Curse

LifeInfusion · Aug 05, 2005, 01:36 PM // 13:36

I'm running an air build because of the fast recharge time and armor penetration (I switched from fire because of the horrible recharge) but earth seems appealing because of the wards. I am currently only going to FoW and UW.

As an E/Mo I usually have healing prayers and rebirth on me. Yet people suggest protection prayers is better for PVE nonprimary monks. What is the reason protection prayers are considered better for nonprimary monks? I can only see them effective in UW because of protective spirit and protective bond. I tried using lvl 11 protection prayers for one round of FoW and didn't like it because the only thing I was able to do was reversal of fortune and protective spirit. Aegis has a horrible recharge, guardian needs constant monitoring. Last of all, I was not able to pull off any self heals especially when there was shatter enchantment and the like, which made me die. I know I could have brought the Shield of Regeneration Elite skill... but I need the elite slot.

My question is
1. How effective is an earth ele. at dealing ranged damage?
2. What is the benefit of going to protection prayers rather than Healing prayers (considering that I usually heal only if the monks are having a hard time)?

Boubou · Aug 05, 2005, 01:54 PM // 13:54

Earth damage is mostly close-quarter. You got few spells like stoning (or something like that), but it won't do much damage. I tried once an earth build and most of their skills has exhaustion, I ended up with 15 energy left... and the remaining was exhaustion..

Lately, I've been playing as an Air Elem, which deals good damage and if you pay attention at what you do, you have almost 0 exhaustion. Fire has almost no skill with exhaustion (except meteor, meteor shower), it has lots of AoE spells, but later in the game, won't deal much damage anyway (crystal desert, ring of fire).

About the protective, I have no clue. I usually play as nuker/spike or backup healer, never protection.

LifeInfusion · Aug 05, 2005, 04:51 PM // 16:51

Uh I know what the skills do. I even have tried earth instead of air. But only the amror and buffs are useful, the skills (except for eruption) are horrible on energy management. The exhaustion kills.

Now someone talk about protection?

I know what all the skills do for ele/monk. However, I just want to see how people use those skills...

Mavrik · Aug 05, 2005, 06:58 PM // 18:58

I usually cast that Invocation fire on groups of enemies as it deals the same damage to all surrounding enemies as the one it was cast on. It also sets them on fire for 3 seconds... I find this works well on enemies that cluster. The I'll hit them with firestorm after they have regrouped or what not. Against enemies that use distance attacks themselves, I usually hit them with meteor shower or fire storm and watch them die. That Invocation, Lava Font, Fire Storm and Meteor Shower are my 4 most used skills.

LifeInfusion · Aug 06, 2005, 12:44 AM // 00:44

Hi Ruth Ann

Yeh, that's what I USED to do, before I starting wanting to be unique. It seems nobody takes the other elements and actually uses them.

I was a fire until about sanctum cay, when I got some nice air skills from the maguuma stade place and fisherman's haven outpost.

Anyway, as of yet, nobody actually answered my question. How can you effectively use earth magic in Fissure, without just using wards. (Wards are useless when most of the time dying is form mesmers).

I see water as having potential with buffs as armor of mist and interrupts as maelstrom. However, the recharge on the spells is HIGH.

One of the main reaosns why I swapped to air, is that it is boring waiting for skills to recharge (meteor shower has 60 second recharge, firestorm 30, rodgort's invocation hits once only). A higher recharge and cats rate means easy intterrupts, which means quick death versus ether breakers.

Mavrik · Aug 06, 2005, 01:00 AM // 01:00

I've been changing around some of my skills to try different things when I solo but have stuck pretty much to the 4 skills I mentioned I use most... For me they seem to work the best plus I have a lot of points to fire. I'm a little pyro ya know?

MOST of my fire skills will do 100+ damage per hit for those single hit ones, for example Lava font on a lv8 Charr Axe Fend does 200HP per hit. I like casting Invocation on a group that then runs to me and flocks around to then die from Lava Font.

I've always liked fire skills, even in Diablo 2, I always used fire element the most. Nothing earth, wind or water seemed to interest me... I may have to make another character to experiement as my Ruth Ann character is perfect the way she is for me. I'm thinking of doing a Mesmer/Elemenalist... Simply for the Mesmer look but full elementalist for skills, maybe I'll try some of the other elements and see what works.

Erace · Aug 06, 2005, 11:04 AM // 11:04

the benefit of protection prayers as Ele is great defence, the energy storage boost helps a lot. Im not a damage dealing Ele/Monk.
Protector is a good choice for E/Mo i think, u get energy benefit, ward benefit and nice protection spells. in GvG we have 1 Protector (me) and 1 Heal/Protector and it takes 2 warriors to take me down, and even then i put up a pretty good fight.

Advantages
Wards keep me alive long enough to regenerate energy.
Shielding Hands reduces a lot of the damage + Armor of Earth and ur basicaly getting hit for 0.
Mend Ailment incase u get a nasty ranger or necro with conditions.
Shiled of Regeneration [E] is a nice healing skill that keeps ur health high and gives u a nice armor boost.

Disadvantages
You feel left out not being able to attack much

Mesmers hurt u a lot! - Conjure and all their health degen spells are not cured by Mend Ailment, which hurts.
Lack of healing, if u have a bad monk u are not likely to survive as long.

Skills
Ward against melee
Ward against elements
Armor of earth
Shield of regeneration [E]
Mend ailment (swap with Ressurect depending on what im doing)
Protective spirit
Reversal of fortune
Shielding hands

Attributes
Earth Magic: 12 +3
Energy Storage: 10 +1
Protection Prayers: 10

These are currently my attributes, im going to switch them when i get some more refund points. Need more in Protection.

Hope this helps. If not this post still made time go faster, stupid download...hurry up!

LifeInfusion · Aug 06, 2005, 01:19 PM // 13:19

I can see that protection prayers has a decent skill line. However, the shatter hex/nature's renewal in FoW completely decimates most if not all of the spells.

Not being able to attack as an elementalist is pretty pitiful

since in PvE if you don't attack, you basically die faster since the monsters have multiple monks with 180 Health Heal Area