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How to build a d/d tempest solo roamer?


AliamRationem.5172

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Is it possible to deal enough damage with a d/d tempest build to be competitive while also maintaining sufficient sustain in 1vx while WvW roaming?

I've been playing with the build editor trying to find the right combination that looks like it might be feasible but I'm just not sure which way to go. What do you guys think? Do you go full power? Hybrid power/condi? Which trait lines? I was thinking arcane/water/tempest?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAoYnMMAdOgFOAOOAcYilTAroEMA/Auh1z6blYCEAWAA-jFiAQBwY/hzqcDAnAgpqHoZKJ6wDAorq/MTlgkCYSRbA-w

I came up with this, but I'm just not sure it would work very well. It's a condi-forward hybrid. The mobility, evasion, and healing are very strong, which should make it pretty easy to survive with. The issue as always with ele builds is can you actually kill enemies with it? Ele doesn't have the best access to cover conditions and this build would deal a significant portion of its damage from burns.

I also played around with celestial, marauder, zealot, berserker, valkyrie, and crusader stats but I struggled to find a power setup that felt like it could get the job done without being made of paper.

Having said that, I haven't actually played ele in awhile and when I did it was as a team healer in PvP, which is a totally different animal than WvW solo roaming. So help me out here. What works for you guys? If tempest isn't the way to go, are there workable s/d weaver builds that aren't either glass or endless sustain with low damage? I'm just looking for the right balance here, which always seems so hard to find with this class!

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Try that video, I'm a PvP player mostly and main DD Tempest. The video has the stats window up, compared to your build I have higher damage modifiers but pretty much half the healing power.For Roaming WvW I use a mixture of Viper and Celestial.

I looked at your build, not my style. I've seen people make it work though.

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The first thing that jumps out at me with your build is that it is glass. You have a whole lot of sustain through that lovely healing power, but that sustain isn't going to save you if you're instantly down from those 2k Ranger Long Range Pew Pews hitting you. Or an unrelenting assault slicing you up. Or the 8k Eviscerate from a Warrior. Not to mention the backstabs or Death's Judgements from thiefs, and insta-bursts from Mirages and Mesmers. The Meta in WvW is so focused on burst damage right now that Elementalist is struggling to just stay afloat, and honestly, it's sinking quiet dramatic. Even the condi builds are about burst nowadays. And this build doesn't look like its a decent condi burst. Burning is great, but...

First, let me just say that Healing Power works on Weaver for a defensive ability than on Tempest or Core. Marshals stat is honestly a really, really bad armor type to use on Core or Tempest because they don't have access to Barriers. Since barriers scale off healing power, the Weaver can stock up on high Healing Power and also gain some defense through spamming out low to moderate size barriers, keeping their low health pool protected. Core and Tempest can only heal back up once taking damage, not avoid it. If you want to do a condi based Tempest, I really think your best best is to drop Marshals and go for a mix of either Sinisters/Vipers and Celestial, or go full Trailblazer tanky condi.

Tempest is probably the poorest of the three Eles to roam with right now in a 1vX setting as well. It's great if you're running in a group setting, actually is very, very good for keeping small scale teams alive. But roaming? Not so much. You lose out on DPS potential by going into Tempest, and the utility you get from your Overloads and Auras just don't make up for it. Not to mention you run the risk of locking yourself out of your attunement for 18 seconds without having anyone else to keep you alive in the mean time. Air Overload used to be amazing, but its been nerfed into non-existence. Warhorn has decent condi potential, but mostly against PvE enemies, not intelligent players. Fire Overload is a PBAoE that your opponent can just walk out of and Water Overload, if you don't have Armor of Earth off cool down, you aren't finishing that full casting. The only "okay" Overload is Earth which is good because it immobs and already comes with built in stab, but bleeding is a bad condition to base your build around anyway. So overall, you would be better replacing Tempest with Fire honestly and going Core Ele. I roam with my Core Ele all the time, its tough, but fun.

Anyway, onto your build. My first suggestion would be to drop Cleansing Flame for Mist Form because, again, you're so fragile, atleast with MF you'll be able to avoid one burst thrown your way. Between your Sigil of Energy, Renewing Stamina, Latent Stamina and Elemental Contingency, you have a lot of vigor popping around. Perma Vigor is great, but realistically you are really doing overkill here. I'd suggest either drop the Sigil of Energy for Sigil of Doom to help cover your conditions and reduce your opponents own Healing potential, drop Elemental Contingency for Final Shielding for more defense against those bursts, or Drop Latent Stamina for Gale Song/Unstable Conduit. If you move to Unstable Conduit, that could help with your condi cleanse since you're running Invigorating Torrents. Finally, I'd highly suggest tossing out some of those Marshal trinkets for Celestial. Elementalist is really THE class that needs everything, so having Celestial really helps round out your chance at surviving.

Many classes right now can go full glass but survive because they have better built in survival mechanics. This means either higher armor, higher HP, stealth, blocks, evades, ect. Elementalist really struggles with ways to survive. Running D/D you have high mobility, decent evades and good sustain. The problem with todays meta is that nearly every class has high mobility now and your sustain just can't really keep up with the high damage if you go full glass. This is why more Core eles and Tempests choose to run hybrid with toughness and vitality. This of course is not to say you can't go full power on Ele, Fresh Air is without a doubt the best dueling spec Ele has, but you have to be cautious how your approach it. Fresh Air Ele can be glassy because its ranged. If you're running D/D, you will be up in their face. Sword has evades, barriers and CC built into the weapon to keep Weavers alive. D/D is not as easy to survive with.

TL;DR: I think your build is too glassy to be effective in the WvW Meta right now, consider swapping in Celestial with Viper/Sinister gears if you want Condi. Celestial/Crusader is also good combo for D/D Ele. But Tempest is a poor 1vX roaming choice, I'd highly recommend you just stick with Core.

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Thanks for the response.

I'm not stuck on condi. I'm just struggling with exactly what you describe. Basically, it seems really difficult to put together a viable build that covers all the bases you need. The class doesn't have enough base sustain and seems to really need vitality, toughness, and healing (at least for dagger builds). Condi at least has the advantage of requiring fewer stats. But unfortunately, I can't see ele doing without power either as it lacks cover condi and its weapon skills are clearly power-leaning hybrids.

Maybe I will try core or weaver. But if I go weaver I would probably go with s/d. Any build recommendations?

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The problem I see with D/D Tempest is that the trait line and the spec mechanic contribute nothing to the gameplay, in fact they limit it. Since the whole spec rotates around Overloads and Auras. Overloads will most likely be unused as they will have long attunement cd consequences on a fast paced weapon as well as interruption, and aura skills are not worthy for roaming. Magnetic Auras will hurt a ranger for a tiny bit, maybe kill a deadeye Shocking aura is already built in dagger, and fire and frost aren't much really but they can be easily achieved on dagger through combos or normal skills. When looking at all what Tempest as a line and utility skills, you would see that it has nothing to offer for D/D. Maybe it worked before, I don't know, but I don't see this combination working.

You can go for either core or weaver for D/D.

For core, you run Arcane-Water-X. I would go Fire line as it's more damage, or Air if you would love to abuse Lightning Rod. The build is full celestial stats, but tbh, on my weaver I run a more offensive hybrid build, given the capabilities of dagger to dish out both, so for the stats, you can stick to celestial or customize it to whichever suits your desires, but celestial is a good start. This is the build that 7even runs (one of the really good core d/d eles): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAoYhcMoyhFOwzB8RMQAY1aIJWGiCQAIISZhjQUA-jFCEABwv/AAnAg+VVRQlgJqWxDPAA31DolyvAAIA3sNDghO0hO0hO0K0EaC9m3MpAycoF-w

For weaver, you run Arcane-Water, I sometimes run Acane-Fire/Air, but Water is better and most known build. The build's stats are the same as core with also the possibility for customization. You will need Unravel utility for this build though as most of the great skills hide behind the dual attack, it can be clunky at the start, but everything mostly gets better with time. This is the weaver build: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAoYncMA94i14CG5CM5iFTAroKWADB3j528bmoCEAaAA-j1RGABws/QCPAgHV/JKlf5pEEgTAAd6BmHEAMBgVVqqqKpA2arF-w

For the runes, you can run Pack runes, and for a more defensive option, Durability should do.

For sigils, you can pick them to how you like to play. Energy/Strength/Battle are the ones that mostly come to mind, with Energy being the defensive one.

Note: Though this build can probably win/stall out a fight against a sw/d weaver, sw/d weaver does a better job at fighting other classes as it's more slippery and the fields are pretty straight forward, also sword has the upper hand now among all ele weapons. The problems you would face with D/D is the lack of condi cleanse with respect to Sw/d, or Sw/f (fire line for cleanses), so condi management would take some time.

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@"AliamRationem.5172" saidThanks for the response.

I'm not stuck on condi. I'm just struggling with exactly what you describe. Basically, it seems really difficult to put together a viable build that covers all the bases you need. The class doesn't have enough base sustain and seems to really need vitality, toughness, and healing (at least for dagger builds). Condi at least has the advantage of requiring fewer stats. But unfortunately, I can't see ele doing without power either as it lacks cover condi and its weapon skills are clearly power-leaning hybrids.

Maybe I will try core or weaver. But if I go weaver I would probably go with s/d. Any build recommendations?

And there in lies the problem with Ele. Elementalist is built to be a versatile casting class, a jack of all trades. Its built in parts: 25% power, 25% condi, 25% sustain, 25% Tears from your broken fingers. It is what made it such a dynamitc and dangerous class in the early days of GW2. Back then, class roles were not well defined. Elementalist didn't care because it was meant to be played with everything together in unison, condi supplementing power, power supplementing condi.

But the power creep has pushed classes more and more into defined DPS roles. Bursts, Condi, Bunker. Ele remains dynamic in a world where specialization has lead to greater success. This has made Core Ele feel like its a class left back in 2014 with no hope of being brought up to current standards.

But lets talk NOW. I run Core Ele and I legit enjoy it. After every fight, whether you win or lose, you will probably find yourself thinking, "Darn, I could have won that much easier if I ran [insert class here]." But the pride you'll feel when you take down a mirage or a rev is pretty good. Ele still gets a lot of its strength through might stacking. This means you can trade out some power stats in your gear for more survivability because you will be getting it back somewhat through might stacking. It's easy to retain up to 20 stacks of might nowadays, and if you actively focus on blasting might, 25 is no problem at all.

I would advise you to atleast invest in an entire set of Celestial Trinkets. Celestial is such a great stat for Ele, even today. It covers alot of what we need because you can make that power/condi damage up with the might. Other good armor types for Core Ele would be Crusaders (Power Major that hits Toughness, Healing and Ferocity), Apothecary (good for condi focused builds with that healing and toughness), Knights (toughness and precision since we lost Arcane Fury), Soliders (PVT may have a bad rap, but you can mix a few pieces here and there in to help yourself survive) or Clerics (same as Crusaders just trade the ferocity for more toughness).

This is a shameless plug I suppose of me running around trying out the (at the time) new Fireworks runes. The built I was running here was a majortiy of Celestials gear mixed in with some Crusaders. I ran sigil of Battle for might stacking and Energy for extra dodges. The build is also linked below. This was mostly an experiment (both the build and recording) but I found it had decent success at what it did. That said, I think the build Auburner linked is a much better place to start with Core Ele.

&

gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAoYhcMoyhdOwwB8RMYAYRAYB0DpqwQoJUVyyQYA-jFyHQBD4BAQz9HSk6OzRJ430D4OVCWiyPAcCAIFwWz0A-w

For Weaver, you might want to head over and take a look at Cellofrags builts. He's a very popular weaver that has great sustain friendly builds, that have a good balance of condi pressure and raw power, although you may find it to be a bit too light in the DPS (I did personally). For Weaver, Marshals is a great stat to chose, but you can also take a serious look at Sinister or Vipers because Weaver has the Masters Fortitude trait that gives you extra Vit based on your Condi and Power stats. For Weaver, I think Toughness isn't as important as Healing Power since you have barriers to help make up for the lack of based toughness.

I hope this helps maybe?

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