Curse

eme2512 · Aug 12, 2005, 03:38 PM // 15:38

Preface: I'm pretty much a n00b. I don't even know what half of the abbreviations everyone uses mean. But anyway here's some stuff I would like to be taken seriously. Input from skilled guys out there would be really appreciated.

Completely Generic Ele/Mo
Goal for character: Have it fit in and be a highly useful char in almost any PvP situation regardless of what strategies are being used. Have it fit in well anywhere in the whole spectrum - from sloppy, instant, 4v4 arena pick up parties to those crazy regimented GvG spectacles.

Skills

Defensive Skills
Obsidian Flesh
Untargetable by spells and some extra armor lets you keep enemy casters at bay.

Ward Against Melee / Amor of Earth (Ward is better...)
Stop those warriors! If you have armor of earth, it helps against rangers too, for the time while flesh is down, or if obsidian gets NR'ed.

Enervating Charge
Being able to cause weakness is indispensable against rangers and warriors. If they are toting a monk sub, or their is a monk watching their back, they still generally can't/won't purge weakness as often as you can cast charge (every 8 secs vs 30 sec purge skills). If there are multiple attentive monks... hey, you still have decent defense and heals!

Healing Skills
Orison of Healing
Spam some crappy healing

Healing Breeze / Heal Other / Heal Party
More spammable crappy healing

Restore Life / whatever...
Bring people back from the dead

Damaging
Obsidian Flame
Amazing ability, too bad it causes exhaustion. Low energy, high damage, and most importantly, it ignores armor. That means you have a viable means of dishing out at least a bit of fast damage to warriors and rangers. After you have lost a bit of mana, using this 2-4 times is not too devastating if it lets you take down an important target.

Lightning Orb
Traditional, solid damage. A bit pricey energy-wise, but the armor penetration is worth it.

Strategy
So, there are two basic combat environments. Ones with NR, and ones without it (pick up parties). If you are going into an arena competition for fun, just assume no there will be no NR and adapt if it shows up. If you are going into organized combat, you have to expect NR to be there.

No NR (pick up games)
You can heal and ressurect enough to be quite a nuissance. In 4v4, you can do OK keeping the team alive. You become something of a monk here - the linchpin to take down before the party will fall. But... you're pretty damn tough. Obsidian Flesh keeps casters shut out (especially if Earth magic is 13+ and your weapon boosts your enchantments, aka get this *nudge* *nudge*), and the 20 armor from flesh with Armor of Earth (for 130+ armor)or the Melee Ward, and the ability to weaken, combined with healing breeze can really soak up a lot of damage from rangers and warriors. Also, since you are Ele, they don't really expect you to heal primary, they probably won't focus on you first anyway. So just keep everyone alive and win. What's nice is that if you already have a monk who is on top of things, you can switch to offense. Just spam orbs on the weakest target around. If you see anyone opponents getting low, bring obsidian flame into good use.

NR (organized matches)
You can fit in somewhat well as a spiker with flame and orb, simply alternating between the two spells. They are high damage, recharge in 5 seconds, and get through armor. Maybe throw in charge just so you can be constantly casting. Just don't overdo flame.

Ward against melee and heal party can be essential additions in keeping your party alive. These are just great team spells.

Just hang out with the monks and heal/res people. Healing breeze might not be as reliable as before. Again, you retain some toughness. The effectiveness of enervating charge for weakness is dampened by more enemy monks, but it is still an option. Obsidian flesh is still great - having it on even 5-7 seconds can be crucial in holding back an enemy caster long enough that they get distracted. Ward against melee can be quite useful, especially for you and other casters around.

Conclusion?
You can spread the attribute points a lot of different viable ways, and it will have a big impact on how you play. You might want to spike one attribute, and go 15 - 9 - 9 - 9. You can become more specialized in any aspect of the character, and the level 9 abilities are still quite useful. Or, you might want to go completely balanced, with 11 - 11 - 11 - 9. Just use one superior rune (earth superior is mighty cheap), two minor runes, head armor, and those 200 attribute opints.

So, also: I am a complete n00b. I have been playing under a week. I havn't played more than a few hours of pvp. I might have no clue wth I'm talking about, but I think I make sense. For the purpose stated - to make a versatile and effective pvp elementalist - have I done a good job? Lookin for input from the know-it-all's out there. Constructive criticism preffered ha.

eme2512 · Aug 12, 2005, 03:46 PM // 15:46

Here is a response I made to some of the people who commented on the build in another forum.

Unfortunately... you guys havn't given me much more than opinion yet

.

There are two points I want to deal with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dead Panda

Well, I'm not much into PvP myself, but your build has a slight problem. It doesn't quite exactly excell at anything. Maybe defense with the wards, but besides that, you'd give out some medicore healing and damage since your spread apart in three different types of attirbutes.

So my terrible, terrible suggestion is to focus on two aspects of your classes at most.

I will argue that in fact this build can excel at healing or damage dealing. I will not argue that this build will be incredible at either task. But I think this is more it's advantage, rather than it's weakness. It can adapt mid fight and fill any needed role.

If you want to deal damage, go with 15 air magic, and 11 earth magic. Or, go nuts and use two sup runes (more earth magic = more defense anyway), and hit 15 air magic, and 13 earth magic. This will leave 9 energy storage and 6 healing skill. That's a 100 damage orb, a 100 damage flame, and a 50 damage enervating charge.

If you are in an organized group, first targets are usually not warriors/rangers, so let's say we're hitting a target with AL ~70. Armor penetration will mean that the target's effective armor is actually AL ~50 (52.5 to be exact). At AL 50, damage taken by a target is 120% of the actual damage.

Here's the timeframe.

0 - Start casting lightning orb
1
2 - Cast lightning orb, 120 damage
3 - .75 second delay from all spells
4 - Start casting obsidian flame, 1 hit of exhaustion
5
6 - Cast obsidian flame, 100 damage
7 - .75 second delay from all spells
8 - Cast enervating charge
9 - 60 damage and .75 second casting delay

280 damage / 9 seconds = 31 effective DPS for 30 mana and 1 hit of exhaustion.

Compare this with a (somewhat noobish?) airspike at 16 Air Magic

0 - Start casting lightning orb
1
2 - Cast lightning orb, 127 damage
3 - .75 second delay from all spells
4 - Start casting lightning surge, 1 hit of exhaustion
5
6 - Cast lightning surge
7 - .75 second castign delay
8 - Start casting chain lightning, 1 hit of exhaustion
9 - 120 damage from lightning surge
10 - Cast chain lightning, 120 damage (possibly 360)

So on the indvidual target, 367 damage / 10 seconds = 37 effective DPS for 35 mana and 2 hits of exhaustion. (If you are really concerned about the AoE-like damage on chain lightning, just use it on my build instead of lightning orb.)

Sorry, but where's the big difference

? You are 15% less damaging than an airspike build. But what do you gain? With 6 healing, you still have a 90-100 point heal other. That quickly followed by heal party could be huge at a critical moment. And an spike build will certainly not be ressurecting any of your own fallen monks the last time I checked! This is a truly important ability. Restore life is, I think, a lot better than a ressurection signet, because it brings the target back with energy! And yes, in case I forgot, that single Ward of Melee might shut down important parts of the other team's strategy

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eonwe

Healing emo's make baby jesus cry.

I invite some proof!

icecomet · Aug 12, 2005, 04:15 PM // 16:15

okay, sorry but i couldnt be bothered to read the 2nd post because i am lazy and it looked long :P but here is my opinion:

if you've been playing for under a week, then you are destined for greatness. for 4v4 that's a really nice build, you have to be flexible and able to carry out a large number of roles - somewhat self sufficient.

in tombs or gvg it may not be as good as in most of those scenarios each character generally has 1 function, with the TEAM not the players being self sufficient. If each person specializes, the team will overall be more effective. problems occur when your speacialized team mates start to die though, but that's why you have to have good monks and fast reactions with the rez sig.

good luck and enjoy the rest of your guild wars time.

delfin42 · Aug 12, 2005, 05:56 PM // 17:56

I think you may run into energy issues with this build.

I'd drop one of the Healing skills. You're not going to be more than a stopgap healer at best, particularly as a secondary Monk without Divine Favor, so don't fill up your skillbar with too much to support it. Restore Life makes sense, but I'd add either Orison or Heal Other but not both.

Obsidian Flesh is a fun Elite, so keep that and Ward/Armor. For the other four slots, I think you'll want at least one Attunement to help conserve energy, depending on which way you'd rather lean for dealing damage:

Air: Air Attunement, Lightning Orb, Enervating Charge, Obsidian Flame. You could replace the latter with Shock or Chain Lightning.

Earth: Earth Attunement, Enervating Charge, Stoning, Obsidian Flame. Again, possible swap-ins are Earthquake (knockdowns and damage at a distance), Crystal Wave or Lightning Orb.