D/D Ele Build

Link to the post on gw2 official forums.

Very comprehensive guide; I've found this build to be strong all-around.

Nice find!

So far as the thief the only way I have found to counter this very tanky build is to burst, stun with baslisk and lay as much condition as possible.

The best I have done is use the Necro's Well of Corruption to convert the boons into conditions. Dropped the ele running away like a hot rock.


I would like to use this build when I get my ele lvl'd up.

So, just to be that ele I'll often run condition removal (d/d 5, Cleansing Fire, dodging while attuned to water, Water Signet). In total it lets me keep conditions off for a pretty long time; I'm also able to (more or less) negate slows with air d/d 4.

All in all I think they most frustrating conditions to deal with are immobilize and high confusion stacks, since we're so reliant on spamming high mobility skills while kiting enemies around.

Also of note: elementalists attuned to Earth can fire their 1 skill while their backs are turned to the enemy. Watch out for that or we'll probably keep hiding behind you just to screw around.

That's pretty cool.

Does the Ele suffer range loss when doing D/D? If so I can imagine that during WvW you have to switch to Sceptor-Dagger or Staff when defending against a siege or attacking with a siege. I sometimes switch my weapon sets even with my thief depending if I am with a siege. The pistols don't do well with attacking or defending at a siege.

Whenever I play WvW I'll usually swap to Staff if we're gonna siege an area, I feel that the benefits (mainly its insane amount of AoE, and the AoE stun you get from air) is too good to pass up. However, if I'm in WvW and I'm roaming (expecting duels or skirmishes with other small parties), I'll stick with D/D as it has much great burst and dps than staff.

However, I've been experimenting with a scepter/focus build and I quite like it. Here's a link to a reddit post about the focus (link). It allows for much better ranged dps than the staff, and complete properly you can get much more burst AoE landed. Seriously: when there's a bunch of eles spamming AirFocus4 it's the most frustrating thing to play against! >_>

@Rebani,

That was a very good article, and it's bringing good awareness to those that don't use focus. D/F or S/F gives the ele the range they need for small combat as well as the utility for large scale fights.

I'd only go for staff if I'm with a team that is solely working off of synergy, fields, and combo finishers. Other wise, I much rather S/F.