Curse

conbirk87 · May 18, 2006, 04:14 AM // 04:14

Recently I have been playing a lot of Team Arena with my friends. One of my friends is a Monk who usually runs an RC/Protection build and my other friend is a Mesmer who uses Migraine with various interupt spells. As for me I am an Elementalist, and we usually find a random 4th person for our team. Anyway, I want a build that can contribute to the team and help them out. I was thinking a Glimmering Mark Air Ele because my Mesmer friend has casters under control, but its the melee characters that annoy us. If I were to go for a Glimmering Mark Air Elementalist build, what should my secondary profession be and what skills should I use? Or if you think that a Glimmering Mark Air Ele is a stupid idea and you have a better suggestion that would help our team, please let me know. I am pretty much looking for an Elementalist build that could add to the team. Thanks.

Francis Crawford · May 19, 2006, 10:05 AM // 10:05

I ran Dual Attunements in the arenas, with Blinding Flash and damage skills (all Air), and it seemed to work pretty well. However, my RA-made-it-to-HA team finally went down to what was probably a Smiteway team, where I couldn't figure out whether to blind the humans or the four pets.

I suspect that Ether Prodigy is a better choice than Dual Attunements, because Ether Prodigy is less vulnerable to stripping or death/rez, plus it takes up one spot less on the skill bar. I'm not sure what "RC" is, however, so I don't know how much healing your monk can do.

I'd be pretty reluctant to go with an elite that:

A. Isn't energy management
B. Is a hex
C. Depends on my opponents foolishly standing adjacent to each other
D. All of the above

jummeth · May 24, 2006, 12:25 AM // 00:25

RC = restore condition

I guess its good to just suppliment the War's Evis + exe spike with Orb etc.
Also enervating for weakness is also good for melee hate. If you still have a problem, drop an SV in there for good measure.

Van Goghs Ear · May 24, 2006, 01:19 AM // 01:19

e/mo with draw conditions always comes in handy. Drop dual attun as it is way too vulnerable. The boon prot metagame has attracted many enchantment strips to the game, and as a result any halfway compitent mesmer will shatter the ele's attuns right off the bat thus drastically affecting your energy. Ether prod seems to be the new route. A good ele build can run as follows (although blind bots are steadily becoming obsolete):

blinding flash
enervating charge
lightning strike
lightning orb
draw conditions
ether prod
res sig

plus one extra, I like to have our ele bring along a spare hex removal like veil.

try running an inept mesmer instead, loads of fun.

rii · May 24, 2006, 07:39 AM // 07:39

If you want to get energy management in arena then dual attunements are fine. Especially if you can cover it with aura or something cheap like that. Unless you want to spam stuff like heal/prot skills that arent elemental skills, attunements are much better energy management options. In terms of stripping, while granted attunements can be stripped, and it hurts, a good stripper can roll over an elmo with prodigy just as well. Unless you want to exhaust yourself, you can only use ether prodigy once every 30s, which is kind of a virtual recharge. From that, a man with drain enchantment can basically screw a prodigy user, causing him to use prod twice every 30s if he wants to do anything. And at that rate, he will have no energy in only a couple of minutes. From general experience, running either in arena is more or less safe.

torquemada · May 24, 2006, 07:54 AM // 07:54

Running duals was fine for me as well. Just don't like feeling squishy at all (usually play warrior).

If you play el/mo (or elmo) you could go for:

1. Blinding Flash
2. Lightning Strike
3. Lightning Orb
4. Enervating Charge
5. Heal party/Other (your friend is prot w boon, right?)
6. Aura of Rest (coverup)
7. Ether Prodigy {E}
8. Rez

That's cookie cutter all the way I suppose.

sno · May 24, 2006, 08:36 AM // 08:36

I find the best route for a TA ele is to focus on defense, but to be able to dish the offense when necessary. The key skills here would be blinding flash and enervating charge (weakness to cover blind) and lightning orb for damage.

I've run 2 main setups, both work very well, and are nearly the same (each depends on personal e.management preference:

Blinding Flash
Enervating Charge
Lightning Orb
Ward vs Melee
~~2 Wild Cards~~
Ether Prodigy(e)
res sig

Attributes: 16 air, 10 earth, 10 e.storage (1 sup rune)

For the wild cards I generally run either draw conditions, convert hexes, Ward of stability, or dual attunements (instead of Prodigy, which leaves only draw conditions as wild card.)

Van Goghs Ear · May 25, 2006, 03:54 AM // 03:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by rii

If you want to get energy management in arena then dual attunements are fine. Especially if you can cover it with aura or something cheap like that. Unless you want to spam stuff like heal/prot skills that arent elemental skills, attunements are much better energy management options. In terms of stripping, while granted attunements can be stripped, and it hurts, a good stripper can roll over an elmo with prodigy just as well. Unless you want to exhaust yourself, you can only use ether prodigy once every 30s, which is kind of a virtual recharge. From that, a man with drain enchantment can basically screw a prodigy user, causing him to use prod twice every 30s if he wants to do anything. And at that rate, he will have no energy in only a couple of minutes. From general experience, running either in arena is more or less safe.

here's the problem, if I see an ele with enchants as we bust out the gates, first thing I do is shatter then move to my main target which is the monk. I've now put the ele at a severe disadvantage for 45 seconds. It's ta so the match will be about 1 min to 1min 30 sec. I won't be looking at him again till the monk is dead. Since an ele won't be using prod till he needs it, I won't be focusing on him. The point being an anti boon mesmer doesnt have to go out of his/her way to screw up a dual attun ele, but an ether prod, you'd have to constantly be keeping an eye on him, and there is really no point in that.

NatalieD · May 25, 2006, 04:11 AM // 04:11

I've had a lot of luck taking Heal Other on a flashbot, with 10 points in Healing Prayers. It gets frustrating if your monk isn't up to the task of keeping you healthy, but overall it's quite handy. And it gives you something to do when you run into teams with no melee, which are getting more common in TA lately.

(Of course, you'll want Ether Prodigy over attunements for this, but I like Prodigy anyway for the extra slot and resilience to mesmers.)

Divineshadows · May 25, 2006, 04:35 AM // 04:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatalieD

I've had a lot of luck taking Heal Other on a flashbot, with 10 points in Healing Prayers. It gets frustrating if your monk isn't up to the task of keeping you healthy, but overall it's quite handy. And it gives you something to do when you run into teams with no melee, which are getting more common in TA lately.

(Of course, you'll want Ether Prodigy over attunements for this, but I like Prodigy anyway for the extra slot and resilience to mesmers.)

In a 4v4 situation, you should always let a PUG monk know that you are bringing heal other. This way, the monk player knows that you can assist with the healing on others but not on yourself. This allows for the monk player to plan accordingly.

When I play ele either in TA or GvG, there have been times where I have been the target of consistent ether prodigy removal. There are a few things you can do to counter:

- back away just before using prodigy
- call for a fast cover enchant from your monk (guardian or RoF does the trick) or anyone else on your team that can provide one
- let your team know when you cast it so that your allies can interrupt their removal spell

Zui · May 25, 2006, 06:14 AM // 06:14

Healing Breeze can be nice on an Elementalist in 4 vs 4 also,

A 12 second(with +20% enchanting mod) Breeze can actualy 'heal' for 168 at for 9 attribute points

At 10 attribute points Heal Other heals for 132.

It should be noted however, that heal other heals in 3/4 of a second, while healing breeze heals overtime, and that heal other can't be cast on yourself.

I would go with Heal Other, unless you notice you're having a good amount of trouble with hex-heavy degen teams, in which case I'd go with Healing Breeze instead of Heal Other. Apart from that, I'd say Heal Other is far superior due to the fact it's non-enchantment reliant, has a shorter cast, and is direct healing on demand.

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 25, 2006, 04:20 PM // 16:20

Not fond of breeze as it is often interupted, shattered, or meaningless as when a character is in need of healing they often need it what our guild likes to call "NOW" or 2 seconds ago. By this we mean that to prevent the target from dying; they need to be healed exactly at that moment. In addition heal other can be spammed on the target for greater effect; healing breeze cannot.