Curse

hiei52 · Sep 30, 2007, 09:51 PM // 21:51

I've always been using a three man Searing Flames build (well, I haven't had Nightfall for that long). Recently, I have the urge to try out some of the other spells, especially the Earth elites. However, there aren't much guides on Earth it seems and most Earth ones are solo farms or tank builds. I was wondering if you guys have any recommended builds I can try out for doing missions across all three campaigns (no GW: EN).

Some skills I really wanted to try out are Unsteady Ground, Sandstorm, Savannah Heat, and Mind Blast (the latter two probably on heroes, I want to use Earth myself). So if any of you have any ideas or builds that you have used utilizing these skills, either yourself or your hero (or any other interesting ideas), please reply here, thanks.

Stormlord Alex · Sep 30, 2007, 10:08 PM // 22:08

Earth is rather... bleh, to be honest.

The best spells in it - Eruption and the Wards - are are easily workable on a Mind Blaster or Heats guy.

If you really must use Earth... Unsteady Ground is the way to go, for an elite. It actually does something vaguely useful.
Well, almost.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10193508

Unsteady Ground / Eruption / GoLE / Earth Attune / Couple of Wards, then... uhhh... whatever... Death Pact Signet owns.

Alternatively, you can Mind Blast, deal real damage, and just run 9/10 spec Wards.

mazey vorstagg · Oct 01, 2007, 05:21 AM // 05:21

Earth is not Bleh!! Not at all

I run:

[skill]stone daggers[/skill][skill]earth attunement[/skill][skill]eruption[/skill][skill]obsidian flame[/skill][skill]sandstorm[/skill][skill]armor of earth[/skill]OPTIONAL SLOT[skill]mystic regeneration[/skill]

Bare in mind that the armor of earth icon is messed up.

With this build you can manage energy, heal yourself, protect yourself, spike foes, blind melee attacks and do big nukes. Basically the jobs of all elements rolled into one. To be honest, I find the nuke layering and damage of fire, overkill. I'd much rather have blind and save my team from a whole group of warriors. The fact that obsidian flame is armor ignoring makes it perfect for bringing down bosses/armored chars.

The only thing I'd really change is stone daggers, it does do more damage than a regular staff attack but sometimes there is a more specific skill that's useful. Say, in an area with a lot of high health mobs (like Jotun) then magnetic surge is wonderful.

Your optional slot should change with the area. If your doing a place with elemental damage then bring ward of elements, ward of melee for places with lots of melee combat obviously. Ward of stability is less useful, but is very handy in Darkrime Delves :P . Intensity is also quite a nice option there, because although it's been nerfed it's not that bad at all. It's pretty much always recharged for the start of each fight and active for the 10 seconds your sandstorm lasts, so there's no problem.

I've run this build for about a year and a half with minor changes and it's not failed me yet

LightningHell · Oct 01, 2007, 05:43 AM // 05:43

Or you could go Fire doing big nukes, while splashing to Earth for Eruption.

There, you got your damage, and you have the blind you want.

By the way, what's with the tank mentality? You aren't frontline, and you got monks.

mazey vorstagg · Oct 01, 2007, 05:48 PM // 17:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by LightningHell

Or you could go Fire doing big nukes, while splashing to Earth for Eruption.

There, you got your damage, and you have the blind you want.

By the way, what's with the tank mentality? You aren't frontline, and you got monks.

I play mainly with heroes and henchies, so I need to do the pulling and be able to tank once in a while, besides monks love having some pressure taking off them. A monk has got the whole team to worry about, so it's easier for them if they can take care of yourself.

Amadei · Oct 01, 2007, 05:57 PM // 17:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by mazey vorstagg

I play mainly with heroes and henchies, so I need to do the pulling and be able to tank once in a while, besides monks love having some pressure taking off them. A monk has got the whole team to worry about, so it's easier for them if they can take care of yourself.

As a squishy pulling --> longbow. Flag your heroes, pull, fall back, call a target and let the warrior heroes/NPCs go in first.

hiei52 · Oct 01, 2007, 07:00 PM // 19:00

Hm... Eruption and Obsidian Flame I can see myself using for sure... BTW, how long do mobs usually stand in the Sandstorm in normal mode and hard mode?

Thom Bangalter · Oct 01, 2007, 07:38 PM // 19:38

In NM they'll stand for almost the entirety of the duration, in HM they immediately scatter, which is one of the biggest problems with earth nukes (besides damage and recharge).

Sir Pandra Pierva · Oct 02, 2007, 01:01 AM // 01:01

lol
I have been having problems using earth in pve I would rather use it in pvp where people are many times stupid enough to stand in a sandstorm and die

Camaxtli · Oct 02, 2007, 01:09 AM // 01:09

I have been using this on my ele for a while:

[skill]Sandstorm[/skill][skill]churning earth[/skill][skill]glyph of swiftness[/skill][skill]dragon's stomp[/skill][skill]glyph of lesser energy[/skill][skill]ward against foes[/skill][skill]earth attunement[/skill][skill]resurrection signet[/skill]

MagmaRed · Oct 02, 2007, 01:23 AM // 01:23

[skill]Earth Attunement[/skill][skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill][skill]Sandstorm[/skill][skill]Ebon Hawk[/skill][skill]Stoning[/skill][skill]Eruption[/skill][skill]Ward Against Melee[/skill][skill]Resurrection Chant[/skill]

Ebon Hawk + Stoning = knockdown every 5 seconds. Ward can be changed depending on what you face, but I tend to always use a defense skill of some form.

ruglia · Oct 30, 2007, 06:08 PM // 18:08

well, for earth eles, i tend to run more "support/effects"
for my sousuke, i use him as an aoe/supporter to my own ele (echo sh nuker)

he runs unsteady grounds, eruption and churning earth...
only major flaw is that its all aoe, but with the secondary effects to each of those, most enemies end up blind, kd and burning while under alot of fire.

but thats how i tend to see earth eles, more as supporting heavy damage dealers or tanker.

Sir Pandra Pierva · Nov 02, 2007, 04:58 AM // 04:58

ward eles work best for me after messing with the element some more

Lourens · Nov 02, 2007, 06:44 AM // 06:44

unsteady ground is way better then sandstorm imo

Fried Tech · Nov 02, 2007, 12:04 PM // 12:04

My favorite eath build to run around with is :

Earth att.
Mystic regen
Armor of Earth
Flame Djinns hase
After shock
Shockwave
Obsidian Flame
Eruption

and take a melee weapon

pumpkin pie · Nov 04, 2007, 09:53 AM // 09:53

This is my Earth Elementalist Build for General PvE with heros and Hench. I also use it in Alliance Battle (AB)
I replace Death Pack with Rush (for running around in Alliance Battle, sometime its replace with Eruption.

please ignore the water attribute at 4, lol its there because i have an extra +1 water rune.

How to use it:

Cast Aura of Restauration, and Earth Attunement, namely 6 and 7 before you go into a battle and keep it up as often as possible.
Death Pack is my preference as a res for heros, I usually have a Cap sig in that spot, as my 3 heros has the death pack, so i rarely have to use it. but its up to you.

Cast Unsteady Ground and if possible follow by ash blast, namely 1 and 2, to blind your opponent, if they are still standing, use 3 and 4, then 5

You have to Cast Ebon Hawk follow by Glowstone for the 10 Energy, the tricky part is you have to do this to warrior that are charging at you, because of Ebon Hawk requirement of only causing weakness if the foe is attacking or moving. but what foe isn't attacking, ey.

its pretty much very fun to use once you get use to it.

You can replace Unsteady Ground with Shockwave too if you like, but that means you got to charge into the mod (in pve) which I do very often. and kills mob really fast too. (only for the bold, don't charge into mob if you are playing with other players, because human monk wont heal an ele who tank, my guess only)

Hope you have a lot of fun with it as I have.

This is another build I am testing with Ebon Dust Aura, attack cause blindness while wielding an Earth Weapon.

what do you think, please discuss.

Have to keep Ebon Dust Aura, Aura of Restoration and Earth Attunement up always. (for the blindness, health and energy management)
spam stone daggers for 33x2 damage
knock down with churning earth follow with ash blast
Ebon hawk follow with glowstone for the energy.

and off course you need the Ebon Weapons.

bungusmaximus · Nov 05, 2007, 01:54 PM // 13:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sir Pandra Pierva

lol
I have been having problems using earth in pve I would rather use it in pvp where people are many times stupid enough to stand in a sandstorm and die

Eeeh, you just said that AI monsters > most players. Sadly enough you're right too :P

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumpkin pie

Have to keep Ebon Dust Aura, Aura of Restoration and Earth Attunement up always. (for the blindness, health and energy management)
spam stone daggers for 33x2 damage
knock down with churning earth follow with ash blast
Ebon hawk follow with glowstone for the energy.

and off course you need the Ebon Weapons.

And ebon aura works? there isn't a single attack skill on your bar :S

Cebe · Nov 05, 2007, 02:22 PM // 14:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumpkin pie

How to use it:

Cast Aura of Restauration, and Earth Attunement

Woah. Let me stop you right there for a moment, tiger. Aura of Restoration is a cover enchantment, at best, in most instances. Since your build has no skills which cost more than 15 energy it provides a very weak heal anyway, so why are you putting it on first? With Earth Attunement covering Aura of Restoration the most valuable enchantment is in danger of being stripped, and that aint good.

Personally I would use Glyph of Lesser Energy in there for additional energy management unless a cover enchantment was really necessary.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumpkin pie

Oh dear.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumpkin pie

what do you think, please discuss.

Ok then you twisted my arm.

Ebon Dust Aura ONLY triggers on an ATTACK SKILL. An Attack skill does not include wandings, stavings or earth damage spells. I'm sorry to tell you you wasted your elite slot. If an Ele wants to blind, they take Blinding Flash or Blinding Surge.

pumpkin pie · Nov 05, 2007, 02:27 PM // 14:27

ah sooooo.

thanks for the feed back

totally did not see the attack part :P

does pressing enter count as attack ?

Cebe · Nov 05, 2007, 02:50 PM // 14:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumpkin pie

does pressing enter count as attack ?

No, "Auto-Attacking" (wanding / staving etc..) isn't an attack skill.

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Attack_skill

...also, my "Enter" opens the chat box.