Curse

Kendar Muert · Jan 31, 2008, 11:08 PM // 23:08

All right- The elementalist. Where to begin… I will lay out everything with large headings, so you can easily find whatever it is you need.

Tanking in this guide, when used, means holding the aggro, and Tank, when used, means the guy who is doing it; and also happens to be a warrior or dervish.
ELEMENTALIST ATTRIBUTES-

AIR- No inherent effect. Many Elementalist skills, especially spells which deal lightning damage to and debilitate a single enemy, become more effective with higher Air Magic.

Air has no special bonus like energy storage does, however, it specializes in something very important- all out onslaught. IF you want to cripple an opponents team, air is not way to go- however, if you want to completely obliterate them, it most definitely is. Air has something called armor penetration in many of its skills, which means that if an enemy has 80 armor level, and you hit him with say, Lightning Orb, his armor will be 15% less effective. The amount of armor penetration is listed in all the titles of skills in the air attribute. Air can also blind, with blinding flash, or surge, or it can knock down, with skills like lightning surge, gale, and whirlwind. The one main problem with the air line used to be is that many of its better skills caused exhaustion. Not anymore- that has been fixed in some fairly recent buffs to the air line around the time of EOTN release.

EARTH- No inherent effect. Many Elementalist skills, especially spells which protect you or your allies or deal earth damage, become more effective with higher Earth Magic.

Earth has some large damage dealing skills, but they all cost too much for the earth line to be as viable as a nuker as the fire line, which is what most groups look for in an elementalist in PvE, although wards, shutdown, and spiking are all popular. Nuking with the earth line can be done however- Combinations such as Earthquake and Unsteady Ground are fairly common, but require good energy storage. Earth’s specialty though, is defense- earth packs tons of skills called wards, which reduce enemy elemental damage, physical damage, prevent knockdown, and bestow other, similar benefits. If you find, for some reason, that you need to have more armor against attack, or perhaps block any spell cast at you altogether, Earth is your line. Obsidian Flesh can prevent all spells from targeting you for a certain period of time, as well as add armor to you, so you don’t take as much damage from physical attacks. If you find you are being crowded in by melee attackers in the area you are at, you can take a skill like aftershock or splinter armor to cause them some damage or block attacks, and perhaps pull out a victory over your opponent. A good earth mage can also take out single targets with combos like the Ebon Hawk, Stoning combination.

FIRE- No inherent effect. Many Elementalist skills, especially spells that burn your foes or deal fire damage in large areas, become more effective with higher Fire Magic.

Fire is also a very good line, but it has far less versatility than the other three. With Air, Earth, and Water, you can have some armor skills, or a skill that allows you to disable an opponent while you run away- not so with the Fire line. The Elementalist’s fire line is focused solely on doing damage to your opponent. You will not find any party buffs, kiting skills, or heavy suppression skills in the Fire line. Instead, you will find skills like Meteor Shower, which can simultaneously knock down a target and hit him for 100+ damage, or immolate, which, while expensive seeming for its effect, is a very good skill for finishing people off with a small blast of damage and a short burn. You will also find skills like Fireball or Liquid Flame, which can target one person or a group, as you choose. If someone decides to harass a skilled fire mage, you should be aware that they will more than likely prevail if you brought only nuking skills. While Searing Heat, Rodgorts Invocation, and Meteor Shower are all good skills in the right context, they will not deter a warrior who is intent on hacking you to death, or a Mesmer who wishes to spike you to hell and back. In order to prevail against these kind of threats, a fire mage should always bring one or two single target fire spells, or, depending on whether you need a rez or not, your teams needs, and your personal taste, Flame Djinns Haste, which
Is a very versatile skill that will blast enemies for a sizeable amount of damage, and give you a speed boost to get away. The one major drawback to fire is that it has long casting times on many of the skills, which help keep defense difficult. You also can very easily scatter aggro with the fire line in PvE, so you should be careful.

WATER- Allocate points to Water Magic to increase the duration and effectiveness of your water skills, which slow enemy movement.

Water is probably my favorite line, although I do not find a use for it very often. There are large spike skills, such as Shatterstone or Vapor Blade, which can correlate to the fire skills Mind Burn and Liquid Flame, respectively. Water has some very good defensive skills, such as the elite Mist Form, which makes it so that you do not take or deal any physical damage in melee for a bit(they cant hurt you with a weapon, and you can’t wand). While this may sound like a detriment, the damage done by your spells far outweighs anything lost by not wanding someone to death- you spend most of your time casting anyway. The water line also has some nice AoE spells, such as Deep Freeze or Maelstrom, and some very good shutdown skills, such as (again) Deep Freeze or Blurred Vision. Deep Freeze is a versatile skill, since it can provide damage and slow people down- there are many skills like that in the water line.

Energy Storage- Energy Storage increases your hero’s maximum Energy, and improves skills that help you regenerate Energy.

I saved energy storage for last, because I believe it to be the MOST important thing to know about elementalists- how to properly manage your energy so that you will never find yourself out of a job.

An Elementalist has the most versatile abilities in the whole game- they can defend, they can attack, and they can shut down. They can do all of these well, if the player who plays can do them well. However, all that high damage, the ability to make your team nigh impervious to damage coming towards you, the ability to turn yourself into a living rock, or a fluid master of ice that can freeze opponents and leave them there while you run on to your next goal- all that ability comes with a very high price. That price is exacted on your energy bar. Many people make the mistake of thinking that because elementalists have such high energy, they do not need to be careful with it. That is foolish and wrong, because while the elementalist may have a very large reservoir of energy, they also have the MOST high cost skills in the entire game. If, say, a monk or a Mesmer tries to pull off an elementalist combo without abnormal energy management for that class, they would quickly find themselves without any energy to speak of. The reason the elementalist has the high energy, is because crosses with the elementalist class would be far too powerful if done often, so the energy cost of all the good spells is high. Because of that, elementalists need higher than normal energy bars; as you can see, because of the proportions, energy management is all the more necessary.

Dual attunement- Dual attunement is one popular form of energy management, which involves casting Elemental Attunement and the Attunement of your chosen attribute on yourself simultaneously. This, while giving you nearly unlimited energy, has one monumental flaw- you are depending on enchantments. In PvE, the majority of the time this is no problem. However, in PvP, you will almost always be stripped, and left defenseless. This is not to say enchantments do not work- they work wonderfully, and can be indefinitely maintained. However, you must keep in mind that if you use enchantments, you can be incapacitated.

Glyph of Lesser Energy- many elementalists choose to use the Glyph of Lesser Energy as a primary energy management- that Is no problem, and works well. The only issue is that since it is a glyph, you cannot use it constantly, so take another form of energy management as well.

Other management- There are really too many to list other than these two, which are the most common. Many elementalists in the fire line enjoy skills like mind blast and glowing gaze, which give back the energy required for the spell to be cast and normally that much or more again. There are also elementalists who enjoy using Mesmer energy management, such as Ether Signet, to keep energy flow up and available.

BASIC STRATEGIES-

I will not get into a whole lot of strategies, since there are plenty of guides on aggro, and team mechanics for PvE and PvP. There is one very important thing to understand though, and that is how the AI of npcs reacts to AoE spells, whether in PvE or PvP.

An elementalist creates what could be called a damage vortex, and if you concentrate many spells in one spot, anyone or anything that steps there has the potential to be killed. ANET, because the game would be hardly challenging, and barely fun, if you could do that easily, gave the AI the ability to recognize when someone does that. Normally, when you create a damage vortex, the AI will do one of two things- run away, heal, and come back, with all your spells spent, or rush straight towards you, with all your spells spent. At this point, your teammates will be about ready to strangle you to death, so it is best to not let that happen. What an elementalist should do, is follow the crappy diagram below. The O is your AoE, the * is the enemy, and the T is the tank. The ... are placeholders so the diagram looks right.
...O
O**O
...T
The tank is holding aggro, and if you hit the enemy dead on, they will break. So what you should do, is create an AoE circle, which will box them in, keep them focused on the tank, and do damage. If not using a tank, then you do the same thing, just around the melee character who happens to be taking aggro.

The other basic idea an elementalist should get used to, is scatter. This is when there is so much damage at one time, the AI all run around and, well, scatter. If this happens, you should only target groups of two or more that have scattered, since you want to get as much out of your skills as possible.
If there are no little groups, target the casters, since you are long range, and the tank can easily chase down any melee- they will most likely come to him.

An elementalist has very little armor compared to other classes, long cast times, and the wand or staff you carry generally sucks at damage dealing. A monk cannot deal damage in most occasions- they are too busy saving your ass. A Ranger generally can do about as much damage as an ele to a single target, or do widespread damage to mobs, but those things, as an ele, are mainly your job. The ranger or paragon are generally there to shut down casters. Dervishes and Warriors act as all out damage output on the front lines, keeping any enemies off of your back, and a Mesmer is there to basically kill or shut down anything that is important to destroy, or that cannot, for some reason, be taken care of by anyone else. All classes have a specialty, and some can cross class to help out, but none can match you, the elementalist, for sheer damage output.

If you as an ele come under fire, know that you will shortly die, unless they don’t have strips and you have Aura with high energy storage, or some other self heal that most elementalists don’t use in PvE. An elementalist is what is called a glass cannon- We do a ton of damage, but take a ton ourselves. Because of all of this, your primary objective is Self Preservation. A good and skilled elementalist can keep himself alive and take out entire mobs by his or herself, using scatter from aoe to their advantage in keeping the majority of foes off their back until they can kill them.

However, you must realize that in many areas, you will not be able to do this because of strips and interrupts. This means that you should protect your teammates, if you can. If you see something rushing at the monk, divert it to you, or aoe it once it gets to the monk. All the damage hitting the monsters in the frontlines doesn’t count for jack if your monk gets wiped by a rogue Charr or something, because then YOU have no heal except for what you brought on your bar, which won’t be much, and whatever another support class may have brought- generally enough to suspend death until a monk can get to you, but not keep you from hitting the dirt if half a mob decides the mage looks tasty.

All of this put together comes to two main points-

1. Keep the hell out of the way, in the backlines. There is something called chain aggro, which means that if someone aggroes something, and someone else is in that person’s aggro bubble, the aggroed creature will go for the one with the least health or armor, forming a “chain”. Guess what? That’d be you, Mr. Squishy. So stay back, and blast what you can, when you can, without pulling the mob to the backlines. If something does come to the backlines, make it scatter, so that your backlines aren’t in danger, and regroup farther back.

2. YOU ARE NOT INVINCIBLE. Many elementalists charge to the frontlines, or decide that since they can do 150 damage + burning to several monsters in a radius every few seconds, they can take out an entire mob on their own. This is folly- you will die. If not you, then you will take the mob back to the backlines with you via chain aggro. Casters are called “squishy” for a reason, and it has nothing to do with us being cuddly. Its what happens to us after the second or so Dragon Slash or Burning Arrow. We squish, we squelch, our insides become outsides, and our outsides become insides… We get royally jacked. Now, sometimes, an especially good warrior, monk, or other guy will be so good that he almost miraculously saves your sorry ass. This is something he should not have done. If you are stupid enough to pull a mob to yourself, you deserve to stay grey.

Kendar Muert · Jan 31, 2008, 11:11 PM // 23:11

BUILDS

I am not a huge fan of giving out builds, because I believe that, in order to truly understand a build, to be good with it, you have to make it yourself. So, what I will do, is instead of reveal the secrets of the “Good Eles”, I am going to make you work for it. I will give you some build tips, and then post a basic build for PvE and PvP for each element. If you try to use these builds in high end anything, you will likely get slaughtered, but that’s the point. You have to work for skill, not just have it fall into your lap. Respect isn’t given, its earned. In much the same way, people don’t hand out builds they took hours, possibly days, or even weeks, perfecting. You have to earn it.

Choosing an element-
If you do not know which element does what by now, you should reread the start of the guide. Quick Recap though.

Earth- Self/Team Protection, light- heavy single target damage with exhaustion
Water- Defense, Shutdown, Kiting
Air- Heavy single target damage, knockdowns, and blind
Fire- All out heavy damage- the atomic bomb of the GW world.

Now, let’s say I want to make a good build to blast single targets for heavy damage, such as the siege turtles in fort aspenwood. Well, normally there are some monks that are guarding them that I might need to take out, so I don’t want heavy conditions- most monks carry condition removal that can heal themselves, so fire is out. I also don’t want to try to shut the turtle down or kite him, so water Is out. I’m not trying to defend anything, just all out damage, and I want to spam it, so earth is out. That leaves air. Now, If I want to spam it, I have two options- Dual attunement, or a regular attunement and the Glyph of lesser energy. Taking into account that the Fort Aspenwood mission Is not usually too heavy on the enchantment strips, the dual attunement is the way to go. It’s a rez shrine PvP, so no res is needed, but a self heal is necessary. So, so far, we have

[skill]Elemental Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Air Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill][skill]Glyph of Restoration[/skill]

Now, since we have almost all of our energy coming back to us after a spell, we can afford to use high energy skills, but we also want to spam them. So, Lightning Hammer is obviously in- so is Lightning orb.

Now we have

[skill]Elemental Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Air Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill][skill]Glyph of Restoration[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Hammer[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Orb[/skill]

It would be nice to eliminate some additional resistance and get some more damage, so why not throw in some weakness and cracked armor for kicks?

So now we have

[skill]Elemental Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Air Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill][skill]Glyph of Restoration[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Hammer[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Orb[/skill]
[skill]Enervating Charge[/skill]
[skill]Shell Shock[/skill]

Now, we still have one more slot, and this is where personal preference would come in. The combination there is perfectly spammable, but doesn’t have as high damage output as if you added, say, Lightning Strike. So, it is up to you whether speed, defense, or more damage is what you want. I say, since I will be firing my spells from above the turtle and behind a wall, I have little need for defense, and, since the Kurzick base has teleportation, I don’t need speed. So I add Lightning Strike, and we have this build.
[skill]Elemental Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Air Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill][skill]Glyph of Restoration[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Hammer[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Orb[/skill]
[skill]Enervating Charge[/skill]
[skill]Shell Shock[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Strike[/skill]

Now, all that is left, is to input my attributes. I normally go with getting 15 Energy Storage, and 13 of whatever my element is if I need the extra energy. However, because of the Dual Attunement, and the fact we will have 4 pips, there is no need. After all, we want to blast the hell out of that turtle. So, I would go with 13 Energy Storage and 15 Air Magic. This leaves me with a nice healthy energy bar, as well as a health bar that isn’t hurting too bad, if we slap a Superior Vigor on there.

And that, my friends, is the general process of build making. How to test it is up to you, but I prefer testing them in the Temple of Balthazar explorable on the dummies and the various Masters you find around the Island, to see how I can cope with different classes. Then, I’ll take it into RA and earn myself a couple glad points perfecting it in live play. After that, I would put it to good use in the Kurzick side, blasting turtles and guarding Mine Cleansers.

I have some other builds, but they are very basic, so don’t go looking for the next big thing in this post.

FIRE

[skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]
[skill]Fire Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Glyph of Restoration[/skill]
[skill]Meteor Shower[/skill]
[skill]Mind Blast[/skill]
[skill]Rodgort's Invocation[/skill]
[skill]Searing Heat[/skill]
[skill]Fireball[/skill]

AIR

[skill]Elemental Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Air Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill][skill]Glyph of Restoration[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Hammer[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Orb[/skill]
[skill]Enervating Charge[/skill]
[skill]Shell Shock[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Strike[/skill]

WATER

[skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]
[skill]Water Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill]
[skill]Deep Freeze[/skill]
[skill]Maelstrom[/skill]
[skill]Glowing Ice[/skill]
[skill]Ice Spikes[/skill]
[skill]Water Trident[/skill]

EARTH

[skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]
[skill]Earth Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Glyph of Restoration[/skill]
[skill]Unsteady Ground[/skill]
[skill]Earthquake[/skill]
[skill]Ebon Hawk[/skill]
[skill]Stoning[/skill]
[skill]Glowstone[/skill]

Also, don’t be afraid to mix elements if you have some good energy management, and don’t be afraid to toss this guide out the window if it suits you. This is my playstyle, and suits me quite well, but everyone is different, and I’m sure there are better people out there you could take advice from.
Always are. There is also some good info on the main page of GWG, on several things I did not cover, such as secondary professions.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...list-id235.php

And that, my friends, is my Elementalist guide. I did put rather a lot of work into it, but I’m know there are some things lacking- however, I am neither a GvG expert or a great farmer, so I will leave those things to those of you who know them best. Better to give no advice at all than advice that will end up hurting the one who needs it.

If anyone needs help with making a build, testing one, or general Elementalist help, let me know in game or here on the forums, but like I stated above, I am not your man for GvG, or any kind of difficult farming, since I loathe doing the same thing over and over. I prefer to do FoW runs with friends, or something similar to raise any cash I need.

ELEMENTALIST SECONDARIES
• Warrior [Shock] and [Lightning Touch] have long been friends of the W/E, but it can go both ways. There are some builds that used to own where an earth ele would also go with a hammer and start laying everyone on the ground using [Shockwave][Aftershock][Armor of Earth][Stoning][Heavy Blow][Crushing Blow][Fierce Blow][Healing Signet]. I think the build still is fun to run in some areas, but not for a really serious area- mainly just in AB. Gimmick builds ftw :P
• Ranger: There are several things I have seen an Ele/R used for- the primary one that I have seen is simply using [Serpents Quickness] to reduce the recharge on Elementalist skills. This is often used to farm Ice Imps by keeping Obsidian Flesh up constantly and spamming Earth attacks. Another I have seen is a backup protection type guy. There is also a HA build that utilizes Earth Wards and Nature Rituals to back up the party, made up of paragons and eles- [Ward against Melee][Ward against Elements][Muddy Terrain][Earthquake][Brambles][Natures Renewal][Glyph of Lesser Energy][Resurrection Signet]
• Monk: A monk secondary used to be extremely popular- it was used with [Ether Prodigy] before it was nerfed. The bar would normally look something like [Ether Prodigy][Healing Breeze][Heal Other][Healing Touch][Heal Party][Healing Seed][Mending][Restore Life] The mending was actually really useful, since you had around 12 energy regen constantly, so even if you put it on every person in the party you would have constant regen of 6 or so- enough to let you spam the other skills when needed. Sometimes, Heal Party would simply be spammed, since you gain the energy required every second & ½ anyway. Now, that can still be done, but there are more efficient healers and effective- you can no longer spam EP without penalty for long periods of time. Mostly, monk secondaries are now used for a permanent rez.
• Necromancer: I have never personally used an ele/nec much, but I have fooled around with some gimmick builds that look like they may have promise. You could hammer someone with a spell or two, and then curse them and run away, or you can use [Discord] with a spamming of [Immolate] and [Glowing Gaze] for some nice spammable damage. I used to see minion masters that were Ele/N, back in the days when there was no minion cap. That allowed them to spam the minions as much as they wanted, without having to worry about the SR kicking in. If anyone has some better ideas about how to use an E/N, please let me know :P
• Mesmer: Ah, the Mesmer. The all time most popular secondary of the Elementalist- Echo nuking is the primary function here, although another popular way to go is using energy draining skills in conjunction with nuking to keep your energy up. Here is the typical Echo nuker build- [Echo][Arcane Echo][Meteor Shower][Glyph of Lesser Energy][Rodgorts Invocation][Searing Heat]/[Fireball][[Resurrection Signet][Aura of Restoration]/[Glyph of Restoration] It is almost indispensable in the FoW or UW pug- many people request it. A decent energy draining build is [Energy Drain][Energy Tap][Ether Feast][Resurrection Signet][Lightning Hammer][Lightning Orb][Lightning Strike][Enervating Charge]
• Assassin: Assassins are really only used to perform PBAoE, or Point Black AoE attacks. For instance, you could rush in with [Ride the Lightning] and follow up with skills like [Iron Palm], [Entangling Asp], and [Signet of Toxic Shock] to pretty badly mess your opponent up. Then you could always hit him with [Shock], [Lightning Touch], and [Lightning Strike] and leave with [Dark Escape]. Of course, that’s just a very basic idea, and wouldn’t actually be that effective against most opponents. For a really good combo(they do exist, believe me), you should experiment and find some nice things you like for yourself.
• Ritualist: A common use is to pack something like [Death Pact Signet], to quickly resurrect someone, but an Ele/Rit channeler is definitely nothing to be laughed at. They will mess your stuff up, my friend. [Glyph of Lesser Energy][Grasping Was Kuurong][Renewing Surge][Channeled Strike][Destruction][Essence Strike]. Nuff’ said.
• Paragon I have yet to find a good elementalist/paragon build, so I will not really go into detail on the paragon. I’ve been trying to make a good battery build, but the thing is that the Paragon does it way better, even without a secondary class. There are some spear attacks that work well with an ele, but if you tried to focus on spear mastery in any kind of PvP as an ele, you would not only be laughed at, but if any team accepted you, you would be annihilated.
• Dervish: Ah, the dervish- the evil bastard secondary that makes all those Earth Tanks so hard to kill. [Mystic Regeneration] will fit in excellently with that. Also, about the aforementioned PBAoE builds- you can make some nice combos with the dervish.

And that is all for the Secondary Profession bit of this guide. Hope you enjoyed it, and find it useful.

~Jinn Master

Silly Warrior · Jan 31, 2008, 11:16 PM // 23:16

Congrats to our latest Guide on Guru!

Great job!

Fril Estelin · Jan 31, 2008, 11:20 PM // 23:20

Great job. May be you want to convert the "[ card ]" tags to "[ skill ]" ones? Thanks anyway!

mage767 · Jan 31, 2008, 11:23 PM // 23:23

Nice. I hope the less than average GW ele reads it and improves so that PvE with pugs is not as frustrating.

mrmango · Jan 31, 2008, 11:27 PM // 23:27

The bit about tanking is kinda bad, as it teaches people that tanking is good.

Also, why would you need a self-heal in PVE?

Kendar Muert · Jan 31, 2008, 11:33 PM // 23:33

Fril, they were changed about a second after you made your post :P

Mr Mango, have you EVER met a group that has played for less than a year that DOESNT tank? Ya, that's for them...
And, may I refer you to the last section of my guide.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kendar Muert

Also, don’t be afraid to mix elements if you have some good energy management, and don’t be afraid to toss this guide out the window if it suits you. This is my playstyle, and suits me quite well, but everyone is different, and I’m sure there are better people out there you could take advice from.

And that, my friends, is my Elementalist guide. I did put rather a lot of work into it, but I’m know there are some things lacking- however, I am neither a GvG expert or a great farmer, so I will leave those things to those of you who know them best. Better to give no advice at all than advice that will end up hurting the one who needs it.

And, you do need a self heal in PvE. First, it relieves stress on the healer(s), and second, it may keep you from dying if aggro is drawn to the backlines. Whether using a tank or not, you still have frontlines and backlines, since casters don't tank very well.

Zonzai · Feb 01, 2008, 12:03 AM // 00:03

Been playing an ele since the original BWE's. This is a pretty good guide for starters. Some info on useful secondary class skills would be nice as this seems to be one of the biggest issues that new players have (with the game in general). Since this is mostly only useful to new players anyway it might be nice.

On self heals... NEW players, the target audience of this guide should probably consider a self heal.

Kendar Muert · Feb 01, 2008, 12:56 AM // 00:56

Thank you, Zonzai.. the reason I didn't put that is because the main page guru article does it better than I would have. I'll put a link in there to it for now, and I'll work on adding a bit in there myself. Might take me a bit, since I don't cross class with all the different professions- just necro, monk, and mesmer.

Cebe · Feb 06, 2008, 09:25 AM // 09:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kendar Muert

T is the tank.

I really don't think we should be promoting the idea of "tanking". 95% of "tanks" in PvE tend to be mending wammos, which is never a good foundation for a PvE PuG. I'm also not sure I agree with your "box them in" idea. I'm more in favour of "AoE Glue" like Deep Freeze or Dragon's Stomp. Example would maybe be the triple heat build:

[skill]Fire Attunement[/skill][skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill][skill]Savannah Heat[/skill][skill]Teinai's Heat[/skill][skill]Searing Heat[/skill][skill]Deep Freeze[/skill]

Cast Deep Freeze, for a sexy AoE snare, then pile on the AoEs, starting with Savannah Heat. Likewise, Dragon's Stomp can keep foes in an AoE longer...and works really well if you have an Earthbind Ritualist on board.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kendar Muert

Mr Mango, have you EVER met a group that has played for less than a year that DOESNT tank? Ya, that's for them...

But it doesn't mean you should encourage them to do it from the outset!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kendar Muert

There is also some good info on the main page of GWG, on several things I did not cover, such as secondary professions.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...list-id235.php

That link doesn't discuss professions outside the core ones.

Elementalist/Assassin - Assassin doesn't bring a vast amount to PvE play, though does allow Elementalists to solo farm bosses through the use of Shadow Form.

Elementalist/Ritualist - Mind Blast builds allow Elementalists to power Ritualist utility skills such as Protective was Kaolai, Weapon of Warding, Splinter Weapon etc.. Ritualist also offers Elementalists the use of a hard res, good ones being Death Pact Signet and Flesh of my Flesh.

Elementalist/Dervish - This combination is widely used with dual attunements to make use of the Dervish skill Mystic Regeneration. At 8 Earth Prayers Mystic Regen grants +3 regen per enchantment, meaning +9 health regeneration for 3 enchantments.

Elementalist/Paragon - paragons offer very little to Elementalists, except a Hard Res, which is surpassed by those from the Ritualist or Monk professions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kendar Muert

I am not a huge fan of giving out builds, because I believe that, in order to truly understand a build, to be good with it, you have to make it yourself.

Seconded on that. Too many people just ask for "the best build" on these forums...players would get so much more out of the game, and much more help, if they were more willing to post their current builds and ask for criticism and help improving it instead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kendar Muert

[skill]Elemental Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Air Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill][skill]Glyph of Restoration[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Hammer[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Orb[/skill]
[skill]Enervating Charge[/skill]
[skill]Shell Shock[/skill]
[skill]Lightning Strike[/skill]

Unless a cover enchantment is REALLY needed, personally I'd rather see Blinding Flash in there. Blinding Flash is a very strong skill, especially when combined with [wiki]Epidemic[/wiki] to spread the love.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kendar Muert

EARTH

[skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]
[skill]Earth Attunement[/skill]
[skill]Glyph of Restoration[/skill]
[skill]Unsteady Ground[/skill]
[skill]Earthquake[/skill]
[skill]Ebon Hawk[/skill]
[skill]Stoning[/skill]
[skill]Glowstone[/skill]

For a while now I've been going E/N, speccing 8 or 9 in Curses, and using Enfeebling Blood instead of Ebon Hawk. Enfeebling Blood is not only AoE, but it's guaranteed weakness, unlike Ebon Hawk which requires your target to be moving. I'd also prefer to see [wiki]Eruption[/wiki] used instead of Earthquake. With Unsteady Ground and Weakness+Stoning you have plenty of Knockdown, Eruption will provide further utility through Blind.

The guide could probably do with a quick appraisal of some of the better Elementalist Elite skills. I discussed the Fire Magic Elites in this thread a while back, but pointing out which elites are good, and why, and which elites to avoid (*cough* Thunderclap *cough*) would probably be beneficial to this Guide.

Pyro maniac · Feb 08, 2008, 12:19 PM // 12:19

you promote nuking?

Cebe · Feb 08, 2008, 12:29 PM // 12:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyro maniac

you promote nuking?

I would class Mind Blast / Rodgorts spam as "nuking"... Nuking isn't bad if it's managed well...but if you just pile AoEs onto a mob and a second later watch them all run out of it that's when you know you just failed.

LightningHell · Feb 08, 2008, 04:16 PM // 16:16

Do you mind if I make a few changes?

(i.e. I read it, reread it, copy it into notepad, change it, PM it to ya.)

Pyro maniac · Feb 08, 2008, 05:39 PM // 17:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celestial Beaver

I would class Mind Blast / Rodgorts spam as "nuking"... Nuking isn't bad if it's managed well...but if you just pile AoEs onto a mob and a second later watch them all run out of it that's when you know you just failed.

meh you're right.

You promote AoE DoT nuking? ^^

Kendar Muert · Mar 01, 2008, 01:48 AM // 01:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by LightningHell

Do you mind if I make a few changes?

(i.e. I read it, reread it, copy it into notepad, change it, PM it to ya.)

No, I don't.

Just.nl · Mar 23, 2008, 04:03 PM // 16:03

Really.. U helped me alot i got already a ele but only used Fire/Air.. i know where i can use Water for.. but its amazing like [skill]Shatterstone[/skill] That skill is costing some energy but How he explains it.. with energy storage its almost no problem... but you need to maintance your energy storage skills.. if you forgot them your lost..

so i see this with a elementalist
Elementalist Without energy= Can play better a other proffession

Kendar Muert · Apr 14, 2008, 07:10 PM // 19:10

I've been working on some changes, and I will have them up shortly. If anyone doesn't like them, well, that's just too bad. This is how I see it- If you don't like it, see if you can get your own guide put up :P

FORTHCOMING-

Secondary class details

Build Creation tutorial

Armor and Weapons Walkthrough

And whatever else I feel like tossing in ther e:P

Kendar Muert · Apr 14, 2008, 11:52 PM // 23:52

Edited- Secondary class stuff is up.

Cebe · Apr 17, 2008, 07:36 AM // 07:36

Is it possible for you to do an "Elementalist FAQ" section. An FAQ section is something I'm considering putting in the guides I created. Each profession forum, it seems, is plagued with the same questions. In the Elementalist Forum the current favourites seem to be:

"OMG How to I kill Destroyers with my Ele?!?!?"

and

"What's a Good Weapon Combo for Eles??!!??"

The "What's a Good Nuker Build" threads seem to have calmed down a bit these days, but it might be worth mentioning anyway.

Kendar Muert · Apr 18, 2008, 04:14 AM // 04:14

The armor and weapons walkthrough should take care of the second, and I am also going to be working on a farming guide, which will take care of the first. I am greatly expanding this, and, when finished, I will ask it to be reposted, since it will be some 500k+ words long, and will need a full page or so. If anyone else wants something in the guide, let me know, and I will do my best to get it up there.