Curse

TheDarkshineKnight · Apr 09, 2009, 07:18 PM // 19:18

I just started playing Guild Wars again for the first time in months and decided I wanted to make a Water Ele build for JQ. Yes, I know this is the PvE Ele forum, but, there's no forum for Competitive Missions, so, whatever.

Anyhoo, I've been thinking about it, and so far, I know of three skills that I absolutely have to have:

Armor of Mist: Additional armor plus a speed boost is ALWAYS a good thing, especially in JQ where you're going to have to get around quickly.

Water Attunement: Uh, it's Water Attunement. What more needs to be said?

Maelstrom: Since all of the Quarries are caster groups (plus one Ranger), this completely dominates the quarries.

Beyond these three, however, I'm running into problems. Obviously, the build would need to be able to deal with the quarries, guard posts, turtles (I'm Kurzick), and other players. Additionally, it would need to be able to support the Juggernauts. Then, there's the issue of energy management and personal healing. Energy management can be dealt with using either Glowing Ice or Glyph of Lesser Energy, but, self healing would most likely have to come through a secondary profession. Finally, there's the issue of snares. The guards at the shrines don't really like to move around, so, AoE snares are going to be rather useless.

Anyhoo, here's a list of skills I'm considering with regards to their function:

Single Target Damage:

Shatterstone: This is as humanly much damage as a Water Magic skill can provide, and is currently my top choice for an Elite right now.

Freezing Gust: It's either very nice damage or a snare. It also has a relatively short cooldown. I'm not sure if I should take it, though.

Mind Freeze: I'm almost always going to have more energy than my foe, so, this should almost always apply the huge snare and deal nice damage. However, the exhaustion makes me weary, and it would take up my elite slot.

Shard Storm: It does slightly more damage than Freezing Gust and it applies a snare at the same time. On the other hand, it has a longer cooldown.

Steam: Huge damage, but, if I take this, I'll need Glyph of Immolation, which means I'll likely be splitting my attributes between four categories.

Water Trident: It's fast, it deals nice damage, and unlike most other Water Magic skills, it's cheap and relatively spammable, thanks to its three second cooldown. Also Knockdowns are always nice, though, it doesn't affect the turtles.

AoE Damage:

Ice Spikes: Eh, decent damage, but the snare is useless against the guard posts and quarries.

Energy Management:

Glyph of Lesser Energy: Er, do I really need to say anything about this?

Glowing Ice: Very nice energy management plus single target damage. This plus Shatterstone is awesome.

Self Healing:

Healing Breeze: Decent health regeneration for a relatively low investment of attribute points.

Mystic Regeneration: Better health regeneration, but, requires a greater attribute point investment.

Aura of Restoration: Not as good as either Healing Breeze or Mystic Regeneration, but, It would allow me to take Paragon as my secondary for utility.

Utility:

Blurred Vision: It'd make the guard posts relatively useless for the time they're hexed, but, that's about it.

Icy Shackles: Definitely a good skill, but, takes up an elite, and I'm not sure if taking a skill specifically to slow down the Turtles or other players is a good idea for JQ.

Slippery Ground: Only good if I take Steam.

"Make Haste!": Yay, faster Juggernauts.

So, the build I'm considering is:

Armor of Mist
Water Attunement
Maelstrom
Shatterstone
Glowing Ice
Aura of Restoration
"Make Haste!"
Shard Storm

But, as I said, I'm only sure about Armor of Mist, Water Attunement, and Maelstrom. I'd greatly appreciate any input on this.

Oh, and before someone suggests I go Fire, I've been doing JQ with a Fire build for a bit quite successfully; I just want to mix things up a bit. Said Fire build is:

Mind Blast
Immolate
Searing Heat
Tenai's Heat
Rodgort's Invocation
Healing Breeze
Fire Attunement
Flame Djinn's Haste

It kills other players and solos shrines, unlike RoJ Monks who can't kill other players worth crap.

Shayne Hawke · Apr 09, 2009, 08:50 PM // 20:50

[build name="Shackle Blaster" prof=E/ Fire=12+1+1 Earth_Magic=11+1 Energy=6+1][Mind Blast][Earthen Shackles][Mark of Rodgort][Fire Storm][Rodgort's Invocation][Glyph of Restoration][Flame Djinn's Haste][Fire Attunement][/build]

This is similar to what I ran back when I thought running Elementalist would be reasonable in JQ. It had pretty much everything necessary: speed, healing, the ability to capture any shrines, e-management, and a turtle snare. The build was still fairly fragile though, so I gave it up.

If you're going to play Water, you're going to have to outright resign yourself from nuking anything without a great deal of effort. You just don't have enough damage to dish out for it. Maelstrom is okay as a supporting nuke, but can't really be used to nuke by itself. Shifting your bar to have enough damage to cap a point would probably make it the only thing your bar could do.

That aside, you're going to want hexes to snare and hinder enemies as a good Water ele should. Freezing Gust is always a good idea, and Glowing Ice can be extra e-management through that. Steam and GoI could be an option for anti-melee, or you can take Blurred Vision. Your attribute split is going to depend on where on the map you like to play. If you like supporting your mines more, drop Maelstrom for Make Haste. If you play offensive, keep Maelstrom, don't bother with Make Haste.

If I went Water, I might try this:

[build prof=E/A Water=12+1+1 Energy=10+1 Fire=8+1][Shatterstone][Glowing Ice][Glyph of Immolation][Steam][Freezing Gust][Dash][Aura of Restoration][Water Attunement][/build]

I'd still prefer my Ranger though.

MagmaRed · Apr 09, 2009, 11:06 PM // 23:06

You could run a hybrid build, and it may even be better. Onsider an Air/Water split with skills like:

[blinding flash]+[slippery ground]
[chilling winds]+[freezing gust]
[arc lightning]+virtually any snare
[glyph of swiftness]+[water trident]

There are a lot of nice options in hybrid builds, and most people only think of the [glyph of immolation]+[steam] build.

olafur · Apr 09, 2009, 11:16 PM // 23:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by MagmaRed

You could run a hybrid build, and it may even be better. Onsider an Air/Water split with skills like:

[blinding flash]+[slippery ground]
[chilling winds]+[freezing gust]
[arc lightning]+virtually any snare
[glyph of swiftness]+[water trident]

There are a lot of nice options in hybrid builds, and most people only think of the [glyph of immolation]+[steam] build.

if you run air/water split, you can also run [windborne speed] rather than [make haste] for a speed boost

Revelations · Apr 09, 2009, 11:16 PM // 23:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDarkshineKnight

...Obviously, the build would need to be able to deal with the quarries, guard posts, turtles (I'm Kurzick), and other players. Additionally, it would need to be able to support the Juggernauts. Then, there's the issue of energy management and personal healing...

Stop right there. Your main problem, simply put, is that your build lacks a focus. Trying to be a jack of all trades character is only going to make you pretty bad at everything. Pick one or two roles from what you mentioned above and stick with those.

If you really insist on using a water ele, then forget quarries. Maelstrom isn't terrible against npcs, but when RoJ can recap the shrine in 1/5 of the time it took you to cap then you just need to not bother.

The key abilities of the water line are (rather obviously) snares and damage. Little bit of other miscellaneous shutdown thrown in too. CAPITALIZE ON THIS. If you insist on playing a water ele you will be up near the other teams base snaring the hell out of their carriers, and hopefully killing a few also. Shatterstone is a nice elite and is pretty big damage. Steam (with GoI) and freezing gust are also nice skirmish skills to fend off anyone trying to get in your way. Don't focus on killing people to the point of ignoring your other objectives though.

Finally, as for a self heal and energy management.... death is quick and frequent in JQ. By all means take something that is going to keep you up for a little bit longer, but don't gimp your bar by packing more self heals and crap than is necessary. Distortion is nice to avoid pin downs from the rangers on points, as well as the occasional stray player. Kiting is your friend also. But at the end of the day, you're only dead for a few seconds, it only takes a few seconds to get back to where you were, and it is a good way of refilling your health an energy.

tl;dr: Your build needs a focus. Don't try do the whole team's job.

TheDarkshineKnight · Apr 10, 2009, 09:00 AM // 09:00

Heh, the only problem with JQ is that sometimes, you do end up having to do every job on the team. :P

Of course, considering the reality of the situation, perhaps it would be better to run a Rit instead, since they can do every job. :P

MasterSasori · Apr 15, 2009, 05:43 PM // 17:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shayne Hawke

If I went Water, I might try this:

[build prof=E/A Water=12+1+1 Energy=10+1 Fire=8+1][Shatterstone][Glowing Ice][Glyph of Immolation][Steam][Freezing Gust][Dash][Aura of Restoration][Water Attunement][/build]

I'd still prefer my Ranger though.

I don't think Glowing Ice is necessary. Water's slower recharge time gives you ample time to regain energy and you should be fine if you're careful. Apparently AoR doesn't matter much either since if you die, you'll be right back in a jiffy.

I never get how PvP such as AB and JQ reward suicidal people.

And I'd go with my ranger too.

ZenRgy · Apr 16, 2009, 11:39 AM // 11:39

You should focus the build around a certain roll, with water - just focus on being able to move around shrines and take out/snare jade carriers.

Back then · May 13, 2009, 04:59 PM // 16:59

water could work quite well as long as you narrow down what you want your roll to be.

[Mind Freeze] for a really good snare against carriers
[armor of mist] for IMS and +armor
[blurred vision] really good for helping to capture defense posts, and also just a good hex for enemy players
[maelstrom] throw it at shrines, could support meleers who want to cap

there's definately a place for water in JQ, as long as you don't over-extend yourself and keep what you're trying to do simple.