Curse

Vahn Roi · Sep 17, 2006, 12:41 AM // 00:41

For some odd reason I decided that my first character since my "hacking" would be an ele. She's in the southern shiverpeaks now after about 40 hours of play and I've been using the cliche Meteor Shower Ele since day one. I've noticed that after the Maguuma Jungle, fire is far less destruction and if my simply nuker build isn't highly destructive, it's boring.

I was wondering if anyone has had any thoughts on effective PvE builds that are a bit more complex than your typical nuker. Perhaps something that involves an element other than fire?

Thom Bangalter · Sep 17, 2006, 12:57 AM // 00:57

I use air whenever I can in pvp. strike/orb/charge/ether prodigy/heal party/healing breeze/gale/rebirth.

I use rebirth because I'm scrubby and like to rez them far away from the aggro.

Dual attunements would work here, you wouldn't be able to spam HP like a pro though. to fit in dual attunements drop ep and gale.

I don't like playing elementalist in pve though, because people make you be fire when you're the only member of the group and fire sucks.

Master Fuhon · Sep 17, 2006, 02:02 AM // 02:02

If you want more complex, then you want to add some defensive capabilities to the regular fire build. If you want very complex, then maybe you want air elementalist, so you can micromanage the melee with blinds and spike out the priority targets with orbs. Thats all good for some people, but I'm still a fan of bringing on two groups at a time and taking them down.

Fire/Earth Hybrid
11+1+3 Fire, 10+1 Earth, 10+1 Energy Storage

Aura of Restoration
Fireball
Obsidian Flame
Elemental Attunement (E)
Ward Against Melee
Rodgorts Invocation
Meteor Shower
Ressurection Skill

Drop down to 15 fire, only to deal 7 less damage on Fireball/Rodgort's, and 21 on Meteor Showers. It plays different because the build isn't centered around Meteor Showers, so I run 20/20 recharge and fast casting on wand and offhand. You can use a Fiery Flame Spitter (10% recharge on spells) with enchantment increasing mod, but you won't be able to make good use of Elementalist trademark downtime by wanding with that combination.

I don't run a Glyph nuker in a place where I don't need to go E/Me for Mantra of Resolve and doing some interrupting with Power Drain. In one group I was in, the other nuker was only using the common Glyph/Meteor Shower combo. He seemed pretty proud to have unloaded two Meteor Showers on a pretty large pull at the end of a Factions master's group. On the same group I dropped a Meteor Shower, Rodgort's Invocation, and Fireball on them. The group was dead with meteors still falling, and that's the kind of thing you will get frequently with an overload on nukers/barragers/mm that most groups go with.

I got sick of having Immolate as the only viable option for things like Chaos Wurms, who I would inevitably still cast Meteor Showers on. Fireball and Rodgorts are horrible on a single heavily-armored enemy. 11 in Earth gives 88 damage on Obsidian Flame, which is a decent skill for finishing off priority targets (not spamming). Ward Against Melee is there for messed up aggro. The spots I've messed around with the most are the ones I've filled with Aura of Restoration and the Resurection Skill. I used to drop my self heal for Ward Against Elements because I could count on not needing to be healed too much. It's a bigger priority not having an Elementalist boss rip the group to shreds by reducing the damage intake slightly.

I like using fire because of the animations. And because my elementalist is an evil-looking male character, I don't think he looks as good using air and water. But I'll agree with anyone who says they hate only casting Meteor Showers.

joncoish · Sep 17, 2006, 02:24 AM // 02:24

I'm pretty much an earth guy now. Earth is really nice for group defense because you can bring along a couple wards. If I'm running a warder build I'll bring ward against melee and elements gauranteed. Those are the required ones in my opinion, because you pretty much always encounter melee mobs and caster mobs in areas. Others like ward of stability just include where needed. That's only 2 or 3 slots right there, so you can throw in a bunch of other damage spells. I always bring stone daggers, because it's spammable, and maybe stoning because it does bigger damage. Obsidian flame is great damage, but it causes exhaustion, so be careful. And you can't go wrong with either crystal wind or tenai's crystals because they do armor ignoring damage to all mobs around you. Basically with earth magic you get more defensive spells, but also some nice offensive spells as well.

Ensign · Sep 17, 2006, 03:58 AM // 03:58

I'm a big fan of Prodigy, Orb, Enervating, Blind, Heal Party, Ward Melee, Glyph of Sacrifice, Resurrection Chant.

Peace,
-CxE

LightningHell · Sep 17, 2006, 10:34 AM // 10:34

Prodigy, Blind, Gale, Ward Melee, Ward Foes, Enervating, Orb, Rebirth.

What I sometimes use anyway, and is fairly simple.