Curse

MasterDinadan · May 25, 2005, 04:38 AM // 04:38

I've been using this build for a while and it is very ideal for tackling explorable zones by yourself, or with a small group of henchman. Note that this is mostly used for farming as lots of zones in the game are too difficult to do alone anyway. I usually farm in the desert and this build does pretty well there because there aren't a lot of mesmer enemies.

11+2 Air Magic (1 rune, 1 helm)
10+1 Earth Magic (1 rune)
10+1 Energy Storage (1 rune)

Skills:
Chain Lightning
Crystal Wave
Lightning Strike
Lightning Orb
Ether Renewal (elite)
Aura of Restoration
Armor of the Earth
Divine Boon

Not much to say about the first 4 skills, they are a pretty basic offensive arsenal that no solo/small group elementalist would want to go without. Feel free to change these up if you prefer other offense skills, or even go with a different element besides air entirely. I prefer air because there seems to be a lot of fire resists where I farm, but you could go with another element if you choose.
Now for the last 4 skills, these are what keep you alive (when you solo you are tanking ALL the hits after all). Armor of Earth adds a very significant 53 armor. With that much armor you are taking around 40% of what you would otherwise, it's a HUGE help. Aura of Restoration obviously is for healing yourself and it does quite well. Both of these are enchantments and as a result they both make Ether Renewal more effective. Every 30 seconds you get an ether renewal... when your build has 4 enchantments you are gaining 16 energy and 64 health for every spell in that 10 second duration.
The last skill probably seems out of place. Divine Boon on a monk secondary?? Without any ally-targetting skills being used at all?? Yes, it is true that the actual effect of Divine Boon will never be utilized in this build. So why did I pick it? First of all, I wanted a 4th enchantment. I foudn that using 3 enchantments just didn't cut it. The reason I chose Divine Boon is because it has 1/4 second cast time and NO recharge, and requires no target... therefore it is easily the most spammable spell in the entire game. Given Ether Renewal's effect, you will want to spam spells during it's duration. You won't use Divine Boon normally as you walk around with Aura and Armor activated, recasting as needed. When you find yourself low on health or energy, activate ether renewal, then start spamming divine boon. Divine boon gives you a 4th enchantment to make ether renewal better, and you are casting it fast enough to easily exceed regeneration rates of 200 health per second with both ether and aura... plus your energy will be completely filled in no time. This makes you an extremely good tank as you essentially get a complete recovery of both energy and health every 30 seconds, and armor of the earth and aura keep you alive long enough to last until that 30 seconds recharges again. Most fights don't even last long enough to require the use of more then one ether. This build can work in PVP too. A lot of people attack the elementalist thinking it's an easy kill, but this build survives quite well. I find that I am in most situations able to survive against TWO warriors both focussing on me without any help at all. If I get more then that, obviously I have some trouble, but that's what my ally monks are there for

Mesmers can totally slaughter this build however, just by breaking enchantments. Since the only 3 skills keeping you alive are all enchantments, it could be nasty. One advantage though is that these skills remove the last applied enchantment... so you can easily just cast divine boon on yourself last and protect yourself from a nasty enchantment removal. Still, it can be pretty taxing if they keep on doing it and you aren't prepared.

Let me know what you think... I was using this build while grouping with my guild today... the entire guild whiped in the mission except me, and three mobs came after me. Everyone was lying there talking about how we were gonna have to restart and they honestly didn't expect me to continue to live through the fight. Not only did I live through the fight, but I managed to complete the ENTIRE remainder of the mission by myself (As you can see I don't have a rez). The guild leader was so impressed by my build that I got promoted to officer

Straegen · Jun 05, 2005, 04:33 PM // 16:33

Interesting build, very promising and looking forward to trying it out. Thanks.

Zealot Dang · Jun 05, 2005, 04:59 PM // 16:59

Yes, I agree with it, Pure Ele. !! Kool Build.

Straegen · Jun 06, 2005, 05:00 AM // 05:00

So far anything that knocks me down or interrupts is proving dangerous which is most things crystal desert and beyond. Most fights go Ok since I can control it somewhat, but when renewal gets interrupted things get real dicey. Also energy management is advanced with this build.

Suprisingly monsters that nuke enchantments (like those bugs in the desert) actually aren't as dangerous as I thought they would be. I still have to be careful, but it isn't deadly like one would think.

Last on my list is dumping Restoration. It is great enchantment, but I found running Watchful Spirit seems to work better. Your energy rate goes down by 1, but spamming Divine every 30 seconds fills me back up on energy, not worrying about recasting it in battle is nice, knockdowns don't hurt as much since you are still gaining health, can open fights with more energy and when something removes it I get 30 health (not huge but a nice bonus).