Elementalist WvW | Small Group Dagger/Dagger | Assaulter Aura-Sharing Cantrip Master
Table of Contents
Summary
Powerful, adpatable, and, above all, a joy to play.
I was forced to choose a single role, tag, and category, but truthfully this is a wvw/pve/small group/large group/fun/roamer/assaulter/support guide. An Elementalist can adapt to several different roles by changing a few major traits, utilities, and the elite.
Those adaptations and their intricacies are the subject of this guide.
I. Weapons and Skills
-
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
-
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
-
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
-
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
-
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
-
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
-
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
-
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
-
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
-
- 0Fury: 2 sSwiftness: 5 sRegeneration: 9 sVigor: 9 s
Weapon and Skill Details
I won't be giving details on every single ability a D/D Elementalist has at his or her disposal. This section will cover the highlights. Individual skill usage will be covered in more detail in the battle rotation sections.
Cantrips
Cantrips are what makes a dagger/dagger Elementalist more survivable than other Elementalists using the same equipment setup.
Mist Form provides 3.5 seconds of invulnerability, a stun break, and a means of getting into keep doors when it might otherwise be impossible. This is the single most hated ability by opponents of the Elementalist, and that should mean something.
Lightning Flash allows an Elementalist to get out of sticky situations, gap close, and extends the effective range of Churning Earth by 900. It is no longer a stun breaker, but is still incredibly useful. Its lowered cooldown makes it ideal for proc'ing regeneration and vigor from the Soothing Disruption trait.
Armor of Earth makes you a god for ~10 seconds. With this skill you will get stability, protection, and a stun break. Pop this when you first dive into the enemy zerg and laugh as those puny mortals are destroyed by your glorious splendor.
Point Blank Area of Effect (PBAOE)
Because almost all of the key damage abilities are PBAOE a D/D Elementalist can dance around an opponent without caring about which direction they end up facing. First, turn off melee targeting assist in the general options. After this, one should be able to move through the opponent while landing almost all damaging abilities. Meanwhile, the opponent will need to keep spinning in circles to even use his or her abilities.
Variations
Arcane wave is a blast finisher on a fairly low cool down and could easily be substituted in for Lightning Flash. This would allow a player to stack more might than the above set of utilities, but he or she would lose the added mobility of Lightning Flash.
II. Traits
Fire Magic
Air Magic
Earth Magic
Water Magic
Arcana
Trait Details
I will not give explanations for minor traits in this section as I did not really "choose" them. The minor traits are important to this build, but my goal is to justify the choices that I have made.
Air Magic
Air1 may be one of the best traits in this build. It provides the ability to maintain 100% up time on swiftness and fury. That extra 20% critical chance is very important as critical hits will grant vigor.
Water Magic
The healing power and vitality from this line complement the toughness granted by the equipment set up. 30 points in Water Magic is the key component that allows the player to get away with running so little vitality on equipment.
This line has so many good major traits it is difficult to settle on a specific set of three. My personal choices are above, but I will describe the virtues of the different options below. You can decide for yourself which traits work best for your play style.
Soothing disruption grants regeneration and vigor when a cantrip is used. This trait pairs well with Cleansing Water as a condition is removed whenever regeneration is granted. I have chosen not to take this trait because my build uses Powerful Aura instead of Cleansing Water. Without the added benefit of the condition removal this trait is overshadowed by the combination of Renewing Stamina, Elemental Attunement, and Glyph of Elemental Harmony. The aforementioned traits and skill will allow you to maintain 100% up time on vigor and regeneration.
Cleansing Wave removes a condition from the caster and surrounding allies when attuning to water. This has the benefit of allowing the player to drop an additional condition once every 10 seconds.
Cantrip mastery reduces the cool down of all cantrips by 20%. Mist form, armor of earth, and lightning flash can be used more often. One fun feature of this trait is that it allows the player to cast lightning flash every time Churning Earth is off cool down rather than every other time. This effectively increases the range of Churning Earth, one of the most powerful damage abilities in a D/D Elementalist's arsenal, by 900.
Cleansing Water removes a condition from whomever the caster grants regeneration. This can be extremely powerful for dueling and roaming, but is less useful for group play. A D/D Elementalist only has one way to grant regeneration to allies, and for this reason Cleansing Water is sub-optimal for group play. However, when you are completely alone (e.g. roaming) Powerful Aura grants no benefits, so it would be smart to use Cleansing Water in that circumstance.
Powerful Aura grants the benefits of auras to surrounding allies including those granted by Zephyr's Boon. This trait allows the player to fill a support role in large and small group play. One can provide swiftness to allies when moving between objectives as well as fury and aura benefits during combat.
Arcana
The boon duration and attunement swap cool down reduction granted by this trait line are particulary beneficial to this build. This reduces your attunement swap cool down to a mere 10 seconds. This means that any time you swap into an attunement your next dodge roll is guaranteed to cast whatever spell is provided by Evasive Arcana.
Elemental attunement grants various boons on attunement swap. This trait is used in almost every Elementalist build because the benefits of its boons are too high to pass up.
Renewing stamina grants vigor on critical hits. Normally, it would be difficult to keep 100% up time on vigor with this trait because of the five second internal cool down, but the boon duration in this build gives the player some breathing room.
Evasive Arcana casts a certain spell on dodge role with a ten second cooldown per attunement. This turns your dodge roll into a blast finisher, an AOE heal with condition removal, or an AOE blind depending on your attunement. The benefits and uses of this trait are too numerous to name. Slot it in and dodge away.
III. Stat Specifics & Effects
Primary Stats
- Health 17655 (+6010)
- Vitality 1517 (+601)
- Armor 2844 (+1008)
- Toughness 1924 (+1008)
- Attack 2908 (+1011)
- Power 1927 (+1011)
- Critical Hit 41% (+41%)
- Precision 1771 (+855)
Secondary Stats
- Agony Resistance 30 (+30)
- Attunement Recharge Rate 30% (+30%)
- Boon Duration 40% (+40%)
- Condition Damage 356 (+356)
- Condition Duration 55% (+55%)
- Critical Damage 28% (+28%)
- Damage 981 (+0%)
- Defense 920 (+0)
- Experience from Kills 20% (+20%)
- Ferocity 426 (+426)
- Healing Power 636 (+636)
- Movement Speed 25% (+25%)
Boons
Conditions
Control
Fields & Finishers
Stat and Effect Details
2600 armor places this build in the "heavily armored" category. This will allow the player to survive in large fights long enough to get the work done.
36% critical chance (56% with fury) will increase your outgoing DPS while making it easy to maintain 100% vigor up time. Dodge rolls are very important to this build and the more the better.
60% boon duration is what allows so many of the boons in this build to be maintained indefinitely. Without it there would be many gaps in the boons and this would mean less consistency, survivablity, and, because of the Bountiful Power minor trait, less DPS.
50% condition duration benefits the many conditions available to this build. For bleeding and burn it is a straight up DPS increase. Chill, cripple, weakness, and blind are all control effects that benefit from increased condition duration that this build can output.
Might stacking is important to this build when operating alone or with allies. By using proper technique I have been able to achieve up to 22 might stacks on my own in a PvE situation. Realistically, one could assume that the player could get about 10-12 might stacks up consistently in a WvWvW duel. In a zerg vs zerg fight the player will most likely receive 25 stacks from your allies, so it is less of an issue. If it does turn out that you will need to stack might for your allies you may want to consider swapping out Lightning Flash for Arcane Wave.
IV. Food, Armor, Trinkets & Upgrade Items
Food Nourishment
Condition Duration: 40%
Condition Damage: 70
Experience from Kills: 10%
- (30min)
- Condition Duration: 40%
- Condition Damage: 70
- Experience from Kills: 10%
Utility Nourishment
Gain power equal to 6% of your toughness
Gain power equal to 4% of your vitality
Experience from Kills: 10%
- (30min)
- Gain power equal to 6% of your toughness
- Gain power equal to 4% of your vitality
- Experience from Kills: 10%
Armor & Runes
- Defense: 73
- Toughness: 60
- Power: 43
- Precision: 43
- Power: 25
- Condition Duration: 5%
- Power: 50
- Bleeding Duration: 15%
- Power: 100
- +20% Bleeding Duration; summon ravens to attack nearby enemies when you activate an elite skill. (Cooldown: 45s)
- Defense: 73
- Toughness: 45
- Power: 32
- Precision: 32
- Power: 25
- Condition Duration: 5%
- Power: 50
- Bleeding Duration: 15%
- Power: 100
- +20% Bleeding Duration; summon ravens to attack nearby enemies when you activate an elite skill. (Cooldown: 45s)
- Defense: 314
- Toughness: 134
- Power: 96
- Precision: 96
- Healing Power: 25
- Boon Duration: 5%
- Healing Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to remove a condition. (Cooldown: 30 seconds)
- Healing Power: 100
- +15% Boon Duration; when you use a heal skill, you and nearby allies are healed for a small amount. (Cooldown: 10 seconds)
- Defense: 133
- Toughness: 45
- Power: 32
- Precision: 32
- Healing Power: 25
- Boon Duration: 5%
- Healing Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to remove a condition. (Cooldown: 30 seconds)
- Healing Power: 100
- +15% Boon Duration; when you use a heal skill, you and nearby allies are healed for a small amount. (Cooldown: 10 seconds)
- Defense: 194
- Toughness: 90
- Power: 64
- Precision: 64
- Healing Power: 25
- Boon Duration: 5%
- Healing Power: 50
- +10% Boon Duration; 25% chance when struck to heal for a small amount. (Cooldown: 15 seconds)
- Healing Power: 100
- +10% outgoing heal effectiveness to allies.
- Defense: 133
- Toughness: 45
- Power: 32
- Precision: 32
- Healing Power: 25
- Boon Duration: 5%
- Healing Power: 50
- +10% Boon Duration; 25% chance when struck to heal for a small amount. (Cooldown: 15 seconds)
- Healing Power: 100
- +10% outgoing heal effectiveness to allies.
Armor Stat Totals
- Defense 920
- Power 324
- Condition Duration 15%
- Healing Power 50
- Boon Duration 10%
- Toughness 419
- Precision 299
Rune Bonuses
Superior Rune of the Mad King- Power: 25
- Condition Duration: 5%
- Healing Power: 25
- Boon Duration: 5%
- Healing Power: 25
- Boon Duration: 5%
Accessories & Jewels
- Power: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Vitality: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Vitality: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Power: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Power: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Vitality: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
Accessory Totals
- Power:341
- Precision:286
- Toughness:349
- Vitality:301
- Condition Damage:286
- Healing Power:286
- Ferocity:326
- Agony Resistance:30
Weapon Set Sigils
- Weapon Strength: 924-981
- Toughness: 120
- Power: 85
- Precision: 85
- Weapon Strength: 924-981
- Toughness: 120
- Power: 85
- Precision: 85
Weapon Set I
Sigil of Superior BattleYou gain 2 stacks of might for 20s when you swap to this weapon while in combat.
Sigil of Superior BloodlustYou gain +10 power each time you kill a foe. (max 25 stacks and ends on down or weapon change)
- Weapon Strength: 905-1000
- Power: 120
- Precision: 85
- Ferocity: 85
Water Weapon I
Sigil of Superior BattleYou gain 2 stacks of might for 20s when you swap to this weapon while in combat.
Upgrade Item Details
The stats described in the previous section are the motivation behind most of the equipment decisions. I don't feel the need to restate the points made in that section. I will only make two points in this section.
Rare Veggie Pizza is OP
If a build can use condition duration, then it should probably be using rare veggie pizza. This single food item gives 10% more condition duration than 30 points in Fire Magic. A D/D Elementalist can make great use of this statistic. If the only goal is might stacking for the zerg, then one might replace this with Chocolate Omnomberry Cream. Other than that situation, it is hard to beat the value of this consumable.
Bloodlust
Bloodlust stacks will stay even if the weapon that gave them is unequipped. Once the player has 25 stacks of bloodlust he or she should consider swapping that dagger for another with a Superior Sigil of Force. If you have the money for the extra dagger, then there is no reason not to do this.
V. Basic Gameplay
In combat, the choices an Elementalist makes are based entirely on the current situation. Keeping that in mind, the following attack chains will give a basic framework for how an Elementalist should flow in combat when there is no immediate threat to account for.
In a large group or small group, the goal is to disrupt the enemy back line with AOE damage and conditions while supporting fellow melee assaulters through AOE boons and heals.
While dueling, the goal is to land as much of damage as possible while avoiding the enemy's damage through the use of PBAOE movement techniques, dodging, crowd control, and cantrips.
Main Skill Rotation
This string has enough gap-closers mixed in to stay in the opponent's face for its full length. The only problem is that the opponent will almost never be so cooperative as to let every hit land. Being an Elementalist means being quick on your feet and adapting to the current situation with as much intelligence as you can muster in the split second before the next decision.
When Initiating Combat...
I wanted to place this section before the main rotation, but the formatting of the guides does not allow anything to precede the main rotation. However, this rotation should precede the main damage rotation in combat.
After finishing this opener, assuming the opponent has cooperated completely, the player should have fury, swiftness, a lightning aura, and the opponent on the ground 300 - 400 units away. The above state is the reason this is an amazing opener. The player has many of his or her essential boons and the opponent is disabled in perfect position for the main damage rotation.
When Health is Low...
This string heals for around 8000 health and removes three conditions all without the aid of Glyph of Elemental Harmony. Swap out of water as quickly as possible after executing the string in order to use it again as soon as possible.
Note: Glyph of Elemental Harmony's boon is based on the attunement the player is in when the skill finishes casting. This means you could begin casting the glyph, swap to water, and then gain the regeneration boon.
Glyph of Renewal and Glyph of Storms is based on attunement when the skill is cast, but not the others. Please edit out the note.