Curse

I Am A Sasquatch · May 17, 2005, 11:36 AM // 11:36

1. I am currently using fire magic. Should I switch? I have water, earth, and lightning spells in my skill inventory.

2. If I continue using fire magic, is there a spell I will acquire that is better then flare, seeing as flare is the spell i find myself using most because it only uses 5 energy.

Auntie I · May 17, 2005, 12:18 PM // 12:18

Early in the game Fire magic provides the best offensive arsenal. Later as you acquire even more skills Earth,Air and Water become more viable. I suggest that using only 1 skill because of it's low energy use is counter productive for an elementalist. Skills like Firestorm do much greater amounts of damage even though they cost more energy. Invest attribute points in Energy Storage. You'll have lots of energy for all but the longest battles.

Talus · May 17, 2005, 12:31 PM // 12:31

It's a shame that they pretty much encourage every elementalist to use fire by making the first good spells fire based and 'Pyromancer' gear the first crafted armor.

I wouldn't have gone with fire if I knew ahead of time it would be that way.

But I agree with Auntie (hello to another NBer btw

)...pick 1 element and be good at it. Don't try and put points into all 4 of them. You'll just be weak with all of them instead of being strong with 1. If you have leftover points at level 20 and want to play around with some of the effects of the other elements, that would make sense.

Here is a great site for previewing some spells, durations, and damage:

http://www.gwunderground.com/www/index.php?action=sb

EDIT: Bah, their bandwidth has been exceeded. Hopefully somebody can mirror this applet sometime.

Auntie I · May 17, 2005, 12:56 PM // 12:56

You can always change elements when you get further into the game. I really like the attribute refund system. I play a E/Me, early on I use Conjure Phantasm so I pump Illusion up. Later I use the domination skills more, so I change the Illusion points to domination (I do leave a couple in Illusion cause Conjure Phantasm is a swell skill)

BTW Talus although I live in NB like you live in ON I'm actually from NS (My nose is blue)

Bgnome · May 17, 2005, 01:48 PM // 13:48

moved to campfire

mee · May 17, 2005, 05:49 PM // 17:49

I think most Ele go with fire for quite some time, I know I did. The only point you sort of *have* to change things up is in the Fire Island missions (esp. the last one). Fire is probably the easiest to use as it's just all about damage (little to no status effects on Fire spells).

While I use Flare waaay more than anything else (esp. Flare+aura of rest+ether renewal to totally refill my Energy bar), that's not to say I don't use Rodgort's Invocation, Firestorm, Phoenix, or Inferno. AoE damage is where Fire spells really shine, Flare is what you cast when the AoE would be ineffiecent or hasn't cooled down yet.

If you like damage, go for Air, as it does rather sick damage, albeit only to one target. Lightening Javelin is pretty damn nice too, imo. Earth and Water are both less about damage and more about "control:" Earth has some nice buffs and a few good interrupts, while Water is all about slowing things down.

I would always recommend putting a healthy amount of points in Energy Storage, and then the bulk of the remainder in 1 element. All the Elementalist's spells are pretty good, but they are only so-so w/o specialization.

I Am A Sasquatch · May 17, 2005, 06:44 PM // 18:44

well right now as a elementalist/necromancer i have points in energy storage, fire magic, and blood magic only. however, because of teh games refund system (which i agree is really good), i can easily switch to water earth or lightning magic. Should i do this now? or wait?

modru2004 · May 17, 2005, 09:00 PM // 21:00

well from a pvp standpoint even then fire prevails. ive tried bot air and fire in pvp. ive found even with airs 25% armor penatration they still don't do the damage i do with fire and on top of that the cool down is longer. plus by going air you lose almost all aoe. i just don't think theres any other element as good as fire for DIRECT and AOE damage. as of right now i don't think air is viable in pvp unless the cool down is fixed.

Zeru · May 17, 2005, 10:40 PM // 22:40

Unless something has changed drastically recently fire is the weakest of the four in pvp. It's great in pve because the enemies clump and don't move out of stuff like firestorm and meteor shower (and you get many fire skills early), but good humans will move in pvp and you can't base a skill line being good by assuming your opponents are clear idiots. iirc immolate and phoenix and fireball are the only assured hit spells, phoenix having long recharges and immolate/fireball (when hitting an area) can't make fire good on its own. Many fire skills also suffer horrendously long casting or recharge times which diminish their usefulness further.

fire is not even 'that' good in aoe either. Earthquake, eruption, and maelstorm are both comparable and the ice line snares will actually keep them in the aoe longer.

To me, what makes fire useful at all is its sheer depth. Unlike the other lines fire is completely focused on damage and has tons of skills to back it up, so you have many options to have on at once, somewhat helping the long recharge times.

Air of course totally destroys fire in pvp. Cool down time? Look at Lightning Orb, the staple air skill. at lvl 16 it has a 5 sec cool down and does around 110 damage and has armor pen. Fire can't compare.

Tatianna_Annunaki · May 17, 2005, 11:19 PM // 23:19

Master of Lightning (Ele/Mes variant) is good. It can shred the opposition, but eats up your mana in the process.

I go with the Thunderclap, Lightning Strike, Lightning Orb combo. As long as I have energy, nobody is getting up to do me harm. The tanks can take advantage of the situation. If I have time, I use Chain Lightning as my AOE. I use Energy Tap/Drain to recover some energy, but may have to consider Ether Renewal or something better to increase my rate of mana recovery.

I have other utility skills in my repertoire, but i feel that everyone will whatever suits their fighting style. I think (as do many other Elems) Air is the best way to go in PvP. It may not have the depth of fire, but well, fire just sucks donkey balls in PvP, 4sec Firestorms that people can run from/interrupt, 3sec fireballs that can get blocked by terrain. Phoenix is great, but takes forever to recycle. You could be dead by the time you're ready to cast it again. Water magic just slows people down and delays your death. It doesn't do enough damage.

Ensign · May 17, 2005, 11:39 PM // 23:39

I've run Fire, Air, and Water in PvP and had success with all 3. If you're running multiple elementalists you'll probably want to have each on a different element to keep them from stepping on each other - multiple Air Elementalists work as long as you only have one guy on Surge, but the other two don't play too well with others.

Which element you'd want to run depends on the needs of your team - Air does better focus fire damage than Fire, but not by too much, and you get solid AoEs in the process that should not be underrated. Water has those lovely snares that everyone loves. Again I believe much depends on the situation - Fire is better in tombs where you're going to be playing dais, for example, while Air is nice in GvG where things tend to be more open - and you really can't make a wrong choice amongst the three.

Earth is the exception as it really doesn't function too well as a primary nuking line - it just doesn't have the depth or power of either Fire or Air, and isn't disruptive enough to matter. What you do get is Earth defenses, which might be relevant for solo PvE play but are largely irrelevant in PvP - it certainly isn't a line that you need to get to 16. Pump it to 8 or so for Wards and some defenses, maybe, and leave it at that.

Peace,
-CxE

Eclair · May 18, 2005, 01:05 AM // 01:05

Earth has some good spells, namely obsidian Flame, Crystal Wave, and Armor of Earth.

modru2004 · May 18, 2005, 08:32 PM // 20:32

guys fire is not weak in pvp. with my skill bar i do more damage with DIRECT fire spells then i ever did why my air spells. and id on't have to worry about mana to boot.