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GW2 Elementalist Traits

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Prometheus

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Hi guys,
I've been playing around with a lot of different PvE and WvW trait builds for my Elementalist and I can't seem to decide on what traits to use.
Currently I've spent about 20-30s on retraining my traits to try different trait builds and I don't really want to spend more on resetting them.

Any suggestions on good PvE/WvW trait builds for Elementalist?
 
It really depends on your style. Personally I think the first thing to decide on is which weapon suites you better. Than on one or two utility skills you'd really like to have then mold the traits and remaining skills to best accommodate those choices and pick your remaining utility skills maximize synergy.

So what weapons would you like to go with and what's your favorite utility skill or two?
 
Delduwath's suggestion is the one I always give as well; find your preferred weapon(s) and go from there and always play to your strengths with your profession.

When I planned mine I took into account that I personally prefer the Staff to all other weapons so I built my traits to be balanced around that. It may or may not be the "best" build for PvE Staff by others standards but it suits my playstyle best as I like to switch elements a lot for solo combos.
 
My preferred weapon is the staff, normally my utility skills are Arcane Blast, Arcane Shield and Glyph of Storms.

Thanks for the help guys.
 
Nice choice in Utility. I've really fallen in love with Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave lately. Love the damage and the Wave combos off Lava Font for Might. And of course, Glyph of Storms <3
 
I used to use Arcane Wave but found it didn't really suit the staff, so I changed to Arcane Blast for more ranged damage. I take it you use dagger and dagger/focus
 
For me I like the Wave because I'm almost always with my husband who plays a Guardian so when I drop Lava Font onto him when he's pulled all the mobs to him with a greatsword, I move in and drop an Arcane Wave to combo for Might for him and the damage is just incredible.
 
Sounds like a good combo. I generally play on my own or with randoms so I don't get the luxury of communicating with other players/friends like that.
 
Your weapon is a staff, and your utilities are either Arcane or Glyphs. As such, picking traits that bolster these kinds of skills would benefit you.

For Arcane skills, most of those traits are in the Arcane line: Arcane Mastery, Arcane Energy, and Elemental Surge. Two others are in Air and Water: Arcane Lightning and Shard of Ice. It's possible to take all of them, although Blasting Staff is probably more useful than Arcane Energy. You can always swap them out for free, of course.

Glyphs are affected by the Air Magic line, and Quick Glyphs is incredibly useful. You'll want to use Glyph of Elemental Harmony as your heal and Glyph of Elementals as your elite, since all of these are available more often with the reduced recharge.

Ten more trait points left. You'll notice that Arcane Lightning and Arcane Precision benefit from getting critical hits, and Arcane Blast always results in a critical hit. For that reason, you might like Burning Precision under Fire Magic. There are plenty of other good Adept-tier Fire Magic traits (Ember's Might and Internal Fire), so that can be another flex slot.

So this is what I came up with. I don't know too much about your preferred playstyle, but it should be pretty blasty. Try to get some gear that boosts Precision, and a mix of Vitality and Toughness should round things out. Valkyrie and Soldier gear would be useful to you.

Good luck.
 
Red Omen said:
Your weapon is a staff, and your utilities are either Arcane or Glyphs. As such, picking traits that bolster these kinds of skills would benefit you.

For Arcane skills, most of those traits are in the Arcane line: Arcane Mastery, Arcane Energy, and Elemental Surge. Two others are in Air and Water: Arcane Lightning and Shard of Ice. It's possible to take all of them, although Blasting Staff is probably more useful than Arcane Energy. You can always swap them out for free, of course.

Glyphs are affected by the Air Magic line, and Quick Glyphs is incredibly useful. You'll want to use Glyph of Elemental Harmony as your heal and Glyph of Elementals as your elite, since all of these are available more often with the reduced recharge.

Ten more trait points left. You'll notice that Arcane Lightning and Arcane Precision benefit from getting critical hits, and Arcane Blast always results in a critical hit. For that reason, you might like Burning Precision under Fire Magic. There are plenty of other good Adept-tier Fire Magic traits (Ember's Might and Internal Fire), so that can be another flex slot.

So this is what I came up with. I don't know too much about your preferred playstyle, but it should be pretty blasty. Try to get some gear that boosts Precision, and a mix of Vitality and Toughness should round things out. Valkyrie and Soldier gear would be useful to you.

Good luck.
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I agree with Red Omen. A couple small variations on his build you could consider. If you preferred more support you could put the 10 points in fire into water instead and pick up major trait 1 for faster cool-downs of your water heals and a heal when attuning to water. If you changed attunement a lot you could change the major trait in air from 7 to 8 for some buffs. You could also consider trying out the major trait 5 in arcane instead of the 1 to balance out how much you change attunements vs used your utility skills for additional support and buffs. The point is you should tailor your choices to your preferred play-style and play up your strengths. Red Omen gave you a great place to start for that - you take it from there. Elementalists have a lot of flexibility in what they do so you have that luxury.

Personally my favorite trait is 8 in air, because it allows you, with a couple of glyphs, to stack either never-ending swiftness, regen, or might.
 
Thanks Red Omen. Surprisingly that is very very similar to what I have now. The only difference being I have 20 in Fire Magic as I haven't bought Grandmaster Traits yet.
The armour I have at the moment is a kind of mixed up mess. Some Explorer's, Beserker's, Rampagers....... I think now is the time to define my armour and my traits so again thanks for the advice. Helps me understand my build slightly more :)
 
Coming from WoW, when I got to around level 70 I started scouring the internet for the "build" I need to have. And, low in behold I discovered this isn't WoW. I know Im being sacastic but that is why I love this game and profession. It doesn't all that matter what you do as long as it works. If your dying too much evaluate why you are dying...can you fix it with different skills...different tactics, weapon combo's...etc. You have so many options that you will find more than one will work. Personally, I play scepter/dagger with a glass cannon build/armor, and I die alot but I want to get better dodging/countering my opponents. If I can't I'll make a change appropriate to my playstyle.

Isn't this game awesome!
 
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