Curse

Fenix Stone · Dec 07, 2005, 04:19 AM // 04:19

I'm planning on creating a E/W very soon for PVE. I don't know exactly how I'm gonna spread out my attribute points but I'll probally train in earth magic, energy storage, and tactics. The skills that I'm intending on using are: Stone Daggers, Earthquake, Eruption, Kinetic Armor, Obsidian Flesh, Bonetti's Defense, Healing Sig, and Rez Sig. Is this an okay build?
Edit: I think I posted it three times accidentally...

DeanBB · Dec 15, 2005, 04:59 PM // 16:59

Obsidian Flesh comes really late in the game so there's no sense planning a build around it for a starting character. Earth spells in general come later in the game, so you'll undoubtedly start as a fire mage then change as skills become available.

Stone Daggers don't deliver a lot of damage as each one has damage reduced for armor, but are a good choice for keeping Kinetic Armor going. Eruption will make enemies scatter. Earthquake and Eruption have somewhat slow timers.

The rest of the skills are defensive so that pretty much leaves you spamming Stone Daggers. If you are going to be a pseudo-tank then you might as well move into melee range and unleash point-blank area spells, crystal wave, inferno, flame burst, frozen burst, etc.

Note that there are plenty of enchantment stripping monsters out there, which leaves you with a defensive stance which can be broken. Some stances, including Bonetti's, end when you use a skill so read the descriptions carefully. Gladiators Defense is an excellent choice for a stance if you are getting attacked melee, but it takes your elite spot.

Best advice: Start with Armor of Earth and fire-base PB AoE spells to see how it works out. You can always change to a range-based elementalist if you don't like it.

judge1121 · Dec 16, 2005, 03:04 PM // 15:04

i go with this
The Earth Crusher E/W
16 Earth
13 Energy
3 tactics

Obsidian flame
"Watch Yourself"
Ressurection Signet
Glyph of Energy [E]
Earthquake
AfterShock
Crystal Wave
Ward Against Melee

Hiryu · Dec 18, 2005, 05:44 PM // 17:44

The way your build is setup right now, you'll find yourself running out of energy in prolonged PvE battles (which will occur often, because so many players are so concerned about saving their own asses that they'll devote tons of resources to self-survival). You should probably switch out Bonetti's Defense (you're not going to be melee'ing much with all those skills equipped) with Earth Attunement. You can use Armor of Earth as a stronger substitute for Obsidian Flesh{E} throughout most of the game. With so much armor from both Armor of Earth/Obsidian Flesh and Kinetic Armor, you shouldn't have to worry about healing yourself with Healing Sig. That's what the monks are for. Even if you can't find a human monk, the Healer Henchman will do just fine (provided you don't have suicidal teammates who hog all the Henchman's energies) for all of the missions in the game. With that said, you should probably switch out Healing Signet for Glyph of Lesser Energy so you can actually use Earthquake/Eruption --- very very energy intensive spells when you need to. Between spamming Stone Daggers and the Exhaustion from Obsidian Flame, you may find yourself out of energy sooner than you want to. With these changes, you won't have to sink points into Tactics and can focus solely on making your Earth Magic as powerful as possible and improving your energy stores. This also means that you won't have to necessarily choose E/W. You can choose E/Mo instead, for example, and bring Rebirth instead of Ressurection Signet for infinite ressing in PvE.

------ But if you want to try E/W anyways, I'd recommend this build for PvE:

Clay Champion

(At Maxed Stats)
12 Earth magic
9 Energy Storage
9 Hammer Mastery
Rest into Tactics

This build should be relatively "newbie-friendly". As mentioned before, a lot of the good Earth spells are obtained quite late into the game, so playing pure caster role with Earth Magic throughout the game really isn't a good choice in PvE. With this build though, you'll be able to obtain most of these skills fairly early on and still be effective. You should be able to get them all by the time you're done the Jungle area.

The build is designed to allow you to move right up to the enemy and melee things to death while taking minimal damage. Hammer Bash (or EarthShaker) followed by AfterShock will allow you to do significant damage. Crystal Wave will allow you to do some nice armor piercing damage to enemies all around you. With this build, you can play either a defensive role for the team, hanging back and protecting the other casters or take a more offensive role by charging into the front lines and stirring mayhem. To survive in the front lines, you have some very powerful armor boosting skills. With Armor of Earth, you'll have about 40+ extra armor putting you on par with Warriors physically, and even beating them against elemental damage. "Watch Yourself!" will allow you do reduce that damage for yourself and your team even further (+20 armor) and will more than compensate for the fact that you do not have a shield. Ward Against Melee will further increase your toughness and help you assist your team. Healing Signet to heal yourself. You can replace Healing Signet with something else, such as Ward Against Elements, if you desire.

Hammer Bash (replace this with EarthShaker {E} when you get it)
Aftershock (10 energy)
Crystal Wave (15 energy)
Armor of Earth (10 energy)
"Watch Yourself!" (0 energy)
Ward Against Melee (10 energy)
Healing Signet (optional)
Ressurection Signet

Katari · Dec 21, 2005, 07:39 PM // 19:39

The problem with a E/W in PvE is that you're very weak to enchant removals. Actualy using a weapon doesn't provide any signifigant boost in damage on a E/W, unless you are depending on it for conditions. You'd do better with a pure ele build, or a E/Me build.

However, the weakness to enchant removal is a fatal flaw in many areas. For that reason, PBAoE eles are often a liability in PvE. Then theres the fact that you can do similiar (More, or less, depending on your build) damage from a range using ele skills. In PvE, I suggest you stay far away from melee as an ele.