Curse

tuperwho · Sep 22, 2005, 12:16 AM // 00:16

Here's the deal. I just started an ele/n (chose this combo b/c they're the 2 classes I haven't unlocked skills for yet, and ele primary to make use of energy storage) for PvE. I am trying to avoid the usual builds, especially fire ele (nuker). Here's what I'm looking at:

earth magic 9 + rune
blood 12
energy storage 9 + rune

and for skills:
earth attunement
touch of agony
eruption
vampiric touch
earthquake
aftershock
stoning
stone daggers
once I get there, replacing one of these with either well of power or glyph of energy as my elite

I built this idea around using the earthquake/aftershock combo, and that requires being close to enemies.... hence the 2 touch skills. The plan is to use the skills in this order to hit groups of enemies from up close with ~600 damage in just a few seconds. I'm hoping that I'll either be able to "tank", if you will, long enough to get this off, as I don't expect many enemies to be alive after I have. It could be a bit rough, though, and could rely on prot./healing. I figure I'll have some help from eruption, though, as it will leave nearby enemies blind.

So, any suggestions? Is using an ele to cast in melee range just sheer idiocy? Thanks for the help.

Knido · Sep 22, 2005, 12:21 AM // 00:21

touch of agony isnt that good for tanking, but if you can kill them quick by all means use it.

and ide also take out either one of eruption, stoning, or stone daggers, cause eles should build up too much exhaustion, stoning had 15 energy cost, and stone daggers might not do that much damage

glockjs · Sep 22, 2005, 12:32 AM // 00:32

you have stoning...why dont you have enfeeble?

tuperwho · Sep 22, 2005, 01:52 AM // 01:52

Thanks so far guys.

Knido, touch of agony and vampiric touch aren't meant to do tons of damage. They're just to get me in position, give me a little health, and do some (but not much) damage. As far as eruption goes, I like it for the damage and aoe. In fact, I was initially going to use firestorm or lava font or inferno, in addition to eruption, but figured my attributes would be getting spread too thin to include fire, too. As a whole, stoning and stone daggers are fairly replaceable (anyone got suggestions?). They are simply there to be more spammabe incase anything is not dead, or I don't need to go through the whole chain again. I would love suggestions to replace them, but was kinda limited when keeping it to only earth magic, blood magic, and energy storage. Finally, is exhaustion that big of a deal with only 1 spell equipped that causes it? I am smart enough to not stack it.

Glockjs, like I said, I am willing to replace stoning, if that's what you're suggesting. I don't, however, see the need for enfeeble, as all the enemies near me will be blind. Further, it is in curses, so fits into the category of me not wanting to use more than 3 attributes.

I appreciate the help, and would love to hear more. Thanks!

Edit: ok, and I'm now looking at the option of replacing the blood skills and attribute points with curses instead, to allow a combo of suffering and feast of corruption. Only problem is getting within range to do the earthquake/aftershock combo without a "touch foe" skill. Is this worthwhile, or am I better off with the blood skills?

Ilya Khan · Sep 22, 2005, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Energy will be hard to keep up...but other than that, seems good...i suppose.

Knido · Sep 22, 2005, 03:22 AM // 03:22

armor of earth or kinetic armor is always useful
k.a. with stone daggers spam is good

knives · Sep 22, 2005, 03:38 AM // 03:38

Earth + Fire is really what you should be using in walking bomb range.

Earth: 12 + 3 or 10 + 1
Fire: 12 + 3 or 10 + 1
ES: 8 + 1

Pheonix
Flame Burst
EQ
AS
Crystal Wave
Kinetic Armor
Armor of Earth
Eruption/Lava Font

In PvE I usually don't bring a ressurection signet (I do most, if not all, missions with henchies) so I utilize the 8 slot offense. Pheonix is nice because it can cause nice single target + aoe damage, flame burst is spammable, eq + as is a nice combo, and kinetic + armor is to help you stay alive. Eruption could be useful if you prefer the melee monsters to be blinded for awhile, and lava font is just more spammable for the kinetic armor.

Another build, which IMO would outlast longer than the above, is E/Me.

ES: 8+1
Earth : 12 +2/3
Fire: 9 + 1
Inspiration: Leftover (should be around 9 I believe)

Pheonix
Flame Burst
Glyph of Energy{E} / Elemental Attunement {E}
Earthquake
Aftershock
Channeling
Crystal Wave
Kinetic Armor/Armor of Earth

Channeling can help keep up energy, and glyph conserves it. Ele attunement would also help to reserve energy for flame burst spam to set off kinetic. if you choose the glyph over the attunement, then watch out for the exhaustion on EQ. Otherwise, you should Kinetic/armor, EQ+AS, Flame burst, pheonix, crystal. Be sure to cast attunement + channeling before you enter the melee range. If you are using glyph then be sure to use it before the EQ.

Hmm..I might have to try this build...too bad you can't get ele attune until ember light =/

jesh · Sep 24, 2005, 03:09 AM // 03:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by tuperwho

Edit: ok, and I'm now looking at the option of replacing the blood skills and attribute points with curses instead, to allow a combo of suffering and feast of corruption. Only problem is getting within range to do the earthquake/aftershock combo without a "touch foe" skill. Is this worthwhile, or am I better off with the blood skills?

Nice idea imo, but use shadow of fear with the cheaper energy cost than suffering, follow up with FoC. It's not that hard to get into touch range, just use your arrow keys to walk into the mob. Or equip a sword and hit space, whatever your style is. You'd probably want to do something more like this:

Armor of earth
Ward VS Melee
EQ
AS
FoC
Shadow of Fear
-whatever- could put crystal wave here for a finisher move
-whatever- maybe parasitic bond to regain lost hp?

Walk into the mob with armor of earth on, throw up the ward, then do the EQ+AS combo. SoF next, then feast and parasitic to recover any lost hp. Pretty nice AoE spike if you ask me.