Elementalist Discussion

[Warcrafter]

Can't wait for GW2 or even a beta invite tbh, personally I love the Elementalist the most by far, stance dancing to deal different types of damage, healing and a large variety of skills and spell effects ^_^

[Larynx]

I have a feeling guardians are going to circumvent their duties by using that excuse: "I CAN DRINNK AND DRIVE, IT'S NOT PART OF MY VIRTUES NOT TO DO SO!"

NOT KILLING INNOCENTS ISN'T PART OF MY VIRTUES!! YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO MOM! YOU DON'T KNOW ME!

R.I.P.
All the poor Asura who died that day

[samepiggy]

actually the non elite weapon summons have 15 charges on them, every time you use a skill you use up a charge.

[Larynx]

actually the non elite weapon summons have 15 charges on them, every time you use a skill you use up a charge.

I wonder how strong they'll be compared to normal weapons.

[samepiggy]

ya i wished he used it in combat, but he was just showcasing it

[Laste]

I may look super nerdy for putting this much thought into my elementalist build already, but oh well. I want some outside opinions.

Weapon Set

• Dual Daggers

Healing Skill

• Signet of Rejuvenation

Utility Skills

• Signet of Water
• Cleansing Flame
• Glyph of Lesser Elemental

Elite Skill

• Tornado

Traits

• Fire - 5
• Air - 5
• Earth - 30
  
  1. Written in Stone
  2. Earth's Embrace
  3. Signet Mastery
• Water - 20
  
  1. One with the Mists
  2. Soothing Wave
• Arcane - 10
  
  1. Windborne Daggers

Explanation
Just to clarify, I put this build together with the intentions of using it for PvP. I’ll explain my traits first.

My reason for only putting five points into both Fire and Air Magic is that neither of the equipable trait bonuses really benefited the build I was trying to sculpt. I’m going for endurance, damage and efficiency, so I only bothered to get the five point bonus for Fire (20% chance to cause burning to attackers) and Air (10% speed increase while attuned to Air). I considered putting ten points into Air and picking up Bolt to the Heart (+25% damage to foes below 25% health), but thought the Fire bonus would prove to be more useful.

I maxed out Earth Magic because I’m pretty certain it grants a passive armor bonus, which I imagine would be nice to have while being up in melee range. Earth also has some of the most important equipable traits in my build, so I needed access to all three slots. Written in Stone allows my passive signet benefits to continue even after activating my signet, meaning my Signet of Water will continue to remove a condition from me every three seconds, and my Signet of Rejuvenation will continue to heal me every time I cast a spell. It may not seem that amazing, but imagine if my Signet of Water ticks right after someone immobilizes me. I just saved myself from being unable to move for five seconds. The second equipable trait I picked up in Earth Magic is Earth’s Embrace. I kind of see it as a nice bit of insurance if I ever get into situation where my heal is on cooldown and my health is dropping fast. It actives Armor of Earth, which frees me from stun effects, as well as grants me immunity to them, along with immunity to knockdowns, knockbacks, and launches. It also boons me with protection for a short time, reducing damage taken by 33%. This should more than likely allow me enough time for my Signet of Rejuvenation to come off cooldown and heal myself. Finally, I picked up Signet Mastery in my last slot. Signet Mastery reduces the cooldown of the two signets I carry in my build (Signet of Rejuvenation for healing, and Signet of Water to chill foes).

Next, I dropped 20 points into Water Magic and picked up One with the Mists and Soothing Waves. One with the Mists activates Mist Form once I reach 33% health. It breaks stun effects and grants a invulnerability for a very short time. Soothing Waves works pretty nicely with it as well, causing Mist Form to boon me with Rejuvenation for two seconds when it is activated, giving me a bit of health back and possibly preventing me from activating Earth’s Embrace immediately after Mist Form is down. Soothing Waves also causes my Signet of Water to grant Rejuvenation, which makes the signet a bit more useful instead of just something to annoy my opponents with. I’m unaware of what the 15 point Water Magic trait is, but judging by the other 15 point bonuses, I’d say it grants Rejuvenation to nearby allies for a short period of time after attuning to Water.

And to wrap things up, I put my last ten points into Arcane Power. The five point bonus increases the duration of the boons granted from the 15 point bonuses I receive from both Water (Rejuvenation) and Earth (Cripple) Magic. I filled the ten point slot with Windborne Daggers, increasing my movement speed by 15% while wielding daggers, which will be all the time since elementalists can only have one weapon set. I’m not sure if this stacks with the 10% speed bonus I get from having the five point Air Magic bonus, but I assumed it did. If that happens to be incorrect, I’d remove the five points from Air completely and add them to Fire, Water, or Arcane Power. I don’t know the 15 or 25 point bonuses for Arcane Power and Water Magic, so I can’t really give a straight answer.

To explain the skills I have on my bar that I didn’t mention above, they’re pretty much fillers. I took Cleansing Flame for an extra stun break with a short cooldown, and Glyph of Lesser Elemental for extra damage. The summoned elemental I get from the glyph also lasts for a minute, where as the cooldown is only 45 seconds, meaning it should have almost 100% uptime unless it is killed. I chose Tornado as my elite skill mainly because it seems ridiculously overpowered in PvP. I can fling people out of the capture radius, or just use it as an “Oh shit!” button if I have too many people on me.

In closing, I’d like to mention that I did consider taking the 15% cooldown reduction trait bonuses for Air and Earth magic since those attunements seem to be me the most useful for the play style I’m aiming for. But after looking into it more, the cooldowns for Air dagger skills really aren’t that long and the three equipable trait bonuses I chose in Earth Magic give my build a really nice foundation. That’s pretty much all I have to say, really. I know I made this a bit of a long read, but hopefully you enjoyed it. I’d really appreciate any feedback or suggestions some of my fellow ele fanboys may have, so please feel free to reply, and thanks for reading!

[Chrno]

I may look super nerdy for putting this much thought into my elementalist build already, but oh well. I want some outside opinions.

Weapon Set

• Dual Daggers

Healing Skill

• Signet of Rejuvenation

Utility Skills

• Signet of Water
• Cleansing Flame
• Glyph of Lesser Elemental

Elite Skill

• Tornado

Traits

• Fire - 5
• Air - 5
• Earth - 30
  
  1. Written in Stone
  2. Earth's Embrace
  3. Signet Mastery
• Water - 20
  
  1. One with the Mists
  2. Soothing Wave
• Arcane - 10
  
  1. Windborne Daggers

Explanation
Just to clarify, I put this build together with the intentions of using it for PvP. I’ll explain my traits first.

My reason for only putting five points into both Fire and Air Magic is that neither of the equipable trait bonuses really benefited the build I was trying to sculpt. I’m going for endurance, damage and efficiency, so I only bothered to get the five point bonus for Fire (20% chance to cause burning to attackers) and Air (10% speed increase while attuned to Air). I considered putting ten points into Air and picking up Bolt to the Heart (+25% damage to foes below 25% health), but thought the Fire bonus would prove to be more useful.

I maxed out Earth Magic because I’m pretty certain it grants a passive armor bonus, which I imagine would be nice to have while being up in melee range. Earth also has some of the most important equipable traits in my build, so I needed access to all three slots. Written in Stone allows my passive signet benefits to continue even after activating my signet, meaning my Signet of Water will continue to remove a condition from me every three seconds, and my Signet of Rejuvenation will continue to heal me every time I cast a spell. It may not seem that amazing, but imagine if my Signet of Water ticks right after someone immobilizes me. I just saved myself from being unable to move for five seconds. The second equipable trait I picked up in Earth Magic is Earth’s Embrace. I kind of see it as a nice bit of insurance if I ever get into situation where my heal is on cooldown and my health is dropping fast. It actives Armor of Earth, which frees me from stun effects, as well as grants me immunity to them, along with immunity to knockdowns, knockbacks, and launches. It also boons me with protection for a short time, reducing damage taken by 33%. This should more than likely allow me enough time for my Signet of Rejuvenation to come off cooldown and heal myself. Finally, I picked up Signet Mastery in my last slot. Signet Mastery reduces the cooldown of the two signets I carry in my build (Signet of Rejuvenation for healing, and Signet of Water to chill foes).

Next, I dropped 20 points into Water Magic and picked up One with the Mists and Soothing Waves. One with the Mists activates Mist Form once I reach 33% health. It breaks stun effects and grants a very invulnerability for a very short time. Soothing Waves works pretty nicely with it as well, causing Mist Form to boon me with Rejuvenation when it is activated, giving me a bit of health back and possibly preventing me from activating Earth’s Embrace immediately after Mist Form is down. Soothing Wave also causes my Signet of Water to grant Rejuvenation, which makes the signet a bit more useful instead of just something to annoy my opponents with. I’m unaware of what the 15 point Water Magic trait is, but judging by the other 15 point bonuses, I’d say it grants Rejuvenation for a short period of time after attuning to Water.

And to wrap things up, I put my last ten points into Arcane Power. The five point bonus increases the duration of the boons granted from the 15 point bonuses I receive from both Water (Rejuvenation) and Earth (Cripple) Magic. I filled the ten point slot with Windborne Daggers, increasing my movement speed by 15% while wielding daggers, which will be the all the time since elementalists can only have one weapon set. I’m not sure if this stacks with the 10% speed bonus I get from having the five point Air Magic bonus, but I assumed it did. If that happens to not be the case, I’d removed the five points from Air completely and add them to Fire, Water, or Arcane Power. I don’t know the 15 or 25 points bonuses for Arcane Power and Water Magic, so I can’t really give a straight answer.

To explain the skills I have on my bar that I didn’t mention above, they’re pretty much fillers. I took Cleansing Flame for an extra stun break with a short cooldown, and Glyph of Lesser Elemental for extra damage. The summoned elemental I get from the glyph also lasts for a minute, where as the cooldown is only 45 seconds, meaning it should have almost 100% uptime unless it is killed. I chose Tornado as my elite skill mainly because it seems ridiculously overpowered in PvP. I can fling people out of the capture radius, or just use it as an “Oh shit!” button if I have too many people on me.

In closing, I’d like to mention that I did consider taking the 15% cooldown reduction trait bonuses for Air and Earth magic since those skills seem to be me the most useful for the play style I’m aiming for. But after looking into it more, the cooldowns for Air dagger skills really aren’t that long and the three equipable trait bonuses I chose in Earth Magic give my build a really nice foundation. That’s pretty much all I have to say, really. I know I made this a bit of a long read, but hopefully you enjoyed it. I’d really appreciate any feedback or suggestions some of my fellow ele fanboys may have, so please feel free to reply, and thanks for reading!

wow just wow ..
you did your homework sir

i choose not to look at builds myself yet tho, i want to experience it when i play

[Laste]

wow just wow ..
you did your homework sir

i choose not to look at builds myself yet tho, i want to experience it when i play

I'd probably be the same way if I wasn't already SO FREAKING ADDICTED to this game. x_x

[obdigore]

Anyone have any kind of good Elem PvE vids? I've not seen any at all beyond the quick Bonk thing and some PvP stuff.

[Ethas]

I'm gonna enjoy being elementalist =) I'm not into all those theorycraft yet, because I want to introduce myself in this profession slow and relaxing =) I dont even know abilities/resources and so on. Gonna explore it out when game is finaly released. Hope it will not delayed for long.

[DrakeWurrum]

I'm probably going to find it hard to play Elementalist. I have a perhaps-ridiculous obsession with lightning-based abilities in any game I play (my super-power of choice, if a magical genie were to grant me one? super-conductor electromagnetism), and it seems the elementalist's toolkit is balanced around willingness to switch to the element best suited to the encounter mechanics and your group.

I could probably DO it, I'd just feel a twinge of dissatisfaction every time I feel like I "have" to switch to non-air magic. There's a reason my two primary characters in City of Heroes are Ele/Ele Blaster and Ele/Ele Stalker. :S
I would have made an Ele/Ele Brute, Tanker, and Scrapper as well... if all three of those, plus the Stalker, weren't so ridiculously alike.

[Deleted]

An asura elementalist turning into a tornado? What's not to love
And scary as hell.

Pfff, I'm not afraid of a little breeze.

[Ethas]

So I've counted 6 healing+protection abilities in water stance alone with staff/scepter+dagger combination. One of them even can be spammed to heal allies while damaging. Now, are you sure it is not possible to being heal only 3% of time as a water elementalist? I think it is viable option. Sure you will not be mega strong healer, but 6 abilities for helping group is much more than nothing, isnt it?

[Larynx]

So I've counted 6 healing+protection abilities in water stance alone with staff/scepter+dagger combination. One of them even can be spammed to heal allies while damaging. Now, are you sure it is not possible to being heal only 3% of time as a water elementalist? I think it is viable option. Sure you will not be mega strong healer, but 6 abilities for helping group is much more than nothing, isnt it?

Yeah I'm a bit worried for Eles. I hope they don't become mandatory for the group because of healing. Similar to Guardians I suppose.

[Dacomp89]

So I've counted 6 healing+protection abilities in water stance alone with staff/scepter+dagger combination. One of them even can be spammed to heal allies while damaging. Now, are you sure it is not possible to being heal only 3% of time as a water elementalist? I think it is viable option. Sure you will not be mega strong healer, but 6 abilities for helping group is much more than nothing, isnt it?

Elementalists don't have weapon swap, so it's 3 healing skills out of 20. You could be a permanent healer if you used a staff and spammed Water Blast, but I wouldn't expect it to heal for terribly large amounts and it has positioning requirements as well. Sure you could do it, but it'd probably be much more efficient to simply help kill the enemies.

[Deleted]

Elementalists don't have weapon swap, so it's 3 healing skills out of 20. You could be a permanent healer if you used a staff and spammed Water Blast, but I wouldn't expect it to heal for terribly large amounts and it has positioning requirements as well. Sure you could do it, but it'd probably be much more efficient to simply help kill the enemies.

Maybe true, but then I wonder... The damage of water is most likely lower than fire and lighting. If it's healing is indeed so weak, I wonder what the point of using it will be. I mean, fire with all its magnificent damage will probably makeits use dead in the water(sorry for the pun). And I don't like that, since water is my favorite element and I would really want to see it used.

[Glytch]

Maybe true, but then I wonder... The damage of water is most likely lower than fire and lighting. If it's healing is indeed so weak, I wonder what the point of using it will be. I mean, fire with all its magnificent damage will probably makeits use dead in the water(sorry for the pun). And I don't like that, since water is my favorite element and I would really want to see it used.

id like to see it made more into a control/debilitation attunement like it was in GW1

skills like blurred vision, maelstrom, mind freeze, and rust were crazy awesome in pvp

[Allanon the Mystic]

I'd probably be the same way if I wasn't already SO FREAKING ADDICTED to this game. x_x

Good going! I wish I could do this for the mesmer, but there is not enough information for me to do so Hopefully there will be some later on or soon.
I wouldn't mind doing some PvP with ya' D:

[Koshun]

I doubt guardians and water elementalists will become mandatory simply because the mind set of the game is "revolutionary". People in groups that lack a "true support" (i.e. Guardian) won't care; they'll grab anyone they can find because it's Guild Wars 2.

[takolin]

Planned race: Asura because they're no other valid option.

For PvP and solo PvE I'm planning to run a Scepter/focus build. For group PvE I'm still undecided between Scepter/focus, Scepter/dagger or Staff. S/D seems to be more offensive than S/F at the cost of some nice defensive skills so it needs to be seen what ends up being needed the most. If I know a big part of a dungeon involves a lot of AoE damage/control, I'll switch to my trusty staff.