Need a help with an Elementalist/Monk - Guild Wars Forums

Swanheart · Jan 23, 2011, 11:57 AM // 11:57

Hello there!

I need some help with a build for my character. I'm lvl 20 and i'm afraid I'm not so good at all.

I only have Prophecies campaign. Please anyone give me a good build for my E/Mo for PVE and PVP if I'm not asking to much?

Thank you!

Iuris · Jan 23, 2011, 12:48 PM // 12:48

That would really mostly depend on the element you like and the role you'd like to play in the party.

Start with Glyph of lesser Energy + the attunement for the element you choose, and then:

Earth: Wards and some nice AoE would be an idea:
-Elite: glyph of renewal / Elemental attunement

-Ward against Melee
-Eruption
-Earthquake
-Stoning (for killing off single targets

Last two could maybe be among these
-Grasping earth
-Ward against elements
-Ward against foes

This would make a heavily defensive build, with some AoE and Melee foe denial.

Water:
Attunements+GOLE,

Elite: Glyph of renewal / Elemental attunement

-Blurred vision
-Maelstrom
-Deep freeze
-Ice spikes
-Shard Storm

A lot of enemy slowing down, and Maelstrom to deny enemy casters for a while, especially when they're clustered together.

For damage, you'd have to go fire, but you'd lose all utility. Air magic is generally a matter of spamming blindness, but it's a bit too single target oriented for my tastes.

LifeInfusion · Jan 23, 2011, 01:02 PM // 13:02

There's one elementalist build if you have prophecies. Well there's more if you are doing normal mode only.

ER
12+1+3 Energy storage
12 protection prayers

Ether Renewal
Aura of Restoration
Protective Bond
Protective Spirit
Guardian (in place of spirit bond)
Reversal of Fortune (in place of Shield Guardian)
Shielding Hands/Draw conditions
Infuse Health

If you are doing normal mode, just run Elemental attunement (use a tome), Rodgort's Invocation, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Meteor, fireball or some variant of Glyph of Renewal + Meteor Shower (slower) for most of the game.

Once you get to areas like the Ring of Fire you either need Winter (which is unlikely to have since you only have Prophecies and that means you'd need to be E/R) or run air or earth (water has low damage potential).

Air: chain lightning, lightning orb, blinding flash, glyph of lesser energy, air attunement , Aegis, Protective Spirit,Resurrection Signet or rebirth ... 12+1+3 air, 9+1 Energy storage, 9 Protection prayers
* this is timeless.

Earth: Deep Freeze (don't need to spec in water), Eruption, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Elemental Attunement, Stoning, Ward against melee , Earthquake, Aura of Restoration/Resurrection
* problem here is that Stoning needs something like Enfeeble, Enfeebling Blood, or Enervating Charge to be any good

Water: Rust, Blurred Vision, Ice Spikes, Deep Freeze, water attunement, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Maelstrom , Res
* water is pretty useless in the Prophecies days, even now it is hard to run a pure water build

In general if you use Damage over time (DoT) like Firestorm, Eruption, Maelstrom, or Searing Heat then monsters will flee unless you have a snare like Deep Freeze or Ice Spikes.

In general if you are running one element you can spec 8 or 9 in energy storage and then plop extra points in something useful like aegis or protective spirit. You could lower energy storage even lower to 6+1 and run stuff from mesmer or necromancer skill trees that don't scale effectiveness with attribute rank: weaken armor, enfeebling blood, shadow of fear, blood ritual, epidemic. (12+1+3/11/6+1 or 11+1+3/11/8+1)

Cry of frustration, leech signet, power drain are used for interrupts and Arcane echo/Echo is used to copy stuff.

The key thing is that energy storage is not energy management. You need attunements and glyph of lesser energy / glyph of energy. Aura of restoration at 8+ energy storage gives 1 energy return and is a decent heal when you run 15-25 energy skills.

Air is FTW (for the win) by the way. It works in PvP and PvE and hasn't changed that much over the course of 5 years (close to 6 now).

Swanheart · Jan 23, 2011, 02:06 PM // 14:06

Thank you guys for the big help.

Can you explain me what is 12+1+3 in energy storage? What is 12+1+3?

Perkunas · Jan 23, 2011, 02:24 PM // 14:24

Energy Storage 12+1+3 is energy storage attribute set to 12, plus 1 from energy storage headpiece, plus 3 from superior energy storage rune.

Swanheart · Jan 23, 2011, 02:50 PM // 14:50

I'm feeling better with air and I like it.

What runes to put on armor witch rune on with armor piece?

Boogz · Jan 23, 2011, 03:03 PM // 15:03

Survivor insignias on all armor pieces, highest vigor rune you can afford and fill the other empty rune slots with vitae runes, the same applies to PvP (altough on PvP you might want to try the +10 amor insignia, I'm not sure wich one is better)

There's absolutely no reason for you to run radiant insignias as a primary ele, energy storage is all the extra energy you need.

LifeInfusion · Jan 23, 2011, 04:42 PM // 16:42

Actually blessed is better with PvE, since armor is better than health and enchant removal is rare in Prophecies if I recall correctly.

+1 +3 means headgear and a superior rune, +1 is a minor rune

so 12+1+3 air is a air headgear with superior air rune
I usually put minor runes put them on hands and feet, vigor on chest simply because you will always use vigor. Hands/feet are the cheapest armor pieces to buy and they get hit less (hands is lowest hit chance).
you generally want to put the superior rune on headgear

Qyark · Jan 23, 2011, 09:40 PM // 21:40

I used to have this problem, if you like Air magic here's the build I used and it got me through pretty much everything in PvE:

Air magic 12+1+3
Energy Storage 12+2

Lightning Strike
Lightning Javelin
Mind Shock(e)
Blinding Flash
Chain Lightning
Air Attunement
Aura of Restoration
Resurection

OgNCgMzh58m4423CHtiJ

As far as usage, get just outside aggro range, cast Air Att. followed by Aura of Rest. pick you target and start spamming your first two skills, if your target is a Warrior or a Ranger use Blinding Flash to keep them in line, if you notice a skill with a long cast time use Mind Shock, and if your target is in a group use Chain Lightning to spread the pain. Other than that just make sure you keep your two enchantments up and you should be fine.

For the most part you won't really need the monk skills but if you really want to use some you can switch out Resurection for Rebirth,
or you can switch Blinding flash or Aura of Restoration(also take some points from Energy Storage and put them in Healing Prayers) for Healing breeze.

With a little experimentation you can tweak it to do PvP as well, I would recommend switching the rez for some damage skill, Gale can be a good way to interrupt warriors who get to close, or Enervating Charge is also a nice skill.

Though honestly you may want to look at Fire Magic for PvE, it really is great for it. If you have any other questions you can message me here or my IGN is Quark Delphis.
(So long I almost didn't read)

LifeInfusion · Jan 24, 2011, 12:35 AM // 00:35

Is there any reason to gimp your health by pumping energy storage with a major rune to run a mediocre elite for PvE? 8+1 energy storage is usually the max I run when not using Glowing Gaze, Glowing Ice, Shock Arrow, or Glowstone because it's a breakpoint for Aura of restoration and 15 energy on Glyph of lesser energy.

If you just need more energy to run Mind Shock just run a +15 energy, -1 energy regen focus and/or wand (like one from http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Sally_Kaugie) for casting it, then switch back to a normal set.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_...n_Prop hecies
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_...lector_weapons

Also on your bar the only true "damage" skill is chain lightning and mind shock, the latter is a bad skill for PvE due to exhaustion. Exhaustion recovers in 30 seconds, so +42 max energy from energy storage isn't going to help you given Mind Shock's 8 recharge. If you're just using it for the knockdown, it's not very reliable against casters (especially not against other elementalists) and you're better off with Gale or going mesmer secondary for leech signet.
MS-->10 exhaust (3 recovered in 8 recharge +0.75 aftercast)-->17 exhaust --> 24 exhaust (-3)
so 6 casts on recharge and you're down to normal caster energy levels anyway.

Lightning Strike/Lightning Javelin are going to be cheap spammy skills with little use other than pure DPS (damage per second), you get back 4 energy so each cast costs 1 energy to use (1 pip of energy regen is 1/3 energy per second so it's 0.75 seconds of energy regen, but you have aftercast (a 0.75 second delay after each spell cast)
Mind Shock(e)
Blinding Flash
Chain Lightning
Air Attunement
Aura of Restoration
Resurrection

By pure mechanics of 4 pips of energy regeneration where you have 1/3 energy per second per pip:
5 energy spells can be used every 2 seconds under Aura of Restoration + Air attunement.
10 energy spells can be used every 4 seconds under Aura of restoration + Air attunement.
15 energy spells can be used every 7 seconds under Aura of restoration + Air attunement.

You need to consider aftercast on top of the recharge and energy limitations (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Aftercast).

This makes Lightning Strike a mediocre skill most of the time. I'd switch it out for Lightning Orb since there's free cracked armor to deal with Rangers and warriors' high armor. It also puts out more damage than Mind Shock. Even at Lightning strike's best it pumps out 50 damage per 2.75 seconds, 66 if you hit 60 armor mobs, which is 24DPS. However it's more like 12DPS since you have 5 recharge and 0,75 seconds of aftercast to deal with. You might as well grab your wand/spear and conjure lightning. Air is all about spike (large damage in a short time to "spike" out a target) and utility ("blind bot" which puts out blind spam on melee and rangers, aegis chain, etc.), not DPS.

I'd rather run Enervating charge rather than Lightning Strike due to utility. However, it'd be redundant with Blinding Flash. That's the only other skill that's viable because Shock,Whirlwind, and Lightning Touch are melee range, Windborne Speed is really not that great in PvE, Lightning Surge is a delayed knockdown with no armor penetration.

To OP, PM me ingame and I will see what I can do for you on equipment. I love air magic so much. It's what I run every chance I get and ever since the beginning everyone's always gravitated to Fire like a bunch of pyromaniacs. I have a Gloop's Focus lying around that would probably be useful for you (+30HP , Halves skill recharge 20%) that I am not using.

As far as secondaries go, it's locked until Crystal Desert ascension.

E/Mo has options such as Draw conditions, Heal Party (Spec 10 in healing prayers and only use it with Glyph of Lesser Energy), Healing Breeze (mediocre), Aegis, Protective Spirit.

E/Me has Arcane Echo, Echo, Epidemic, Leech Signet, Power Drain, Drain enchantment, Arcane Conundrum (energy management in Illusion). You could also use Cry of Frustration instead of Earthquake, for an AoE interrupt that doesn't take ages.

E/N has Weaken armor, Enfeebling Blood, shadow of fear, blood ritual.

BenjZee · Jan 24, 2011, 12:38 AM // 00:38

Also note that you can switch secondary proffesions when you get to a certain point in the game, so don't worry about being limited with the just one campagin. Though E/Mo is a good idea =D

Jan 23, 2011, 11:57 AM // 11:57	#1
Swanheart Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Jun 2010 Profession: R/Me	Need a help with an Elementalist/Monk Hello there! I need some help with a build for my character. I'm lvl 20 and i'm afraid I'm not so good at all. I only have Prophecies campaign. Please anyone give me a good build for my E/Mo for PVE and PVP if I'm not asking to much? Thank you!

Jan 23, 2011, 12:48 PM // 12:48	#2
Iuris Forge Runner Join Date: Nov 2006 Guild: Crazy ducks from the Forest Profession: W/	That would really mostly depend on the element you like and the role you'd like to play in the party. Start with Glyph of lesser Energy + the attunement for the element you choose, and then: Earth: Wards and some nice AoE would be an idea: -Elite: glyph of renewal / Elemental attunement -Ward against Melee -Eruption -Earthquake -Stoning (for killing off single targets Last two could maybe be among these -Grasping earth -Ward against elements -Ward against foes This would make a heavily defensive build, with some AoE and Melee foe denial. Water: Attunements+GOLE, Elite: Glyph of renewal / Elemental attunement -Blurred vision -Maelstrom -Deep freeze -Ice spikes -Shard Storm A lot of enemy slowing down, and Maelstrom to deny enemy casters for a while, especially when they're clustered together. For damage, you'd have to go fire, but you'd lose all utility. Air magic is generally a matter of spamming blindness, but it's a bit too single target oriented for my tastes. Last edited by Iuris; Jan 23, 2011 at 12:53 PM // 12:53..

Jan 23, 2011, 01:02 PM // 13:02	#3
LifeInfusion Grotto Attendant Join Date: May 2005 Location: in the midline Profession: E/Mo	There's one elementalist build if you have prophecies. Well there's more if you are doing normal mode only. ER 12+1+3 Energy storage 12 protection prayers Ether Renewal Aura of Restoration Protective Bond Protective Spirit Guardian (in place of spirit bond) Reversal of Fortune (in place of Shield Guardian) Shielding Hands/Draw conditions Infuse Health If you are doing normal mode, just run Elemental attunement (use a tome), Rodgort's Invocation, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Meteor, fireball or some variant of Glyph of Renewal + Meteor Shower (slower) for most of the game. Once you get to areas like the Ring of Fire you either need Winter (which is unlikely to have since you only have Prophecies and that means you'd need to be E/R) or run air or earth (water has low damage potential). Air: chain lightning, lightning orb, blinding flash, glyph of lesser energy, air attunement , Aegis, Protective Spirit,Resurrection Signet or rebirth ... 12+1+3 air, 9+1 Energy storage, 9 Protection prayers * this is timeless. Earth: Deep Freeze (don't need to spec in water), Eruption, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Elemental Attunement, Stoning, Ward against melee , Earthquake, Aura of Restoration/Resurrection * problem here is that Stoning needs something like Enfeeble, Enfeebling Blood, or Enervating Charge to be any good Water: Rust, Blurred Vision, Ice Spikes, Deep Freeze, water attunement, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Maelstrom , Res * water is pretty useless in the Prophecies days, even now it is hard to run a pure water build In general if you use Damage over time (DoT) like Firestorm, Eruption, Maelstrom, or Searing Heat then monsters will flee unless you have a snare like Deep Freeze or Ice Spikes. In general if you are running one element you can spec 8 or 9 in energy storage and then plop extra points in something useful like aegis or protective spirit. You could lower energy storage even lower to 6+1 and run stuff from mesmer or necromancer skill trees that don't scale effectiveness with attribute rank: weaken armor, enfeebling blood, shadow of fear, blood ritual, epidemic. (12+1+3/11/6+1 or 11+1+3/11/8+1) Cry of frustration, leech signet, power drain are used for interrupts and Arcane echo/Echo is used to copy stuff. The key thing is that energy storage is not energy management. You need attunements and glyph of lesser energy / glyph of energy. Aura of restoration at 8+ energy storage gives 1 energy return and is a decent heal when you run 15-25 energy skills. Air is FTW (for the win) by the way. It works in PvP and PvE and hasn't changed that much over the course of 5 years (close to 6 now). Last edited by LifeInfusion; Jan 23, 2011 at 01:05 PM // 13:05..

Jan 23, 2011, 09:40 PM // 21:40	#9
Qyark Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Nebraska USA Guild: Shadow Of The Forsaken Profession: E/Mo	I love E/Mos I used to have this problem, if you like Air magic here's the build I used and it got me through pretty much everything in PvE: Air magic 12+1+3 Energy Storage 12+2 Lightning Strike Lightning Javelin Mind Shock(e) Blinding Flash Chain Lightning Air Attunement Aura of Restoration Resurection OgNCgMzh58m4423CHtiJ As far as usage, get just outside aggro range, cast Air Att. followed by Aura of Rest. pick you target and start spamming your first two skills, if your target is a Warrior or a Ranger use Blinding Flash to keep them in line, if you notice a skill with a long cast time use Mind Shock, and if your target is in a group use Chain Lightning to spread the pain. Other than that just make sure you keep your two enchantments up and you should be fine. For the most part you won't really need the monk skills but if you really want to use some you can switch out Resurection for Rebirth, or you can switch Blinding flash or Aura of Restoration(also take some points from Energy Storage and put them in Healing Prayers) for Healing breeze. With a little experimentation you can tweak it to do PvP as well, I would recommend switching the rez for some damage skill, Gale can be a good way to interrupt warriors who get to close, or Enervating Charge is also a nice skill. Though honestly you may want to look at Fire Magic for PvE, it really is great for it. If you have any other questions you can message me here or my IGN is Quark Delphis. (So long I almost didn't read)

Jan 24, 2011, 12:35 AM // 00:35	#10
LifeInfusion Grotto Attendant Join Date: May 2005 Location: in the midline Profession: E/Mo	Is there any reason to gimp your health by pumping energy storage with a major rune to run a mediocre elite for PvE? 8+1 energy storage is usually the max I run when not using Glowing Gaze, Glowing Ice, Shock Arrow, or Glowstone because it's a breakpoint for Aura of restoration and 15 energy on Glyph of lesser energy. If you just need more energy to run Mind Shock just run a +15 energy, -1 energy regen focus and/or wand (like one from http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Sally_Kaugie) for casting it, then switch back to a normal set. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_...n_Prop hecies http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_...lector_weapons Also on your bar the only true "damage" skill is chain lightning and mind shock, the latter is a bad skill for PvE due to exhaustion. Exhaustion recovers in 30 seconds, so +42 max energy from energy storage isn't going to help you given Mind Shock's 8 recharge. If you're just using it for the knockdown, it's not very reliable against casters (especially not against other elementalists) and you're better off with Gale or going mesmer secondary for leech signet. MS-->10 exhaust (3 recovered in 8 recharge +0.75 aftercast)-->17 exhaust --> 24 exhaust (-3) so 6 casts on recharge and you're down to normal caster energy levels anyway. Lightning Strike/Lightning Javelin are going to be cheap spammy skills with little use other than pure DPS (damage per second), you get back 4 energy so each cast costs 1 energy to use (1 pip of energy regen is 1/3 energy per second so it's 0.75 seconds of energy regen, but you have aftercast (a 0.75 second delay after each spell cast) Mind Shock(e) Blinding Flash Chain Lightning Air Attunement Aura of Restoration Resurrection By pure mechanics of 4 pips of energy regeneration where you have 1/3 energy per second per pip: 5 energy spells can be used every 2 seconds under Aura of Restoration + Air attunement. 10 energy spells can be used every 4 seconds under Aura of restoration + Air attunement. 15 energy spells can be used every 7 seconds under Aura of restoration + Air attunement. You need to consider aftercast on top of the recharge and energy limitations (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Aftercast). This makes Lightning Strike a mediocre skill most of the time. I'd switch it out for Lightning Orb since there's free cracked armor to deal with Rangers and warriors' high armor. It also puts out more damage than Mind Shock. Even at Lightning strike's best it pumps out 50 damage per 2.75 seconds, 66 if you hit 60 armor mobs, which is 24DPS. However it's more like 12DPS since you have 5 recharge and 0,75 seconds of aftercast to deal with. You might as well grab your wand/spear and conjure lightning. Air is all about spike (large damage in a short time to "spike" out a target) and utility ("blind bot" which puts out blind spam on melee and rangers, aegis chain, etc.), not DPS. I'd rather run Enervating charge rather than Lightning Strike due to utility. However, it'd be redundant with Blinding Flash. That's the only other skill that's viable because Shock,Whirlwind, and Lightning Touch are melee range, Windborne Speed is really not that great in PvE, Lightning Surge is a delayed knockdown with no armor penetration. To OP, PM me ingame and I will see what I can do for you on equipment. I love air magic so much. It's what I run every chance I get and ever since the beginning everyone's always gravitated to Fire like a bunch of pyromaniacs. I have a Gloop's Focus lying around that would probably be useful for you (+30HP , Halves skill recharge 20%) that I am not using. As far as secondaries go, it's locked until Crystal Desert ascension. E/Mo has options such as Draw conditions, Heal Party (Spec 10 in healing prayers and only use it with Glyph of Lesser Energy), Healing Breeze (mediocre), Aegis, Protective Spirit. E/Me has Arcane Echo, Echo, Epidemic, Leech Signet, Power Drain, Drain enchantment, Arcane Conundrum (energy management in Illusion). You could also use Cry of Frustration instead of Earthquake, for an AoE interrupt that doesn't take ages. E/N has Weaken armor, Enfeebling Blood, shadow of fear, blood ritual. Last edited by LifeInfusion; Jan 24, 2011 at 01:04 AM // 01:04..

Jan 23, 2011, 02:06 PM // 14:06	#4
Swanheart Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Jun 2010 Profession: R/Me	Thank you guys for the big help. Can you explain me what is 12+1+3 in energy storage? What is 12+1+3?

Jan 23, 2011, 02:24 PM // 14:24	#5
Perkunas Jungle Guide Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: In my own little world, looking at yours Guild: Only Us[NotU] Profession: E/	Energy Storage 12+1+3 is energy storage attribute set to 12, plus 1 from energy storage headpiece, plus 3 from superior energy storage rune.

Jan 23, 2011, 02:50 PM // 14:50	#6
Swanheart Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Jun 2010 Profession: R/Me	I'm feeling better with air and I like it. What runes to put on armor witch rune on with armor piece?

Jan 23, 2011, 03:03 PM // 15:03	#7
Boogz Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Feb 2008 Guild: Variable Speed Farmers[VsF] Profession: Mo/	Survivor insignias on all armor pieces, highest vigor rune you can afford and fill the other empty rune slots with vitae runes, the same applies to PvP (altough on PvP you might want to try the +10 amor insignia, I'm not sure wich one is better) There's absolutely no reason for you to run radiant insignias as a primary ele, energy storage is all the extra energy you need.

Jan 23, 2011, 04:42 PM // 16:42	#8
LifeInfusion Grotto Attendant Join Date: May 2005 Location: in the midline Profession: E/Mo	Actually blessed is better with PvE, since armor is better than health and enchant removal is rare in Prophecies if I recall correctly. +1 +3 means headgear and a superior rune, +1 is a minor rune so 12+1+3 air is a air headgear with superior air rune I usually put minor runes put them on hands and feet, vigor on chest simply because you will always use vigor. Hands/feet are the cheapest armor pieces to buy and they get hit less (hands is lowest hit chance). you generally want to put the superior rune on headgear

Jan 24, 2011, 12:38 AM // 00:38	#11
BenjZee Forge Runner Join Date: Dec 2006 Guild: The Overacheivers [Club] Profession: Mo/	Also note that you can switch secondary proffesions when you get to a certain point in the game, so don't worry about being limited with the just one campagin. Though E/Mo is a good idea =D