Defense/Healing Combo’s

Hi I’m new to elementalist I’m not the best at the profession but willing to learn everything I can about it my question is what’s a good skill combo for defense, I’m only low level currently so I haven’t got access to weaver spec as of yet also I’m using D/D for choice of weapons.

Many thanks ?

On D/D Elementalist, you won't get to gain access to any defensive field that you can either blast or leap into. That doesn't mean that the weapon set can't defend itself, it means that you will need to use other sources of defense and to be a bit more awake on Ele than many classes.

You have 3 evade frames:

• Fire #3, high damage after evade
• Earth #3, soft CC after evade
• Air #5, hard CC after evade

You also have melee control:

• Air #2, soft CC with which you apply Weakness and thus lowering the enemies' damage
• Air #3, hard CC that stuns your foes when they attack you within a radius, if reactivated, you will stun the enemies around and the skill goes on cooldown
• Air #5, as mentioned
• Earth #2, blocks projectiles for a short time frame
• Earth #4, knocks down your foes
• Earth #5, if in danger, you can partially cast the skill to only apply Cripple
• Water #3, Chill your foes
• Water #4, Chill your foes when they hit you, can be reactivated for a tiny bit of heals but not recommended unless you have nothing but it to heal

You will need to pretty much maintain near 100% uptime of melee control so to deal damage safely. For skills rotations, it comes by time. You need to know that when solo on Ele, auto attacks aren't enough except Air auto attack (for D/D), because using many skills is what pretty much keeps you alive. You can go hybrid build with Grieving/Trailblazer, and if on a budget, build for Power -> Precision -> Condi Damage -> Ferocity/Toughness.

There is a rotation for Defiance bars (not official, it's what I would use if on core d/d), that is Water/Earth #3 -> Earth #4 -> Air #2 -> Air #3, then reactivate -> Air #5 -> Fire for damage or you can stay in Air, the auto attack in Air is good. It's not much Defiance bar damage unless done quickly, but it's giving up all of your defenses so use carefully.

Hint: For leveling, I would recommend unlocking Glyphs first so you gain access to AoE damage/Blind for 10s, an AI to take hits instead of you (always use in earth when solo, it's tanky), burst heal skill (best for PvE), and potential damage + stun break skill if you want have a Glyph only skill bar.

D/D in my opinion offers a unique experience, even better than that of Sword Weaver/any Tempest build, it's fast paced and going right and left is fun to watch. Just hope that ANet doesn't slow it down more like last patch. Enjoy!

First of all thank you very much for a detailed insight to all the skills you mentioned and this will definitely help me along my journey to becoming a better player much appreciated. I will take a screenshot of this for future reference ?

Staff has the best healing support that ele can pull off is what what you want? Water 2 is on too long of a cd and dose not heal for enofe to ever be worth use as a healing skill. Off hand dagger is more of an office wepon set better to use foces if you want to go def.