Curse

UberRusty · Jun 28, 2005, 06:22 AM // 06:22

I shall be brief, for there is much to do in this mortal realm.

In the build that I am making, I have 3 slots for Elemental skills. Now I've never played an Elementalist before, so bear with me. I am mainly into pharming/soloing at the moment with the build I'm making, so I need the most damaging spells. The thing is, I had a chat with some of my experienced Elementalists in my guild, and they said that Fire doesn't do much damage at the higher levels. What they meant was that you only do around 50% of the indicated damage on the spell.

So I'm pretty confused about what element to use. I want an elementalist that does the maximum AoE damage possible. Forget about Energy and tanking/surviving capabilities, I have that covered. :P I almost forgot, no elites.

At the moment, I've chosen fire, and selected these three skills:

Lava Font
Flame Burst
Fireball

After calculations, I do around 450 fire dmg AoE in 10 seconds. Can any of you beat that?

Be sure to take in recharge time, casting time etc.

I would've chosen lightning, but they don't have much AoE spells.

I've wondered about Earth too, but not sure if it's in the same pit as fire (50% or less of indicated damage)

Thankyou for your time,

Rusty.

Yukito Kunisaki · Jun 28, 2005, 06:39 AM // 06:39

I'm not an elementalist, but I've got some suggestions just for fun...

Phoenix
Inferno
Flame Burst

UberRusty · Jun 28, 2005, 06:40 AM // 06:40

Fireball is better than Pheonix due to recharge times.

I was also thinking of Inferno, but Lava Font is better and I can keep it up constantly too!

Zeru · Jun 28, 2005, 06:49 AM // 06:49

Well the best aoe spell you're going to get is Chain Lightning.

Earth is arguably on par with fire for aoe, it's just most of earth is pbaoe whereas fire has a healthy mix.

Earthquake+aftershock+crystal wave is rather nasty though.

kuramaroze · Jun 28, 2005, 07:10 AM // 07:10

Earth and Fire deal roughly the same AoE damage. Here are the major differences:

Pro Earth-
Nobody wears earth resist armor
Earth involves knockdowns that interrupt spells and give your team a big advantage
Earth gets ward spells
Not many people go earth, so people don't know how to anticipate you well
Earth runes are cheap =)

Con Earth-
Earth is almost entirely close range
Earth skills are acquired later on in the game
Area of Effect is generally foes surrounding you, not foes surrounding a chosen target as fire has

Pro Fire-
Can be cast at range
Fire is strong all the way through the game
Big damage output if your mana can handle it

Con Fire-
Lots of people wear fire resist armors in PVP
Big cooldowns
No utility (wards and knockdown for earth)

You're best off playing fire the whole time, or switching to earth once you get to the ring of fire missions or so, since aftershock is a must have, and its acquired at an outpost near thunderhead keep, right before the ring of fire. They're both good elements. Really you can't go wrong with an ele unless you focus on water as a primary element instead of support for something else imho.

Cs Coldize · Jun 28, 2005, 07:15 AM // 07:15

are you primary ele or secondary.

And what you'er friends said is completely wrong. Fire will always do the most damage of all the elements. Now I dont understand what you're saying. Do you need skills that are going to do the most damage or going to effectively help you as a tank? Or what? You need to describe your strategy but I'll tell you now that the best skills for a tank would be pheonix, inferno, and lava font. But I would suggest going water and using mist form(if you can afford the elite), maelstrom(even using low water magic, this interrupt is perfect for keeping eles busy while you wry about tanks), and armor of mist.

Tengoku No Yushosha · Jun 28, 2005, 01:03 PM // 13:03

What about Water...? Why'd you leave out Hydromancing? Well, Hydromancers can tap into Self-Defense (-Armor of frost, Armor of mist-), Help with fleeing or running from foes, (-Using Deep Freeze, Ice Spikes and Shard Storm-) Interrupting, Maelstrom is good against enemy mages trying to cast on your allies. Blinding, Blurred Vision can help against enemy Warriors and Rangers attacking in BIG groups (-Swirling Aura can help against Rangers and magical projectiles-). I don't reccomend using Ice Spear because of its range and you don't need to get even closer to the enemy. (-Also, a good Hydromancer can be good against a Pyromancer with Ward Against Harm....Just saying

-) (-Oh, and most people don't wear Water Resistant armor, making them take the full damage and full effect of Hydromancing-)

Spike · Jun 28, 2005, 02:17 PM // 14:17

If you have only 3 slots for fire spells try the following.

1 Mark of rodgrot.
2 Firestorm.
3 Metor shower.

The mark cause anything that takes fire damage to be set on fire for 3 seconds EACH TIME. Firestorm rains fire on them for 10 seconds and metor shower is probley the most damgeing spell in the game

UberRusty · Jun 28, 2005, 07:26 PM // 19:26

Guys, thanks for the input, but... look at my first post again.

Quote:

I am mainly into pharming/soloing at the moment with the build I'm making, so I need the most damaging spells.

Quote:

I want an elementalist that does the maximum AoE damage possible.

Quote:

Forget about Energy and tanking/surviving capabilities,

Zeru: I was considering that combo, HOWEVER if I don't kill my enemy outright, which I won't because I'll be soloing level 18 - 24 enemies, I'm going to have to wait a LONG time for the skills to recharge. My skills that I've chosen I can keep up constantly, it's basically a 450 fire dmg AoE every 10 seconds.

Cs Coldize: Sorry if I sound rude, but it's kind of explained up there and in my first post. :P

Tengoku No Yushosha: My main focus here is PvE, but I've tried Water in PvP, didn't really work out as I planned. Water Trident is a great skill against runners though.

Spike: Mark of Rodgort only effects one target, and I want AoEwise.

Firestorm is good damage, 240 fire dmg AoE, BUT it takes too long to recharge, and other skills can beat it's damage due to recharge times.

I was considering Meteor Shower, and I have been told it's 91 AOE damage every second for 10 seconds, so everyone ges knocked down. However, in my experience it hasn't been every second, and the meteors didn't seem to hit everyone, everytime.

I'm also considering putting all my points into Earth and Fire, and basically just take the best spiking skills of each element and do 1k damage in around 6 seconds or so. That way I won't even need to survive, just kill everything outright.

UberRusty · Jun 29, 2005, 05:09 PM // 17:09

So... any more suggestions?

kuramaroze · Jun 29, 2005, 05:25 PM // 17:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cs Coldize

are you primary ele or secondary.

And what you'er friends said is completely wrong. Fire will always do the most damage of all the elements. Now I dont understand what you're saying. Do you need skills that are going to do the most damage or going to effectively help you as a tank? Or what? You need to describe your strategy but I'll tell you now that the best skills for a tank would be pheonix, inferno, and lava font. But I would suggest going water and using mist form(if you can afford the elite), maelstrom(even using low water magic, this interrupt is perfect for keeping eles busy while you wry about tanks), and armor of mist.

Actually, his friends are right. People and monsters will have over 90 armor, and the majority of people wear fire resist armor. Go to the LA or Droks arena and cast a fireball on a warrior. Half damage =P

Quote:

What about Water...? Why'd you leave out Hydromancing? Well, Hydromancers can tap into Self-Defense (-Armor of frost, Armor of mist-), Help with fleeing or running from foes, (-Using Deep Freeze, Ice Spikes and Shard Storm-) Interrupting, Maelstrom is good against enemy mages trying to cast on your allies. Blinding, Blurred Vision can help against enemy Warriors and Rangers attacking in BIG groups (-Swirling Aura can help against Rangers and magical projectiles-). I don't reccomend using Ice Spear because of its range and you don't need to get even closer to the enemy. (-Also, a good Hydromancer can be good against a Pyromancer with Ward Against Harm....Just saying -) (-Oh, and most people don't wear Water Resistant armor, making them take the full damage and full effect of Hydromancing-)

Yeah, I wouldn't suggest water to anybody who isn't up for the challenge of it. Its a tough element to work with, but pretty rewarding.

FengShuiBundi · Jun 29, 2005, 05:47 PM // 17:47

Water + Inspiration for keeping up energy with channeling/inspired hex stuff.
Water + Domination for driving casters crazy. Diversion is great, I would forget backfire because it's gonna get removed, whereas with Diversion's great cooldown and abilities, even removing it is a waste. Knockdowns are great when they are running, you can be a warrior's best friend with a build like this. Fool around there are great combos with water and mesmer lines.

As for on topic, farming wise PBAOE Fire is fine. I have something like max fire, 2 or 3 in earth, 7 or 8 in healing, and 10ish in energy storage. This allows for healing breeze, the only healing spell you need. Armor of earth helps a lot.

I use: Lava font, inferno, firestorm, healing breeze, ele attunement, armor of earth, fireball, flame burst (Those two are on the end and hotkeyed for my side mouse buttons) It takes out up to 6-7 ettins easy if you can take care of yourself. Make sure fire is around 14 or higher and the health is augmented with a major/superior vigor.

Yukito Kunisaki · Jun 29, 2005, 05:56 PM // 17:56

Apparently, some people didn't read the first post...

1. NOT PVP
2. NOT DOT
3. most dmg SKILLS IMAGINABLE...

I'm guessing cast time and recycle time aren't a concern if you REALLY want that dmg...

Try this.

Meteor Shower
Phoenix
Inferno

As far as raw dmg output goes, this is probably your most devastating set of fire skills you can have. Use phoenix point blank for a nice massive double hit.

I hope this helps some.

UberRusty · Jun 29, 2005, 08:30 PM // 20:30

YAY! Someone read my first part of the thread. I've considered using Inferno, but Flame Burst is loads better. Inferno has a 20 second recharge time while Flame Burst has a 5 second recharge time, and they both do around the same damage.

Pheonix is also a great skill, however Fireball beats it due to recharge time.

But I'm going to replace Meteor Shower with Fireball, so basically I have Lava Font which will be active at all times, and I'll just Flame Burst my way to happiness, with a touch of Meteor Shower here and there.

The only thing is that Meteor Storm takes 60 SECONDS to recharge.

EternalTempest · Jun 29, 2005, 08:44 PM // 20:44

I perfer Pheonix over Fireball for the better spread of AOE then fireball.

I pretty much PvE and I run off these fire spells, Flare, Phoenix, FireStorm, and Meteror Shower.

Nothing better then a group of mob's close together to do Arcane Echo (Me Elite Skill)for 2x Metor Showers, FireStorm followed up by an Phoenix thown in

The biggest flaw to pyromage AOE is the ability to move out of the way, depends on where your going to farm, the farther along the less stupid the monsters in staying close together.

Im seriously considering switching to Geomance now that I am near the end of the game and fire has been great but the earth skills are starting to draw me to them, espicaly the AOE protection spells it offers.

Enigmatics · Jun 30, 2005, 10:41 PM // 22:41

Erm.. has anyone mentioned that air's armor penetration makes it the most godly spike damage elementalists have? If you farm, then fire is ideal. If you pvp, make an air elementalist and have fun killing monks in around 8 seconds.

Gah... not pvp. Sorry, in that case, use incendiary bonds and then a spell with 2 second cast to have the damage turn into one spike. rodvort's invocation is also good for one single burst of damage. For stationary mobs (as most pve mobs will be) you can use searing heat for some havoc. Basically, anything in the pvp pyro build goes well for pve.