Curse

stormblossom · May 23, 2007, 06:34 PM // 18:34

I'm starting out an Ele water build. I know most people say Water ele's are rubbish for damage but I'm not wanting damage. I'm wanting to back up my team by reducing damage and helping them attack. At the moment I have:

Water attunement
Ward against harm (elite)
Glyph of Restoration
Ice prison
Blurred vision
Spirit of failure (mesmer skill)
Frozen burst
Ice spear

I want to possibly change my second profession but I'm not sure what to. I really like Blurred vision and ice prison. I find it helpful to stop enemies from moving and help stop others attacking. I hope some experienced water ele's can give me some pointers. Thanks in advance

Pick Me · May 23, 2007, 08:01 PM // 20:01

Wards are only good if you stay in them (if you stay back while warriors and dervishes move forward, they may not gain the benefits).

I'm a proponent for rez.

I would drop Ice Spear for Maelstrom, Ward Against Harm for Shatterstone (e) or Trident (e).

Slowing targets, then kd them with Trident, very nice way to do damage, and stopping them from harming your party. Maelstrom interupts casters while they are in Maelstrom (then trident them when they try to escape).

You can go E/N and use spinal shivers, interupts can be useful.

Pyro maniac · May 25, 2007, 10:42 AM // 10:42

If you want to stick to this build, then I would suggest swapping out ice prison for Ice Spikes. Ice Spear for Vapor Blade and Frozen Burst for a res.

Ice Spikes does slow down a bit, but with a good recharge. Vapor Blade has got a good dmg output. Overall less then Ice Spear, but Ice Spear requires you to spam a while, also it has got half range, putting you outside the ward sometimes. Frozen Burst isn't needed, you find the res more usefull

I like the blurred vision + spirit of failure, tho it may not be so useful always. esspecially with hero/hench they will kill the target as soon as you finished both castings.

Trylo · May 25, 2007, 11:42 AM // 11:42

[skill]Deep Freeze[/skill] quite possibly THE best hex in the game... use it...

you can protect in different ways. Using water trident {e} is a good way to stop oncoming dervs and wars, and your ward seems a little out of place IMO... after being flamed for using it myself i realized it wasnt as good as i thought. If you switch from /me to /mo you get extinguish and aegis, both great party protection skills.

Shatterstone {e} is an amazing damage skill (at least for pve) that will dish out close to 200 damage usually. If you wanna go water spiker which is pretty much overall worse than SF you could... when water gets some more spike skills maybe shatterstone will be useful in a build.

Anyways i would take a build more like this:
[skill]Water Trident[/skill][skill]Water Attunement[/skill][skill]Blurred Vision[/skill][skill]Deep Freeze[/skill][skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill][skill]Aegis[/skill][skill]Glyph of Sacrifice[/skill][skill]Resurrection Chant[/skill]

you could also used [skill]Glyph of Energy[/skill] and replace attunement with maelstrom.

with ~6 in protection.

Cebe · May 25, 2007, 02:37 PM // 14:37

It may be worth considering the use of Air Magic and Water Magic.

An experienced ele doesn't really require 13 attributes in Energy Storage...Sometimes I like to use 16 Water, 10 Air, and the rest in ES. This opens up skills such as [wiki]Chilling Winds[/wiki] and [wiki]Gust[/wiki]. Gust seems crap at first but having played with it a but I've grown to like it because of the 3 second knockdown.

Chilling Winds + Deep Freeze could be a cool combination (pun intended), as it would make Deep Freeze snare for 17 seconds as opposed to it's original 10. You could also chuck in [wiki]Arc Lightning[/wiki] for some cheap armor penetrating damage.

Trylo is correct when he says Deep Freeze is a great hex. It's Legendary, sure it costs a lot but we're eles, 25 energy is not a problem.

SotiCoto · May 25, 2007, 02:59 PM // 14:59

I'd personally say you go along the right lines with Ward against Harm... as this is what I have on Lon Zi:

[skill]Armor of Mist[/skill][skill]Water Attunement[/skill][skill]Ice Spear[/skill][skill]Ward Against Harm[/skill][skill]Ice Spikes[/skill][skill]Deep Freeze[/skill][skill]Maelstrom[/skill][skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill]

Now see.... that on its own isn't usually enough. I mean sure... I can use Armor of Mist to charge right into a good spot and slam up the Ward where it will protect all those necessary.... but that on its own isn't what makes it great.

It is the fact that my Acolute Sousuke uses [skill]Greater Conflagration[/skill] (and [skill]Mark of Rodgort[/skill], for the record)...

Greater Conflagration and Ward Against Harm (both elite, so on different characters) go GODLY well together... Well enough that for a laugh in the Garden of Seborhin... my Water Ele Leeroyed 3 standard groups of plants at once and survived (note: Armor of Mist seriously helped too, for a total of almost +100 armour).... largely without monk help (and no self-heal)...

Blurred Vision is handy too, though I haven't found the need for it as often as I have slowdown-hexes... Deep Freeze and Maelstrom make a very pretty combination, but Ice Spikes work as a DF substitute if the enemy are too spread out. Plus there is the whole deal with the Attunement, Glyph of Lesser Energy and 15-energy spells.... such as Ice Spikes and... Ward Against Harm... ^_^

stormblossom · May 27, 2007, 01:41 PM // 13:41

Wow! Everyone has been really helpful. I now have Deep freeze equipped and I'm thinking about capturing Water trident. I really like the idea of swapping Inspiration magic with Air. I had never thought of that. If anyone else thinks of anything good then please let me know!

LifeInfusion · May 28, 2007, 01:28 AM // 01:28

Water attunement
Ward against harm (elite)
Glyph of Restoration --> Aura of Restoration, since it acts as a cover enchantment for Water Attunement
Ice prison --> Deep Freeze : Ice Prison doesn't work well with a Fire ele in the team
Blurred vision
Spirit of failure (mesmer skill) --> If you have Sf eles in your team, Steam
Frozen burst --> Freezing Gust (you don't want PBAOE)
Ice spear -->1/2 range is dangerous sometimes, I'd go with a res

my suggestions

Dr Strangelove · May 28, 2007, 06:50 AM // 06:50

If this is for PvE, you'll have a much easier time providing group support with earth. The wards there are cheaper and more spammable, and don't require an elite. Water's big benefit is snaring things, which matters about as much as the color of your hat in PvE.

Thom Bangalter · May 28, 2007, 12:05 PM // 12:05

all the earth aoes scatter mobs, which is problematic in hard mode. Blurred, however, is very good, especially when stacked with reckless.

SotiCoto · May 29, 2007, 10:15 PM // 22:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Strangelove

If this is for PvE, you'll have a much easier time providing group support with earth. The wards there are cheaper and more spammable, and don't require an elite. Water's big benefit is snaring things, which matters about as much as the color of your hat in PvE.

Not if you have another Elementalist running Fire or even Earth.

Deep Freeze will ensure an otherwise oblivious mob cannot instantly scatter away from the Savannah Heat or Sandstorm that follows.
In fact that is what I spend most of my time with my elementalist doing: Pinning whole mobs down in regionalised AoE kill-zones (with Maelstrom on the spellcasters to keep them harmless).
For the enemy melee fighters that get nearby.... Greater Conflagration and Ward Against Harm pretty much guarantees they can't do much damage. I've even leeroyed several enemy groups together to gather mobs of around 20 melee monsters on my group before (well... using Armor of Mist as well) to see how much of a difference it makes. The answer is a LOT. In the case of my character it was the equivalent of 180 armour against any melee attack or arrow (pyromancer's armour, armour of mist and ward against harm, with all attacks doing fire damage).

There is a place for Water Elementalists in PvE... even if it isn't in the same class of usefulness as in PvP (which I loathe).

Sha Noran · May 30, 2007, 11:04 AM // 11:04

Why has no one said Freezing Gust? Srsly.

Also, Ice Spear is baed... but not quite as bad as running Greater Conflagration just so that your Deep Freeze will cause (ZOMG) a few seconds of burning. How about instead, you just run as many copies of Savannah Heat as possible and blow up the world?

Ensign · May 30, 2007, 12:06 PM // 12:06

Snaring things matters in PvE. Sometimes. Usually, when you want to hold a bunch of mobs inside a Searing Heat bomb. In which case, you put Deep Freeze on your Fire Ele.

If you want a more defensive Ele, run an Air Blindbacker. Or an Earth Warder. Or a Blindback Warder (ownage!)

Peace,
-CxE