Guild Wars 2

Underpowered or not, there’s no denying that Elementalists have a lot of neat tricks that they can pull, and due to the nature of the class, not all of these combos are known to new players. I’d like to start a general knowledge/information thread for Elementalist technology so that new players can have something to work with when rolling this complex class.

Arenanet have stated that they’d prefer the metagame to stabilise before they go making any drastic changes to class balance. Therefore as players, it’s our duty to establish a metagame, and in order to do this we need to start documenting information about our class, and how said class interacts with other classes.

Please post your favorite Elementalist combos and tactics using the following template:

(weapon)Combo/Tactic/Setup = briefly outline your tactic, combo or setup here. Explain which skills are used.

Situation = When would you use this? What does it work on and why does it work?

Explanation = explain in more detail if necessary. Further notes go here.
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EXAMPLE

D/D Combo = Arcane shield, Churning Earth, Lightning Flash, Cleansing Fire, Earthquake, Updraft.

Situation = PVE/PVP anytime against ranged or melee opponents, particularly useful as an opener for jumping into a large group of enemies.

Explanation = Use Arcane Shield before casting Churning Earth. This lessens your chance of getting interrupted. Before the cast time of Churning Earth has finished, use Lighting Flash to adjust your positioning, securing the attack against mobile opponents. Follow immediately by Cleansing Fire to stack burn and bleed. By this point, the opponent will probably attempt to clear their conditions, so use Earthquake to interrupt them, followed by a quick change to Lightning attunement and and updraft to keep them down before they get back up again. This ensures that your opponent will take a lot of condition damage without being able to reliably remove it until the combo ends. Enemies with ranged interrerupts or dodging skills can escape this combo, but at worst it will force them to blow their escapes, giving the caster an advantage in momentum.
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more experienced Ele’s are definately encouraged to contribute. If anything this should serve as an easy resource for new players and people who don’t yet understand the class.

A few more low-lv examples to start out.

S/D combo = Conjure Frost Bow, Deep Freeze, drop Frost Bow, Fire Attune, Dragon’s Tooth, Phoenix, Fire Grab

Situation = PVE/PVP, mainly used to secure damage against a single target from a distance.

Explanation = Deep Freeze holds an enemy still long enough for Dragon’s Tooth to land, inflicting a long duration burn and allowing additional damage from a Fire Grab followup. This combo outputs a lot of damage, but you are defenseless while channeling Deep Freeze, and the bolt itself can be dodged, avoided, or interrupted.

All of the following are for PvP. Don’t play my ele out of PvP atm. They could be used in PvE but I haven’t tried them in that fashion.

x/D Combo = Updraft, Churning Earth, Lightning Flash

Situation = PvP vs melee, already engaged in combat. Used to get those bleeds stacked

Explanation = Stuck in combat with a melee? Wanna get those bleeds off? Churning earth to risky? Reduce your risk of interrupt here. Start with updraft and immediately switch to earth. Start churning earth and as the melee guy gets closer lightning flash behind him (whilst still casting churning earth), confusing him and allowing yourself to gain all the benefits.

Staff comboish tactic = Staff chill field ( I don’t play staff ele, this is my friends tatic) Glyph of lesser ele, Elite glyph of ele

Situation = Fighting vs melee

Explaination = Switch to water for your ridiculous buffs, then summon both water elementals. They say the do damage and heal you, that’s not all, they also drop a chill field. They do this intelligently, 1 will drop the field, and after the field has finished the second will drop his field, then you can drop yours for 3xchill fields. This allows you to camp the field and annoy those pesky thieves.

S/D Combo = Ride the lightning, Arcane Bolt, Arcane Wave, Cleansing Fire, Updraft
Or = Ride the lightning, arcane bold, arcane wave, arcane power, scepter lightning 1 2 3, updraft -> x

Situation = assaulting a group or burning down 1 foe

Explanation = Use your ride the lightning to get up close and personal, as it ends and you can use your skills again Press slot 7,8,9 at the same time then up draft out of there for quite a bit of aoe, single target and condition damage. Works best when full specked for power/crit damage. You can also replace cleansing fire with arcane power and hit 7 and 8 then 9, then lightning 1->2 and 3 (during lightning 1) then updraft and continue with whatever you want next.

Arcane skills and cantrips can be cast at anytime, even during other things. The same is for scepter lighting skills 2 and 3. I like taking advantage of that, putting on a lot of damage then updraft away with the enemy knocked down and in the blind state if he tries to follow.

Mist form in to Tornado

Situation = breaking up groups of enemies in PvE or PvP

Explanation = Tornado is a great control spell, but it is difficult to work with because, ideally, you want to set it off in the middle of the enemy formation, allowing your team to pick off the enemies you have separated from their team. However wading in to the middle of a group will, almost always, result in your death. Mist form however makes you intangible and invulnerable, so you can enter the enemy formation and channel the skill without being harmed. Yes, that’s correct, you can channel any utility, heal, or elite skill while in mist form.

S/D: Fire 4, fire 2, fire 3, arcane blast, earth 4, earth 5 = 15 stacks of might for your entire party.

Warning, need high apm.

S/D. I don’t care what you have for traits, as long as you have elemental surge in arcane. Utilities = Frost Bow, Arcane Blast, Mist Form.

Test with dummies first, you won’t be able to land this without practice.

Combo:
You need to be in air, as well with fire and earth off cd. Air, #2, #3, #4, #5. As soon as you updraft, cast frost bow. You will have the bow in your hands. Use #5 (Deep Freeze), switch to earth and cast arcane blast when they are getting up. Remember, it takes 3 seconds to channel deep freeze, so you need to switch to earth and cast arcane blast during this time. This will result in an immobilize. Deep Freeze hits, drop the bow (by switching weapons) and switch to fire at the same time. #2, #4, #3, #5. Profit.

This is not practical. Just something I discovered one day.

Korath.7402:

S/D: Fire 4, fire 2, fire 3, arcane blast, earth 4, earth 5 = 15 stacks of might for your entire party.

I tried using this before, but the timing is just too short, 8/10, so I don’t find it reliable. It’s very good when it works though, even when soloing..

Nowadays, I use a shorter version which doesn’t stack that much might, but does give me some more time to react:
S/D : Fire3, Fire5, Fire4, Fire2, Earth4, Earth5, Air5

Explanation:
Fire 3 while running in (phoenix)
Fire 5 when in close range
Fire 4 (ring of fire), to put enemies inside the ring, so they at least take some damage if they run out
Fire 2 (dragon’s tooth) to get stacks of might, wether or not it hits. I usually stay in melee range at this time, so enemies are less prone to run away, thinking they get a free hit, while I’m actually getting a hit of with my DT.
Earth 4 (knockdown skill) to do just that, knock people down, and give you a bit of time to channel
Earth 5 (churning earth) which stacks another few mights on top of the existing
Air 5 (Updraft) To get out of the action and finish enemies off with whatever skills you don’t have on CD with around 7 stacks of might

S/D Fast Might Stacking (best used in melee range):
Ring of Fire, Dragon’s Tooth, Phoenix, Arcane Wave
swap to Earth
Earthquake, Churning Earth

If you get everything off this is 15 stacks of might (+ 3 from Pyromancer’s Puissance if you have that) making the Bleed from Churning Earth hit ridiculously hard.

Mist Form Flagging
Any Combo: Requires Mist Form only

Sitation: PvP

Explanation: Many people already know this, but I just write it down for those that don’t. Got a kill in pvp in a group fight? Is it one of those annoying interrupting classes (cough… which means every class apart from Elementalist/Thief/Mesmer) but you feel like you have to finish him now because else he will get revived? Just press F to finish him and while doing so press mistform. This will guarantee you to finish your flag. Nothing can make sure you fail finishing him unless they teleport away or get revived before you finish the cast.
I basically use this whenever I can in groupfights against (supportive) Guardians or enemy keyplayers. Very useful for 4v4 fights at Graveyard per example.:-)

I’m not very “build savvy” but these two tips work well for me -

Situation First one is for an unlimited 33% speed boost -

Explanation Spec 20 into your Air Trait & pick Quick Glyphs & Inscription as your Trait skills. Use Glyph of Elemental Harmony as your heal, and set it to auto-attack. The heal will cool-down a few seconds faster than the speed boost, and the speed boost stacks up to 1m+ (no idea for sure how much more since no matter how long this runs, the speed boon icon only shows 1m once you reach 60 seconds or more).

This is great for explorer types like me… it allows me to move quickittenhrough zones or cities, and thanks to the auto-cast, I don’t have to remember to hit my heal every 20 seconds.

Situation S/D for PvE
This is great for one or two targets. It also deals a nice initial package of damage to a Veteran if you’re solo’ing.

Explanation You’ll want Arcane Wave as one of your utilities. I also usually have Glyph of Elementals as my elite when running this. It’s nice to have the added backup, particularly since I can jump into Water & get an assist that both heals & deals damage.

Start in Air. Cast 3 & 4 (Blinding Flash & Ride the Lightening).

Switch to Fire. Cast 4…2…3 (Ring of Fire, Dragon’s Tooth, Phoenix) and Arcane Wave.

Most of the time, my target is dead at this point, or I can finish them off with a couple of 1’s and a 5 (Flamestrike & Fire Grab).

If I’m dealing with a Veteran, or if I think I can’t quickly finish them off with 5 & 1, I’ll usually cast Glyph of Elementals at this point, then I switch back to Air again – and cast 5 (Updraft) to get some breathing room/time to cast a heal if I need it, and then I start the chain again with 3 & 4 and then back to Fire.

If I think I need to, or if I still need time for the swapping penalty to finish cooling down on Air, I’ll pop over to Water or Earth for some healing or bleeding damage after finishing with Fire and before popping back into Air – but that’s entirely situational, and I rarely have real cause to do it.

Note: this chain does not work well on 2-or-more Ettins or Dredge. I haven’t quite figured out why yet, but those two foes are the bane of my existence no matter what I wield or do. LOL
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I have no trouble running the above S/D chain while having 20 spec’d into Air. I also have 20 spec’d into Fire & Arcane, with 10 into Water. I’ve been running this chain since I was about level 40 (I’m 80 now), so it works irrespective of your Traits. I have decided that I’m going to try dropping 10 from Fire (Fire was, I should mention, the last one I brought up to 20…so I ran this with only 10 in Fire for quite a while) and putting it into Arcane so I can get my swapping cooldown dropped to the minimum amount possible.

Antrasith.2187:

Korath.7402:

S/D: Fire 4, fire 2, fire 3, arcane blast, earth 4, earth 5 = 15 stacks of might for your entire party.

I tried using this before, but the timing is just too short, 8/10, so I don’t find it reliable. It’s very good when it works though, even when soloing..

Based on another thread here, I’ve been using a variant of this for a few days.

• Scepter/Dagger
• Slot Trait: Elemental Attunement for boons while switching attunements
• Slot Utility: Arcane Blast
• Other Traits and Utilities: YMMV
  • Some folks slot Spell Singer and some Cantrips for +Might. Situational here.
  • I prefer to slot pets in case things go unpredictable

Sequence:

Be in Air

• Air 4- RTL
• Air 2- Dmg (while in Air4)
• Air 5- Updraft (knockdown)

Switch to Fire (get +Might)

• Fire4- RoF
• Fire3- Phoenix- Blast finisher for +Might
• Arcane Blast while Phoenix flies- Crit Dmg plus projectile finisher for Burning
• Fire2- Dragon’s Tooth- Blast Finisher for +Might
• Fire5- Fire Grasp- for whatever’s left, in a cone, or just go right into:
  Switch to Earth (get +Protection)
• Earth4- Knock em down
• Earth5- AOE

One thing I’m still trying to figure out is how to get Earth5 to fire with Fire4 still active. I can’t get the timing down. But even without the Blast Finisher component of Earth5, it’s still cast when I’ve got 12-15 Might (it’s hard for me to see the number during combat ).

This is also highly situational, ideally against a clump of melee mobs, or melee mobs who’ll run to protect the ranged units (so you target the ranged units for Air4). One rotation of this effectively puts everything in cooldown though, which is why I like having the pets.

30 fire, 20 lightning, 20 arcana.
Fire traits- 10% fire damage, 30% chance to burn on crit., 15% faster recharge of weapon skills
Lightning traits- 20% more damage to foes less that 25% – 10% more damage from lightning
Arcana- Attunment you get X buffs, at 25% health you gain arcane shield

cantrips- Mist form, arcana blast, lightening teleport/fire signet for more % to crit.

Stack power, percision, crit damage. Eat crit damage/perc food.

Be D/D. RTL→ lightning 2 → updraft → Switch to fire attunment → burning speed → ring of fire → fire grab → Arcana wave → switch to earth attunment → earth 2 → earth 4 →earth 5. Rinse, repeat.

I usally don’t pop arcana wave unless I’m in myst form waiting for my heal button to come back.

For Staff I keep the same build but switch cantrips to mist form, cleansing fire, fire signet.

i cant believe my combo isnt in here,
use earth for the earth shield, put 1 stack of bleed on them,
throw the air shield
change to air (which hits them with a bolt)
use air 2 insta bold
use secpter air for the knockdown
change to fire and start moving forward
cast dragon tooth on the dude thats on the ground

from here you can do the normal version or the alt version

my normal versrion you cast phoenix and then flame grab

the PRO version is you ground target wall of flame on the person while still down and THEN cast phoenix
this will give you 3 stacks of might but you will obviously miss the burst damage of Phoenix+dragontooth hitting at the same time then flame grab on the burning person…..
BUT
you will have better sustained because of the 3 stacks of might

if this combo dosent put you in the lead, you are in trouble… since the only phase left now is water and you dont go into that until you have a conditions on you and are down to 70% life. so your just stick form here spamming fire 1 only wit no points in condition =/

Sephalo.5407:

Mist Form Flagging
Any Combo: Requires Mist Form only

Sitation: PvP

This is also good with Earth Barrier as it can be cast during flagging, or even before. Mist for is better if your of low health of course.

Another vs downed strategy vs those pesky thieves: Requires scepter main hand
On downing a thief, switch to lightning and auto attack. When the thief teleports your lightning with automatically move to his new position. Works best when you have another person going in for the kill.

General strategy for sPvP. Target an enemy that you see chillaxin in the distance. If they look like they are going to assault your position from a flanking location and go behind a wall or something where you cant see, keep them targeted. Smash auto attack and you will see either Line of Sight or Obstructed appear on your screen. That error appears above their head in the direction they are, if you can guess there distance then you know where they are. Helpful for knowing when that enemy is going to come around the corner.

delmarqo.5038:

Antrasith.2187:

Korath.7402:

S/D: Fire 4, fire 2, fire 3, arcane blast, earth 4, earth 5 = 15 stacks of might for your entire party.

I tried using this before, but the timing is just too short, 8/10, so I don’t find it reliable. It’s very good when it works though, even when soloing..

Based on another thread here, I’ve been using a variant of this for a few days.

• Scepter/Dagger
• Slot Trait: Elemental Attunement for boons while switching attunements
• Slot Utility: Arcane Blast
• Other Traits and Utilities: YMMV
  • Some folks slot Spell Singer and some Cantrips for +Might. Situational here.
  • I prefer to slot pets in case things go unpredictable

Sequence:

Be in Air

• Air 4- RTL
• Air 2- Dmg (while in Air4)
• Air 5- Updraft (knockdown)

Switch to Fire (get +Might)

• Fire4- RoF
• Fire3- Phoenix- Blast finisher for +Might
• Arcane Blast while Phoenix flies- Crit Dmg plus projectile finisher for Burning
• Fire2- Dragon’s Tooth- Blast Finisher for +Might
• Fire5- Fire Grasp- for whatever’s left, in a cone, or just go right into:
  Switch to Earth (get +Protection)
• Earth4- Knock em down
• Earth5- AOE

One thing I’m still trying to figure out is how to get Earth5 to fire with Fire4 still active. I can’t get the timing down. But even without the Blast Finisher component of Earth5, it’s still cast when I’ve got 12-15 Might (it’s hard for me to see the number during combat ).

This is also highly situational, ideally against a clump of melee mobs, or melee mobs who’ll run to protect the ranged units (so you target the ranged units for Air4). One rotation of this effectively puts everything in cooldown though, which is why I like having the pets.

I like running D/D but this S/D combo works so well is much more simple and smooth to use, thanks for sharing.