Post July 9th update.
Before I start ranting about the different types of build sets you can utilize for different weapons, let me clarify what I think is still a must have for almost all build setups. This is after the July 9th update.
For WvWvW / PvE, it is still essential to run Lemongrass poultry (-40% cond duration), 2x sup. Melandru (-10% cond dura), 2x sup rune of monk / 2 x sup rune of water (+30% boon dura). For the other consumable, sharpening stones are still optimal. I’m not sure whether the new Dragon revelry cakes are nourishments or maintenance, but if they replace sharpening stones then its viable.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dragon%27s_Revelry_Starcake
For sPvP, it is still optimal to run superior rune of geomancy / +5% damage, combined with 6 runes of the ogre. This is for a balanced / burst setup, using arcane wave/blast, and mistform. For a tanky setup, cleansing flame / Lightning Flash no longer stun break. It is still a very good idea to run mistform, and LF, since both offer strategic positioning. Alternatives are armor of earth, conjure hammer (for knockbacks) , and arcane shield (IIRC it now stun breaks, may or may not have been a bug). Some signets are worth looking into as well, such as signet of air, since it provides a 25% MS passive with a stun break effect. Valkyrie amulet with either berserker or soldier’s jewel is still the meta.
Before talking about armors/ runes or celestial stats, the first thing in considering optimal builds is trait / point setups. You obviously want to pick the right traits before attempting to do any sort of min/max theorycrafting / analysis (aka the best overall build for most situations).
Because of the new trait, fresh air (recharges air attunement on critical, 5 second ICD), it is now optimal to go 30 points in air. The air15 trait passive grants a lightning strike to the enemy your targeting upon swapping to air attunement, and synergizes with fresh air. In addition, S/D’s air2 ability is instant cast and synergizes further. Staff gains a large benefit due to its limited 1v1 capabilities, and fresh air+air15’s passive makes it more viable (plus the overall buffs to reduced cast times and aftercast times).
For D/D (since this thread is about D/D, and everyone wants to know), the play style is slightly different as opposed to S/D and Staff. For S/D, utilizing air15/fresh air is a priority for DPS since water doesn’t do much damage and earth is limited to mostly conditions. For Staff, utilizing air15/fresh air is vital for 1v1’s due to staff’s easy to dodge attacks. D/D is different, since it hits the most reliably, and most of its abilities are used in normal rotations. For D/D, it is optimal to play normally (don’t rush air15/fresh air) with however you currently play, except now use the Air Attunement inbetween every other attunement swap. For instance earth->air->fire->air->water->air->fire->air etc. Note that because you spam air attunement so often, you’re also getting permanent fury and swiftness from the arcana trait line.
For actually trait setups(using fresh air), there are a couple of things you should know. Evasive Arcana’s water dodge roll and water15’s trait are both extremely powerful and heals. If you sacrifice either of them, your overall DPS and tankiness drops in general, because you will have to play more defensively / waste time casting heals more often. NEVER SACRIFICE BOTH TRAITS. You’ll just be fodder then.
Here are some possible trait setups post update July 9th (see my last response for more details)
Fresh Air Builds (For S/D, D/D, Staff, and any other weapon types)
0/30/10/0/30
0/30/0/10/30
0/30/0/20/20
Air traits -> Pick 20% dmg >33% HP for all setups. Pick Fresh Air (obviously). For last trait -> S/D, pick 10% more damage in air. D/D, pick swiftness/fury on aura cast. Staff, pick 20% reduction on CD for air spells.
Earth traits -> 10% more damage if target <600 units (all weapon setups). S/D and Staff will still fight enemies very often in this range for small scale battles.
Water traits -> Cantrips grant regeneration and vigor (for 10 points in water). 50% fall down damage reduction (for 20 points in water).
Arcana -> Standard 5,6,11 traits (no 11 is 20 points in arcana)
An important note to make when using fresh air builds is that, you will be losing a vitality + healing power from the traditional 0/10/0/30/30 setups / variations and gaining more precision + critical damage. Air’s traitline offers the most optimal point setup (of all other traitlines) with 10 points of stats for every 1 critical damage (checkout the reddit stat optimization in guide for more info), so your overall DPS to Tankiness trade off is worth it. Balancing defense thereafter comes with gear.
Now of course you guys will all want to know about builds without Fresh Air. D/D in particular has received a buff, and a nerf to damage due to bountiful power(2%->1% per boon). The buff is the stone splitters (10% damage if target under 600 units). All your D/D spells are under 600 units of range, so you will permanently gain 10% damage if you invest in earth. So here’s the build setups, without fresh air (Note this is mostly for D/D users!)
0/15/10/15/30
0/10/10/20/30
Air traits -> Swiftness / fury on aura cast.
Earth-> 10% more damage if target<600 units.
Water -> Cantrips grant reg and vigor (10 points). 50% fall down dmg reduction (20 points).
Arcana->Standard 5,6,11
FAQ:
What about the other traitlines? Fire? Moar earth? No 25 or 30 points in water? NO TEMPEST DEFENSE? No water in one of the fresh air builds?
Post update, fire is still extremely crappy, to put it bluntly. You aren’t helping your team out, or increasing your DPS investing in fire. There are so many other better traits in water/air/earth.
I know you guys are going to ask about the 0/0/20/20/30 setup I used before all these updates. Yes it was superior to all other tankiness setups for D/D WvWvW; you could literally run through an army and walk out the other end. Unfortunately, it relied heavily on “pots of hylek poison” to consistently grant swiftness in combat. Its been removed from WvWvW, so obtaining swiftness is much more difficult. Not only that, almost every other class has been buffed. Especially Necros. So no more silly gerrymandering around large armies anymore >_>.
30 points in water is only a good investment if you intend on running 0/10/0/30/30 and aura share to help out your team. Mostly applies to sPvP and team PvE setups.
Tempest defense is only useful for staff, imo. If your running a fresh air build, you may want to change fresh air to this one to prevent instagib burst onto you. Mostly applies to staff WvWvW where you’re primarily casting at ~1200 range.
There’s a downside in not running any water traits whatsoever in your build setup (for fresh air setups). The downside is mostly applied toward soothing mist, the passive water5 trait. It is an extremely powerful passive heal! Don’t underestimate it. (about 100HP / sec , on almost all the time!)
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For armor / runes, there has been a ton of hype over celestial armor / weapons. Some elementalist users have already made great posts and analysis on such items:
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/So-celestial-gear
From oZii’s post (I double checked with dulfy.net). I will compare them to the current exotic armor and weapon stats.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_Level_80_Exotic_Armor
2h weapons = 79 all stats 10 critical damage
1h weapons = 40 all stats 5 critical damage
Gloves = +15 all stats 2 critical damage
Shoulders= +15 all stats 2 critical damage
Boots= +15 all stats 2 critical damage
Helm = +20 to all stats 3 critical damage
Coat = +45 to all stats 6 critical damage
legs = +30 to all stats 4 critical damage
One thing to note is that critical is actually sometimes higher than berserker stats for the same item. I will assume that all items are ratio’d the same and just compare the coat as a benchmark.
Celestial Coat has +45 to all stats. Total stats = 270 and 6% critical damage (w/ free MF)
Berserker Coat has 101 Power, 72 Prec. Total stats = 173 and 5% critical damage.
Knights Coat has 101 Toughness, 72 Power, 72 Prec. Total stats = 245 and 0% critical damage.
Like the trinkets, celestial items are superior both in total stats and critical damage compared to its’ exotic / ascended equivalents.
As stated earlier in what gear I run, pre-update it was knights armor + celestial trinkets. This combination gave me, imo, the best min/max setup (most offense + most defense total) based off of mostly my experience and intuition (no real hard calculations). Note this does not apply to sPvP due to limited stat customization. Some notes I have made based off of my experience (WvWvW / PvE) is that a ~15k HP and toughness >1600 with a reasonable amount of healing power >300 + gives me the ability to survive most situations so that I can stack might / tank when I need to go more offensive.
By using full celestial gear (weapons and gear), there is going to be a tradeoff in my current stats. I will not be touching on weapons as of now, just armor. I’m going to be assuming that I am running a fresh air build as well with D/D, using 0/30/0/10/30 (most balanced imo).
My old stats, using all celestial items and a toughness/crit dmg/power ring&back item. Knights weapon / armor. No fury, bloodlust, or might stacks shown in picture. No scepter +300 armor buff. No food buffs.
WvWvW buffs: 8% HP increase, 8% Heal power increase
http://imgur.com/fTuVpXQ -> No items or traits, level 80 base points for elementalist
Power: 916 // Attack: 916
Precision:916 // Critical chance (no fury): 4%
Toughness: 916// Armor: 916
Vitality: 916 // HP 10,805
Cond. Damage: 0 ./ Cond. Duration: 0
Boon duration::0 // Heal power: 0
Critical Damage: 0 // Attunement Recharge 0
Agony // MF 0
http://imgur.com/bKmdJxh -> No traits. All +stat items rings. Knights armor + weapons
http://imgur.com/LQRTIxD -> 0/30/0/10/30 traits. All +stat items. Knights armor + weapons
http://imgur.com/EI3SjWR -> 0/30/0/10/30 traits. All +stat items. Knights armor + weapons. Lemongrass+Sharpening stone (Adds 150 power, 70 vitality)
Power: 1685// Attack: 2666
Precision:1771 // Critical chance (no fury): 45%
Toughness:1695// Armor:2615
Vitality: 1304// HP 14,685
Cond. Damage: 203 ./ Cond. Duration: 0
Boon duration::60 // Heal power: 353
Critical Damage: 65 % // Attunement Recharge 60%
Agony // MF 20
http://imgur.com/3gY7eCd -> Same as above. Fairly average stats in combat. 13 might+fury+8stacks bloodlust. Food buffs
Power -> 2200 // Attack 3201
Precision:1771 // Critical Chance->65%
Toughness:1695// Armor:2615
Vitality: 1304// HP 14,685
Cond. Damage: 658./ Cond. Duration: 0
Boon duration::60 // Heal power: 353
Critical Damage: 65 % // Attunement Recharge 60%
Agony // MF 20
http://i.imgur.com/tEvT1FO.jpg-> Maxed bloodlust 25. 24 stacks might (25 was kind of hard to get). Fury
Power-> 2775 // Attack 3756
Critical Chance->65%
Condition damage -> ~1000
New Stats, with pure celestial armor:
(Po = Power, Pr = Precision, To = Toughness)
Head: -32 Po, -32 Pr, -45 To
Shoulders: -24 Po, -24 Pr, -34 To
Coat: -72 Po, -72 Pr, -101 To
Gloves: -24 Po, -24 Pr, -34 To
Leggings: -48 Po, -48 Pr, -67 To
Boots: -24 Po, -24 Pr, -34 To
Net Loss: 224 Po, 224 Pr, 315 To // 763 total stats
Net Gain: 140 +all stats (840 total stats), 19 critical damage.
Net Armor Breakdown: -84 Po, -84 Pr, -175 To, +19% critical damage, +140 other 3 stats.
For Weapons (two single handed weapons, D/D)
Net loss: -128 Po, -128 Pr, -180 To
Net gain: +80 all stats, 10% critical damage
Net Weapon Breakdown: -48 Po, -48 Pr, -100 To, +10% critical damage, +80 other 3 stats.
Net armor + weapons: -128 Po, -128 Pr, -275 To, 29% critical damage, +220 other 3 stats.
Net change in trait points from 0/15/0/25/30 (a very balanced min/max setup for D/D and S/D) to 0/30/0/10/30
+150 Pr, +15% critical damage, -150 Vi, -150 Heal.
Net armor+weapons+traits: -128 Po, +22 Pr, -275 To, +44% critical damage, +70 Vi, +70 Heal, + 220 Cond. dmg.
Using the average case scenario:
Power -> 2072 // Attack : Doesn’t matter
Precision:1793 // Critical Chance->65%
Toughness:1420 (1695-275)// Armor:2340 (2615-275)
Vitality: 1374// HP ~15k
Cond. Damage: ~900 ./ Cond. Duration: 0
Boon duration::60 // Heal power: 423
Critical Damage: 109 % (that’s about 2.5xs more damage vs. normal) // Attunement Recharge 60%
Agony // MF 20
CONCLUSION: Getting celestial means a loss in power / precision, but it’s not a big deal since we have fury/30 points in air (300 precision / 30% critical damage) access and bloodlust/might/food buffs for power. The gain in critical damage is ridiculous, assuming this is a fresh air case. Total critical damage with +all celestial and 30 air is 109%. Now the toughness loss is an extreme bummer. Having this much net loss in toughness really hurts our survivability (we have really low armor), so its paramount that we somehow reduce the loss. One other important note to make: we do gain a great deal of condition damage, healing power, and vitality which does improve survivability. Critical damage has been jacked up so high, and power / precision have been slightly altered, so we will have to re-analyze what the optimal amount of power, critical damage, precision is under certain conditions.
Also since your toughness is so pathetically low, and your critical chance is very high at 109%, I would invest in critical damage, toughness, power rings. This is without any theorycrafting, ~1600 toughness is a bare minimum IMO. If you went with a 0/15/10/15/30 setup, you’d have 100 more toughness to work around.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_ascended_equipment
Just go grab power,toughness,critical damage rings from fractals. It will grant you +120 toughness more with 2 rings for a total of 1540 toughness. +4% more critical damage, 4% less critical chance and less stats everywhere else. You can also opt for another ascended critical damage, power, toughness accessory as well for more toughness.
Also, you also have the option of changing the superior sharpening stone to something else.
THEORYCRAFT:
Useful links I’ve found:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/12dmi5/tip_stat_optimization_with_crit_damage/
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Damage
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/60838-math-damage-reduction-toughness-and-vitality/
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/professions/elementalist/08-07-13-Skill-Data-Work-in-progress
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/professions/elementalist/Plots-for-optimizing-your-gear
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/60838-math-damage-reduction-toughness-and-vitality/
(1) 1 + Crit Chance x (Crit Damage – 1) for each point in power
(2) Power x (Crit Damage – 1)/2100 for each point in precision
(3) Power x Crit Chance/[(stat point tradeoff) x 100] for each stat point tradeoff for crit damage
Note that these formulas are a little generic and aren’t tailored specifically for elementalist.
For average case scenario:
Crit Chance (with fury on) = 0.65
Crit Dmg = 1.09+1.5 =2.59
Power=2200
Stat trade off is calculated by the tradeoff between the change from knights to celestial for armors/weapons.
Net armor + weapons: -128 Po, -128 Pr, -275 To, 29% critical damage, +220 other 3 stats.
We’re going to just look primary at critical damage and power / precision / toughness for the time being as a weighted rating of 1, since we care about these the most. Condition dmg/ vitality/ healing power will be given a value of 0.5 weighted, since they aren’t really changing too much with traitline changes to 0/30/0/10/30. Condition damage is its own form of damage, so we don’t worry too much about it.
-(128+128+275)+(0.5)(220×3) = 201 stat points for 29% critical damage, or
1% critical damage for every 7 points = Stat point exchange
1+(0.65)(2.59-1) = 2.033 for each point in power
2072 x (2.59-1)/2100= 1.5688 for each point in precision (Sorry made an error here earlier!)
2072 x (0.65)/(7×100)= 1.924 for each point in critical damage.
Fury is factored into the calculation already, with the 0.65. Precision has the highest value at a point trade off of 2.7133 lowest value at 1.5688, whereas power and critical damage are roughly equal. This means that, you should get more power and critical damage, or in this power through food buffs (can’t really obtain much more critical damage). Take both superior sharpening stones and bloodlust. These calculations are also assuming that you have a certain amount of might in battle w/ superior sharpening stones on. As you gain 25 stacks of might, and are completely fully buffed, the new value of precision vs. power would be:
1+(0.65)(2.59-1) = 2.033 for each point in power
2775 x (2.59-1)/2100= 2.101 for each point in precision
Both values are roughly equal, meaning that once you gain full bloodlust stacks of ~25 + superior sharpening stone + 24 stacks of might, your power,precision, and critical damage are balanced and optimized.
For toughness, which we ignored while doing damage calculations, I had stated you should opt for power,toughness, critical damage rings. Note that power and critical damage have more value then precision until you reach your maximum (which won’t really ever happen). Power, toughness, critical damage rings are therefore good items to take.
FAQ
Why get a bare minimum of 1600 toughness?
As stated earlier, this is purely from experience. 1600 has always been a number I’ve been comfortable with in surviving almost all situations. With the 0/0/20/20/30 setup I’ve used in the past, my toughness was 1900~2200, which was equivalent to or stronger than a guardian’s defense. Unfortunately, having such high toughness is hard without investing in earth, and while investing in celestial for min/maxing.
To actually realistically calculate how much defense vs. damage you should have for min/maxing, there are a bunch of variables you need to consider. Normally you would use EHP (effective HP) vs. average or burst damage, depending on what you’re trying to achieve. For D/D, this would be average damage, since this is the nature of how our abilities work. (we don’t instagib enemies like mesmers or thieves)
Figuring out defense or EHP is not really easy to figure out. You could do mathematical computations, and get a reasonable estimate, but elementalists are special. We utilize healing power more than any other class, making toughness much more valuable.
We have the lowest armor and HP as well. Without any sort of toughness, we’re basically cannon fodder because a D/D ele must be in the front lines. A D/D elementalist hits hard, and uses mobility to take cover and heal. The amount of time you can last in a given situation before taking cover is dictated by EHP mostly. The amount of damage you can deal in such a given situation is dictated by how long you can stay there, how much DPS you have, and how well you execute your abilities. The total amount of damage you can all together perform is dictated by how fast you can recover +go right back into battle to deal more damage.
A lot of times, all of these factors change. For instance, if there’s no terrain cover, you’ll recover much slower, since you’ll be attacked while healing with ether renewal. Maybe an enemy team will focus fire and CC you, effectively reducing your damage output. Or maybe your enemy team is so tanky that you don’t even need to recover or hide at all, meaning raw DPS is all you care about.
Each and every situation differs. You need to know what your goal is: Is it to help out your team? Wipe out everyone as quick as possible? Distract and hold off a vital point solo? Troll an army?
Your goal will tell you, whether you should go for more defense or more offense. I like being able to kill things, while still surviving most situations I encounter. I’m not going put myself in situations where I’ll always lose, but instead stack things in my favor.
1600 toughness gets the job done.
TLDR; (FIXED SOME ERRORS)
All of this analysis is based on going from my past setup to full celestial. My past setup was knights weapons + armor with celestial accessories.
With a fresh air setup of 0/30/0/10/30, you should go ahead and get full celestial items. This will take you 50-70 days though, because of how charged quartz works for the recipes (check out dulfy.net’s guides).
For rings, you should opt to go for PTCD(Power,toughness,critical dmg) rings. You should already be using a PTCD backpiece. You may even want to opt for one more PTCD accessory as well to put your toughness above 1600. The rest should stay full celestial.
For food buffs and sigils, you should focus on some more precision. This is due to the staggering 109% critical damage you’ll have running a fresh air build. Change either sharpening stones to maintenance oil, or get a +10 precision per kill. I would, IMO, opt for +10 precision per kill, since food buffs provide a reliable +150 stat bonus, and power has a higher priority when you have no might stacks. Take both superior sharpening stones and bloodlust sigil.
For the 0/15/10/15/30 or 0/10/10/20/20, you still want to take the same armor, weapons, and food buffs.
Note this analysis can apply to other classes as well.
Feel free to throw comments and criticize my analysis.
daphoenix's Elementalist Guide 
