of confusion, burning (from the auto attack), and a blind on you. Simply switch to water and dodge roll to cleanse all of these conditions.
Now it's time to get offensive. Most Engi's don't run a stun break so the Bread and Butter combo listed above will put them on the offensive. Most Engi's have a lot of healing right now, so this fight is going to be lengthy. Keep up the pressure, avoid their ground AoEs, and try to keep them at a distance outside of landing burst.
Engi's have a crowbar attack that hits us and gives us 5 stacks of confusion. If they follow this up with Static Shot, we're sitting at 7 stacks of confusion. If you panic and try to cleanse this, you'll probably end up killing yourself. Just run away and let the confusion wear off; it's low duration. If they get a burn on you as well, use a dodge roll to cleanse it off, then run.
If an Engi locks you down, you're probably going to die. Engi's drop bombs, grenades, etc on you when you're locked down and apply a ton of condis at very close range. Don't get locked down. If you do, Lightning Flash away before the Engi gets to you.
Guardian:
We can kill most bunker Guards. At the start of a fight with a bunker Guard, I'll basically just stack might. I'll make sure all of my blast finishers land in my Ring of Fire, whether they'll hit the Guard or not. We can keep a constant 25 stacks of might, and that'll be out best bet at killing a bunker Guard quickly. Don't blow your hard hitting spells while the Guard has blocks or protection up. Don't use your CC when the Guard has stability. You can see these things in the Guard's buff bar when you're fighting them. Use it to your advantage.
Mesmer:
Shatter
A fight with a Shatter Mesmer is going to be a burst or be bursted type of fight. If you see a ton of clones start running at you, dodge through them, not away from them. If you get immobilized by the Mesmer, wait for them to start their flurry then Lightning Flash away to avoid the damage.
Phantasm
Phantasm Mesmers are tough for anyone to kill. Your best bet is to kill their phantasms. This will be their main source of damage. When the phantasms are dead work on killing the Mesmer. It'll be a long, difficult fight, but it can be won.
Necromancer:
Necro is going to be a tough fight. Stop Drop and Roll once again makes this fight a bit easier to deal with. With Necros, you will always have conditions on you. Don't go crazy and worry about cleansing some of the less important conditions. Burning, Chilled, and high stacks of bleeds are going to be the most important conditions to cleanse.
Necros generally don't have a stun break. Use your CC to land burst combos.
Fear is going to be the biggest problem with this matchup. Not having a stun break makes this matchup very tough for us. I've found that excessive use of blinds can help win this matchup, but it won't be easy.
Ranger:
I'm going to be completely honest. It's going to be very tough, or maybe even impossible, to beat a spirit Ranger in a 1v1 right now. If you are forced to fight one, try to end it quickly. Spirit Rangers will have the advantage in longer fights. If the Ranger drops their elite spirit (it'll be the very large one) kill it instantly. Try to keep up the pressure and burst them hard.
Thief:
D/P Perma stealth
If the thief is going invisible a lot, they're running this build. This matchup is another burst or be bursted matchup. The good thing about this matchup is that it's predictable. After practicing this matchup, you start to know when the thief is about to strike. You can start to predict where they are. Dodging the first attack can pretty much secure us a win. If the Thief starts beating on you, switch to Earth. We need that protection uptime. It only takes a few spells to down this build, so try to kill them fast.
S/D
This build sucks to fight. It has very high evasive uptime and it can be tough to land our slow hitting spells. Updraft is going to be key in this fight. I try to land both my arcane spells and my air 2 while casting the updraft. When they get knocked down, I cast Dragon's Tooth. They'll generally port away from this, so quickly find them and hit them with a phoenix before they get up. This will either kill them or force them out of the fight. Nice work!
Warrior:
I'm just going to assume every warrior is running the stunlock build right now. This is a tough matchup for us. If you get hit with a Skull Crack (4 second stun) we can be pretty much taken from full health to dead. KEEP THE WARRIOR AT RANGE. Warrior spells have very obvious animations. This means we can time our dodges and our blinds easier at range. If you get caught in a stun, try to Lightning Flash away from the burst to follow. If you can't, there's a few things we can do. Our first choice would be to switch to Earth to get protection. Next, we want to switch to water for the heal and the Frost Aura. Finally, we can switch to Air, use a blind, and then hit them with our Lightning Strike and double Arcane.
Comments
Android @ 03:22 AM, Tue July 23 2013
Replysittingonacouch @ 03:35 PM, Tue July 23 2013
ReplyBlackie4 @ 05:08 PM, Fri February 14 2014
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