Curse

Seron Dalar · May 26, 2005, 03:57 AM // 03:57

Does anybody use Water Magic? I haven't seen a single thread about it, except one asking whether you can get them pre-Searing. I have an E/N that I intended to use Water Magic and something else (Curses, probably)-- you know, slow down the target and blast them with stuff-- but it didn't seem to work when I tried it PvE. And I haven't tried PvP yet, though I think it'd work then. For now, I'll stick with Fire/Blood Magic, that seems to work. (Though I may replace Fireball with Frozen Burst.)

So... any Hydromancers here? Any tips? Should I just not bother?

Z-Shinrei · May 26, 2005, 04:07 AM // 04:07

I'm a hydromancer. The only real problem with hydromancers are that u dont get access to the stronger spells until a lot later in the game (maelstrom, water trident). They're also not supposed to do a whole lot of damage (air, fire and probably earth do more). However, water combined with the necro's "soul barb" curse can work really well, since most water spells are hexes.

All in all, water is more of a support element.

Seron Dalar · May 26, 2005, 09:04 PM // 21:04

^Heh, I was actually trying to combine Soul Barbs with my water spells, but the ones I have didn't recharge fast enough for it to work particularly well. I think it's just that for PvE I generally want to do a lot of damage very fast, as opposed to layering on status effects and slowing people down. Well, whatever. I'll work on it, although I'll keep my Pyromancy stuff for now.

Shadow_Avenger · May 27, 2005, 04:55 PM // 16:55

Air is best damage, then Fire, then earth (earth has a lot of def buff spells, but also has a few that will always do max dam) Last is Water, water slows enemies and it has the best ac/speed buff spell though.
Water Trident is very good, but untill you high level the skills you get as a water mage have hugh retimers cna power consumption in ration to damage compared to other classes. The only reasonable quick mid damage spell is ice lance, but that has 1/2 range of all other ranged spells.

Ensign · May 27, 2005, 06:47 PM // 18:47

I've been playing my Elementalist mostly as a Water mage in PvP recently, and I have nothing but good things to say about it.

The single target damage is actually pretty good. A level 16 Water Trident or Shard Storm will deal 69 damage per hit, coupled with the knockdown / snare. 69 should look familiar, it's the same damage that a Lightning Strike will deal to a 60 AL target. You still have your Conjure. You don't have the gratuitious damage spikes that Air has (Surge + Orb), but as far as just hammering away on someone goes you're not too far off.

Plus you get the benefit of snaring with almost every cast. The damage you might have lost from the skills themselves is made up from more arrows landing, from your Warriors being able to catch the target, from all the benefits that come from immobilizing a target.

Plus you get Maelstrom for dais.

The problem that water has is that it isn't a particularly deep line. You can't chain cast like you can potentially with Fire / Air, so you're going to have times where you're just wanding - which makes Conjure Frost critical. You have a huge dependence upon Water Trident, as it's your only spam skill - I wouldn't even bother trying to play a hydromancer until I'd captured Trident. You just don't have enough to do without it.

It's decent but unspectacular in PvE - really, you should just play a Pyromancer and get it over with. PvE is all about massive AoE effects and fire has a ton of reasonably priced ones on fast recharges. Plus the snare effects are pretty marginal against mobs - oh, you can slow down one of eight melee dorks who are just going to aggro your tank anyway.

So my advise would be to play a generic fire mage until you get access to Water Trident in the south shiverpeaks. At that point you can make the switch, and never go back if you don't want to.

Peace,
-CxE

Volarian · May 27, 2005, 08:11 PM // 20:11

Ensign,

When you say "capture" Trident, does that mean the skill is Elite and only obtainable from going back to the Peaks after you've acquired Sig of Cap, so that you can get it? Just want to make sure since getting Sig of Cap is a ways & several areas past Shiverpeaks.

Thx

Duality · May 27, 2005, 08:15 PM // 20:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Volarian

Ensign,

When you say "capture" Trident, does that mean the skill is Elite and only obtainable from going back to the Peaks after you've acquired Sig of Cap, so that you can get it? Just want to make sure since getting Sig of Cap is a ways & several areas past Shiverpeaks.

Thx

yes it is elite. it also is not closer than where you get signet of capture. he said -southern- shiverpeaks, which is a completely different kettle of fish from northern shiverpeaks.

Nabob · May 27, 2005, 08:34 PM // 20:34

I play a Hydromancer, and I like it alot. Water Trident is probably one of the best skills in the game, and combined with Arcane Echo and snare effects, it can get really annoying (for your enemy). In PvE Malestrom is extremely good, shutting down a bosses spells makes them alot easier, its nice for PvP as well, but most people are smart enough to move out of it.

Firestreak · May 27, 2005, 09:32 PM // 21:32

I have a E/R, but the R aspect of it is absolutely useless because I use a 100% Watermancer Build. Builds are nice to talk about on paper, but you always have to put in the Reality Factor....as in...does it really work. Fortunately this build works great for me and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Water Trident
Ice Spear
Ice Spikes
Frozen Burst
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Maelstrom
Armor of Mist
Res Signet

Water Trident and Ice Spear work hand in hand. Think about it, Water Trident has an attack speed of once every 3 seconds. In that period of time you can let off 2 Ice Spears. ~140 damage is a LOT better than 50

Ice Spikes and Frozen Burst work fairly hand in hand. Frozen burst is also used in accordance with Armor of Mist. The idea between these spells is to do damage and to slow down your enemies to pull off the allmighty...

Maelstrom. Accompanied by Glyph of lesser Energy, you can save yourself 15 energy. Isn't that grand? Thats right, at a mere cost of 10 energy you can deal lots of aoe damage, prevent casters/healers/necros/mesmers from doing anything at all, and attack them with the above four spells all at the same time. In case you get screwed over, you can use

Armor of Mist. I don't know why I love this move so much, but it simply is my favorite move. I never thought I'd be using it but it is invalueble to me now. It's essentially an elementalist version of Sprintx4, because for 20 seconds you get 33% speed increase, bear in mind sprint only has 25%, and then you get an additional 40 armor, and with the amount of armor an elementalist normally has, thats a LOT. If your in a pickle, use frozen burst and this and run the ever living crap away. While your doing that, you could always use your handy dandy

Resurrection Signet. Comeon, if your doing pvp and don't have this, your are a disgrace. There is absolutely no reason you should be a wart on your teams behind.

So the idea is to use the above spells, and do stuff. Something i sometimes do is use Frozen Burst, Maelstrom, Lots of WT and IS, in that order. That usually works pretty well. If its going really well I use AOM, run up, use FB, and run away. If its not going well or someones chasing me, same thing in the opposite order.

So yeah, you may be telling me that I'm an idiot for not using the secondary profession skills, but you know what, It's my build and I love it.