Curse

Zagar · Aug 20, 2007, 02:22 AM // 02:22

What are the best builds and what are there advantages. I just got the game. I've played wow and eq back in the day. I'm wondering which builds are best for what. I have nightfall if that makes a diff as well. I want to be wanted for groups and be able to do damage. But i still want to be able to farm and solo. Help me out guys anything helps...keep in mind i am a noob when if comes to guildwars... Thanks alot for any help

SotiCoto · Aug 20, 2007, 12:22 PM // 12:22

Best?
Best for what?

Most folks seem to like the cookie-cutter [skill]Searing Flames[/skill] build... which is a total no-brainer. Get a few of those in a party and most things will die with comparitively little effort.

I know quite a few people like playing Earth Tanks.... and as Earth skills go, I rather like [skill]Sandstorm[/skill] for dealing considerable damage.

I don't know much of anything about Air Elementalism myself .... but lots of folks seem to go for the Air-Spiker approach.

But personally.... I'm one of those oddballs who likes to play a Water Elementalist. Since I have two Fire Elementalist heroes... Zhed on Searing Flames duty and Sousuke running Greater Conflagration and Mark of Rodgort..... I find it particularly effective to pin down the enemy mobs for them using [skill]Deep Freeze[/skill], and run [skill]Ward Against Harm[/skill] to keep the entire party safe (extremely effective with Greater Conflagration up, though not so much without).
It takes a rather specific party build to make a Water Elementalist work well for PvE though.... so I wouldn't recommend it unless you know the rest of the party is going to be synchronised with your own skills. About the best free-elite (not centred around group synergy) for a water elementalist is [skill]Shatterstone[/skill].... but then Water Elementalism isn't about pure damage most of the time.

Just stick with Searing Flames if you're looking for an easy game.

Div · Aug 23, 2007, 01:23 AM // 01:23

Mind blast+rodgorts is awesome

Marverick · Aug 23, 2007, 02:06 AM // 02:06

[skill]Glyph of Sacrifice[/skill][skill]Meteor Shower[/skill][skill]Searing Heat[/skill][skill]Breath of Fire[/skill][skill]Assassin's Promise[/skill][skill]Fire Attunement[/skill]
Best fire build imo, can spike entire areas out in 3 casts and recharges instantly with AP. However not that good in level 28 areas where stuff doesn't die that fast.

Air is mostly run with [skill]Elemental Attunement[/skill][skill]Air Attunement[/skill][skill]Lightning Hammer[/skill][skill]Blinding Flash[/skill][skill]Enervating Charge[/skill] and then 3 skills of your choice.

Earth is mostly support with [skill]Ward Against Melee[/skill][skill]Ward Against Elements[/skill][skill]Eruption[/skill][skill]Unsteady Ground[/skill][skill]Ward of Stability[/skill]

Searing Flames really sucks... easier to spike things dead for most of the game rather than pressure, and in the endgame mobs have too high armor for fire to be worth anything.

Cebe · Aug 23, 2007, 08:37 AM // 08:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by SotiCoto

I know quite a few people like playing Earth Tanks.... and as Earth skills go, I rather like [skill]Sandstorm[/skill] for dealing considerable damage.

I've personally never really loved playing an Earth Tank, but it seems to be one of those Stereotypical builds which causes a lot of GW players to believe that Earth Magic is only for tanking. Well it's not...and Sandstorm is an excellent skill. Earth seems to Own in the Realm of Torment. [wiki]Ward Against Elements[/wiki],[wiki]Sandstorm[/wiki],[wiki]Dragon's Stomp[/wiki] & [wiki]Eruption[/wiki] just about Descimates the mobs made up of Rains of Terror and Spears of Torment in the Domain of Fear. Also, when you use a Double HCT staff and get a three-quarter cast on Dragon's Stomp it pisses all over Cry of Frustration - so funny and so so fun!

Quote:

Originally Posted by SotiCoto

I don't know much of anything about Air Elementalism myself .... but lots of folks seem to go for the Air-Spiker approach.

In my opinion Air seems to work better with Dual Attunements. Air skills are spammable and as such seem to require more substantial Energy Management, especially with the leetness of Lightning Hammer's 4-second recharge time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SotiCoto

Just stick with Searing Flames if you're looking for an easy game.

...and want to get into shallow PuGs who think the only skill an Elementast has is Searing Flames

(just thought I should finish that bit off for you)

Dr Strangelove · Aug 23, 2007, 02:43 PM // 14:43

It seems I'm starting to agree with Celestial more and more

.

Mind blasters, especially with rodgort's invocation > searing flames, no question. The only bonus for searing flames is that a complete retard, such as Zhed, can run it perfectly. Thanks to massive AoE and flame djinn's haste, they also make incredibly good skirmish characters. Also, the combo [skill]deep freeze[/skill][/skill]savannah heat[/skill][skill]tenai's heat[/skill][skill]searing heat[/skill] is pretty much insta win for any mobs dumb enough to stand close together.

Air is blind. If you want blind, you take air. If you made an air build without blind, you failed. The two most common ways to do this are using [wiki]blinding surge[/wiki] along with cheaper air spells like [wiki]lightning strike[/wiki]. You can also run dual attunements and spam the bejeezus out of lightning hammer, orb, and blinding flash, although you're very vulnerable to interrupts and enchantment stripping.

While earth is capable of massive damage, with unsteady ground, eruption, and churning earth, perhaps with an earthquake thrown in, it is undoubtedly a more defensive role. All the pulsing AoE spells have some form of melee shutdown in them, and every earth build out there should include a ward, no exceptions.

Ensign · Aug 23, 2007, 09:08 PM // 21:08

In a PvE team environment, the Mind Blast core is the best available foundation a vast majority of the time. Air is blind. You can power Blinding Flash with the Mind Blast core and still kick out other DDs as necessary. Earth is wards. You can fit wards on a Mind Blast bar without any issues, with a pretty attractive spec as well.

The main exception to this is when you're on a team with a lot of other Eles. In that case you want Searing Flames, since you can really maximize the effects of the burning with a bunch of copies. In general I consider teams with a lot of Elementalists to be weak however.

The other common exception is when you're geotanking, either for solo farming or cornerblocking mobs in your classic tanknspank strats. There you want 16 Earth and whatever elite is designed to work best in that situation.

Darkpower Alchemist · Aug 26, 2007, 06:27 AM // 06:27

Hybrid builds should always be throughly checked in the case of the elementalist. Upon closer inspection, most hybrid elementalist builds should lead to strengths, as well as bolster weakness that are inherit to each element.

Water/Fire builds where water hexes are used as snares are abit new due to previous way the mechanics worked. Once upon a time, casting fire after water would make the water effect to be nullified. No more does magic negate due to elemental differences.

Water/Air builds have always played well together. Water hexes with certain Air spells make for awesome damage output. Earth/Air builds can also be used to some degree as well.

Then their's the use of secondary caster spells...but that's another issue.