whats the best earth ele build??

whats the best earth ele build .. ive got a good build but i want to compare it to the "best" build (if there is one)
the build that i use and that i find to be quite helpful is:

-Stone daggers (for the occasional magic attack. or if not much energy)
-Stoning (quite powerful, and makes enemy immobile for a bit, after weaken)
-Eruption (consecutive dmg, then blinds them, 10 secs, which helps alot)
-Earthquake (powerful and makes them fall)
-Aftershock (good move to use after earthquake if enemies r close)
-Earth Attunment (helps with the rapid loss of energy)
-Enervating charge (helps make stoning more effective)

my last skill is someimtes changed depending on the circumstances.

-Ward against melee (helps when eruption's blind effect wears off)
or
-Crystal wave (i use for a chain move..."eruption", to blind, "earthquake", to make them fall while its receiving dmg from eruption, "aftershock", adds alot of dmg to the chain, and then "crystal wave", to finish them off somtimes)
-then maybe obsidian flame instead of stoning (only coz its stong)

but reply with wat u think is best suited for earth eles!
thx in advance

Crystal wave negates conditions, so dont cast it after eruption blinds them.

You seem to lack elite skill. By that in mind i would chance earth attune for elemental attune. Ward against melee is good choise but you dont any res. Maybe res sig for last slot? Or maybe monk secondary and some hard res like rebirth/restore life?

the best earth elementalists i've seen stack earth's defensive capabilities. they use armor of earth + kinetic armor to raise their AL way above most warriors. with the added defense, they can get up close to do eruption, earthquake, and aftershock at close range. an additional ward might help too.

I took in Obsidian Flesh for my E/R. It actually saved a game...

Of course, if you want to do the Earthquake/Aftershock combo, then ignore this. Obsidian Flesh makes you move 50% slower.

My current Earth build is (pretty mixed at least):
E/Me
Energy Storage 11 +1
Earth Magic 12 +3 +1
Air Magic 6 +1

Gale
Obsidian Flame
Aftershock
Crystal Wave
Ward Against Foes
Ether Renewal
Earth Attunement
Windborne Speed

It's not even near perfect, but I put it out anyways

Best ele build is the cookie cutter builds because anyone with a brain knows that innovation sux0rs in pvp...

You're either copying the cookie cutters cause they work or you suck sadly ;_;

All Earth Eles have Ward against something.

Ward Against Melee is the default. I'm sure that if you told someone you didn't have Ward against Melee, they'd kick you out of the team 9/10...

Armor of Earth is also in a majority of Earth ele skill bars. Why? You're a soft target people want dead fast, that's why...

I don't know much about eles to go much further but I do know that almost everyone who wants in on a 'strategic' party will bring these 2 skills...

not every earth ele has armor of earth. in fact it could be worse to have it on since you cant kite at all with it. ward against foes is amazing, both in relic runs and in keeping your soft targets alive. as long as they know how to run in circles in it, your all set. i would even rate foes as being more effective than melee

and hey theres lots of non standard earth builds around.

basically, is bs

You're running a build with 2 25 energy spells (one with exhaustion!) and no energy management? I think you've got to take elemental attunement for your elite to keep this build going. Since you're putting points into wind, you might want to take a look at whirlwind/aftershock or shock/aftershock.

Rico

thats a good idea .. never thought of that... and for the energy management i use earth attunement since i dont have the elite skill "elemental attunement"

FastCast+anything can be good.

Res sig
Ele attune
Earth attune
Kinetic armor
Armor of Earth
Ether Feast
Obsidian Flame
Stone Daggers

Pros=
-Armor bonus from Ki.Ar. and Ar.o.Ea.
-Lots of damage
-Destroys RoF spammers
-Interrupts have little effect (unless they stack on recharge time)

Cons=
-Backfire will mess your day up
-Degen can be a problem, as you only have Ether Feast for healing

i dont use crystal wave after ive used eruption... i use other skills b4 then .. and plus once ive used all those skills they r nearly dead anyway


but thx anyway for everyones opinions, sure made me look at my build in a diff way

I use this defensive knockdown build for PVP, mostly for pick-up groups.

Obsidian Flame
Enervating Charge
Stoning
Armor of Earth or Ward against Melee
Earth Attunement
Elemental Attunement
Aura of Restoration
Rez

It seems to work well one on one with most players because of high armor, high damage, and 1 knockdown every 6 secs.
However, I have problems with ppl using rend enchantments and backfire. Also, it can be tough when a good interruptor keys on me.

You seem awfully angry that people are smart enough to require someone who happens to spec the attribute of some of the best, hardest to counter abilities in guild wars (wards) to actually take them. Half the time I take earth it's just because my team needs wards.

I'd argue against taking armor of earth unless you're doing 4v4 monkless, especially when said armor slows the speed of a character who probably has a pbaoe spell.

Outside of monkless 4v4, obsidian flesh is a monk elite, not worth taking. Once again, it slows your speed and protects someone who doesn't need it.

To the first poster, don't use stone daggers unless you're using it with ether renewal, if you're low on energy, you shouldn't be casting anyways. It's basically the worst of the elementalist spam spells, flare is better, and ice spear is WAY better.

On crystal wave... if you're on a coordinated team, crystal wave can make frag spike builds effective with a good enemy prot monk present, assuming you have cover hexes. You have to use it with a melee weapon and a speed boost. That's pretty much the only use I've found for it though, I once tried quake, aftershock, crystal wave, obsidian flame spiking, but the aoe on wave is so short that the enemy can leave the aoe in the time it takes to cast it, and this is even towards the end of a knockdown.

If there wasn't innovation, there wouldn't actually be the cookie-cutter build, would there.
It had to be made by someone, somehow.

I think perhpas you guys have never noticed yukito's posts on this forum before or you might have noticed he tries very many builds of a different and sometimes whacky nature. His point which is being made sarcastically is directed at the issues that innovative or even just experimental builds have getting onto teams and being accepted as possible alternatives to the more common character builds for each class. We all know how hard it can be to spot sarcasm online so just thought I'd try to clear that up.


Cyril


edited for my terrible typing skills

E/R

Earth 12 + 3
Energy Storage 8 + 2
Wilderness Survival 10


Sone Daggers
Obsidian Flame
Armor of Earth
Obsidian Flesh {E}
Ward Against Melee
Earth Atunment
Troll Ungent
Ressurection Sig

That is my current earth elementalist build, and frankly, it is the only way I would ever play an elementalist.... all of the other ele builds I have tried are just so incredibly boring (coming from a dedicated mesmer). This build is great because it can stand up to huge mobs, and still do alot of damage.


Against melle it is great, (2 armor spells, ward)

Against casters it is pretty good (obsidian flesh, cant be targeted by enemy spells)

Self Heal just in case (that the reason for the ranger part) (This is great because it isnt affected by enemy attacks and spells that affect your spells... in the small amount of time that the enemy is acually able to cast spells on you ) So if you do get backfired, you still have a self-heal

Energy-wise, it lasts a long time, but in some pvp battles, i have found myself out of engergy (but only a few)

I really just use this for pve, but it works great in pvp as well (from my experience)

There is a suitable build for every suitable situation. So in conclusion there is NO best earth elementalist build.

I have been using this lately in FOW and the UW...

15 earth (w sup rune)
11 fire (w minor rune)
13 energy storage (w sup rune)

Resurrect
Obsidian Flame
Earthquake
Stoning
Meteor Shower
Crystal Wave
Eruption
Glyph of Energy

With an gold earth wand +15 -1 ER and gold earth scroll +12 +15 -1 ER, I have 111 in Energy Storage. I can spam Obsidian Flame and Stoning fairly quickly while Eruption helps the agro tanks by blinding their foes after the damage. Just keep casting Glyph of energy to avoid exhaustion on the 25 energy cost spells. When not in combat I switch to an empty weapons set to recover energy at the normal rate instead of at -2.