Curse

BigTru · Aug 09, 2005, 10:41 PM // 22:41

I've been using this build for quite some while and it has shown great success. I was a bit hesitant to share it for a while, but meh~. Anyways, it's mostly for 4v4.

Profession
Elementalist / Anything

Suggested Attribute Distribution
Air Magic: 12 (Rune of Minor Air Magice)
Earth Magic: 16 (Rune of Superior Earth Magic, Stone's Eye)
Energy Storage: 7 (Rune of Minor Energy Storage)

Suggested Hair Color
Red

My Skill Bar
Stone Daggers
Stoning
Enervating Charge
Obsidian Flame (optional)
Ward Against Melee (optional)
Armor of Earth (optional)
Elemental Attunement
Resurrection Signet (you better have this)

Essential Skills

Stone Daggers - You send out two stone daggers. If it hits, each stone dagger strikes for 25 earth damage.

This skill only costs 5 energy (2.5 with Elemental Attunement) and has 0 Recharge time and only 1 Cast time. 50 Damage every 1 second for 5 energy? Sign me up!

Stoning - You send a flurry of stones at target foe. The stones strike for 95 Earth damage if they hit. If Stoning hits a foe suffering form Weakness, that foe is knocked down.

This is THE knockdown skill. After using Enervating Charge, you can have the foe on the ground every 5 seconds (Unless you use a 20/20 staff )

Enervating Charge - Target foe is struck for 41 lightning damage and suffers from weakness for 17 seconds. This spell has 25% armor penetration.

See above. This is what starts the knockdowns.

Elemental Attunement - For 45 seconds, you are attuned to Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. You gain 50% of the Energy cost of the spell, each time you use magic associated with any of these elements.

Good stuff, good stuff... Energy won't be a problem with this.

Resurrection Signet - Resurrect target party member. That party member is returned to life with 100% Health and 25% Energy. You may use this skill only once per mission.

Don't EVER go into 4v4 arena without it, PLEASE.

Suggested "Other" Skills

Armor of Earth - For 30 seconds, you gain 62 armor, but move 12% slower than normal.

In 4v4, a bit of extra armor never hurts. You will hardly even notice the -12% unless you are chasing someone or running away.

Obsidian Flame - Deal 118 damage to target foe. This spell ignores armor but causes exhaustion.

A very good spell if you see your oponent has only a bit of life left. 5 Energy, 2 Cast time, 5 Recast time. Because this is the only Earth spell I suggest that has exhaustion and energy isn't much of an issue, it wouldn't kill you to spam it just a few time to take a warrior down quickly. It's always nice to have one spike spell. That, and it looks way cooler than Crystal Wave.

Ward Against Foes/Melee/Elements, etc - You should know what they do and why they are so useful. Not even going to go into it.

Kinetic Armor - For 8 seconds, you gain +42 armor against physical damage. Whenever you cast a spell, Kinetic Armor is renewed for 8 seconds.

Another good defensive skill. If you are spamming Stone Daggers (You should) then this will be put to good use.

Crystal Wave - Foes near you are struck for 108 damage, but are cured of any negative conditions. This spell ignores armor and magic resistance.

This one is a bit tricky. It deals similiar damage to Obsidian Flame, is AoE, doesn't cause Exhaustion and also looks somewhat cool. However, the Energy cost is 3 times as much and the recharge is 4 times. Because you are depending on inflicting Weakness on an opponent and many 4v4 Rangers love to bring conditions, I'm not quite sure if this is a good skill for beginers. If it is used wisely, however, it could probably be quite good.

Aftershock - Nearby enemies are struck for 105 damage. Knocked down characters are struck for 72 additional damage.

Personaly, I'm not a big fan of Aftershock. Don't get me wrong, it's a great skill, it just doesn't fit my playing style. Aside from personal preferance, it is an AoE 105 damage, and gives a total of 178 damage to knockedown oponents. I don't know why... I just don't like having to be in "Warrior-Range", especially since I usually have Earth Armor on and it makes it slightly harder get in close. Recharge and Energy aren't really that bad... both are 10. Plus, I'm usually yoo busy spamming Stone Daggers

Basic Strategy -

Cast Elemental Attunement on yourself. Find yourself a pretty looking Monk/Mesmer wearing candy-wrapper armor (soft on the inside, ofcoarse) and call it if it has not already been called.

Get in at about the range of a Short Bow (Stoning lobs so slowly, it can be dodged if you aren't close enough). Cast Enervating Charge then Stoning. While you are waiting on Stoning to recharge, spam Stone Daggers. When Weakness wears off, recast Enervating Charge. Rinse, Repeat. End result - gooey candy insides on the ground. (ofcoarse if does not always go like this, just the basic strategy).

Why I do not suggest this for HoH/GvG -
Almost every good HoH/GvG team will have a Martyr monk or a way to remove conditions handy. Goodbye weakness. In addition, Spirit rangers are running rampant in the HoH. Nature's Renewal kills off all Enchantments/Hexes within range. Without Elemental Attunement, your energy will be burned away quite quickly, especially since most Ranger teams nowadays use Quickening Zephyre without Energizing Winds.

Earth Ele vs. Hammer Warrior

- The Ele is not adrenaline dependant and cannot be shutdown quite as easily. The Hammer is not Energy Dependant and will always be able to hammer away so long as his hands let him.

- Both must be fairly close to the oponent, less the Earth Ele fall victim to ASDW. Ofcoarse, the Ele does have a bit more range.

- The Elementalist will be targeted before the Warrior (For better or worst... Yay Earth Armor).

- Hammer Warrior is more GvG/HoH worthy.

- The Earth Ele will not be able to chain knockdowns like a Hammer Warrior and they do not stay on the ground as long as a Hammer Warrior with Stonefist Gauntlests. However, Earth Ele's knockdowns are much more consistant and reliable.

Why the low 'Energy Storage'?

Personally, I don't care much for Energy Storage. I feel the only real bonus from it is if you are using spells that cause Exhaustion. Once you use the initial energy boost you get with it, it's useless for the rest of the combat time. Now runes on the other hand, those are more than worthy of a Elementalist prime.

I think that should cover it all... So what do you think about the build?

LordMoFo · Aug 10, 2005, 08:19 PM // 20:19

hmm...bump

Tuna · Aug 10, 2005, 08:34 PM // 20:34

You're really missing out on a lot of damage if you don't take aftershock. Besides, you're 1/2 way there with your kds anyway.

Eonwe · Aug 10, 2005, 08:46 PM // 20:46

Stone Daggers is like the earth version of flare, it's trash. Earthquake and aftershock are staples for any earth ele build, along with obs flame. Also, you have 12 air magic for what... ennervating charge, which I assume you're trying to combo with stoning. Not the most reliable combination to say the least.

LordMoFo · Aug 10, 2005, 08:54 PM // 20:54

Id say forget the Air attribute and pump up energy storage. However u can still use ennervating for the weakness. No reaon to spend att points for 1 skill.

Tuna · Aug 10, 2005, 08:56 PM // 20:56

I've found enervating + stoning to be pretty decent but more reliable forms of KD are needed (ie: point blank) for effective aftershocking. with 12 air you may as well take orb or something, energy should be fine with elemental attunement. If you're doing aftershock I recomend trailing a hammer warrior and syncronizing attakcs or taking shock.

edit: for 4v4 enervating will be helpfull.

BigTru · Aug 10, 2005, 09:35 PM // 21:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eonwe

Stone Daggers is like the earth version of flare, it's trash.

Please elaborate, why is it bad? It has great DPS, it's cheap, has 0 recharge and only 1 cast time. This isn't exactly a spiking build, ya know?

Ensign · Aug 10, 2005, 09:52 PM // 21:52

Stone Daggers is acceptable under Elemental Attunement. Rounding works in your favor, so it only costs 2 energy per cast. It's still not outstanding, but I can live with that.

Enervating Charge is a decent source of Weakness, but I question pumping it quite so high. I'd drop Air Magic down a little bit to pick up some more Energy Storage - 16 / 11 / 9 or 16 / 10 / 10 seem preferable to 16 / 12 / 7.

I wouldn't call Armor of Earth optional - I think it's critical for 4v4, for both the added defense and to act as a cover enchantment. Though I guess the cover part is less important as most 4v4 players don't bother bringing enchantment removal.

I'd probably run Earthquake over Obsidian Flame given your spammables and the Attunement, but you can go either way. Making use of Exhaustion skills is important, though.

Overall a perfectly reasonable 4v4 build.

Peace,
-CxE

Tuna · Aug 10, 2005, 09:54 PM // 21:54

It has the same dps (roughly) as a mediocre sword warrior thats not using final thrust or galrath. Thats not exactly spectacular. However, if you have the energy to burn its better than wand attacks.

Red Locust · Aug 10, 2005, 11:23 PM // 23:23

Your problem is that weakness will get removed within seconds, so don't rely on it too heavily. If you're working with a necro or warrior that utilizes weakness, you'd get more use out of stoning. Also, if you're gonna be spamming stone daggers, you might want to go with ether renewal, it's less prone to being stripped.

Ripper_Roo · Aug 11, 2005, 04:39 AM // 04:39

yea- learn from the Char. builds this website gives u- and see how the skills all come together--if u want 2 b original,, itll take a while 2 get a GOOD 1.

Slade xTekno · Aug 11, 2005, 05:57 AM // 05:57

He mentioned this is for 4v4. Assuming random, this is quite a good build. It's also the first decent dual-element builds I've seen in a while.

Since you already have Air/Earth going, you may want to try the Whirlwind/Aftershock combo if you find yourself short on damage or heckled by Warriors. Armor of Earth must be incredible with 16 ranks in Earth Magic.

Queto · Aug 11, 2005, 03:12 PM // 15:12

I have an Earth/Air PvP build too, never tried it though... It's just in testing phase, so I don't know if it's that good.

1. Earth Attunement
2. Glyph of Energy (perfect in combo with Earthquake, same recharge and doesn't causes exhaustion)
3. Earthquake
4. Whirlwind
5. Aftershock
6. Eruption
7. Chain Lightning? Ward Against Melee? Kinetic Armor?
8. Rezz

I have 12 Earth, 12 Air & 11 Energy (minor earth, air and fire)

Any suggestions to improve this build maybe?

delfin42 · Aug 11, 2005, 03:45 PM // 15:45

I've been playing around with the following:

Earth: 16 (12 + 1 + 3)
Air: 11
Storage: 9

1 - Earth Attunement
2 - Earthquake
3 - Aftershock
4 - Crystal Wave / Obsidian Flame
5 - Stone Daggers
6 - Armor of Earth
7 - Shock
8 - Glyph of Energy (Elite)

Tactics: Attunement, Armor, Glyph. Pick out a target, Shock->Aftershock->Slot 4. (Debating here: Crystal Wave tends to miss those who get up and run away after Aftershock, but has no exhaustion.) Stone Daggers for cheap chip damage, Glyph->Earthquake for knockdowns from a distance, or Glyph->Earthquake->Aftershock->Slot 4 if I can sneak up behind someone and hope for a fast-cast of Quake. Armor of Earth to help remain in one piece, replaced by Res Sig if necessary.